I went in to labour five days early at 1am, and progressed very quickly with strong contractions from the offset. I felt very safe and happy, we had a doula and were in the birth centre. I was fully dilated by 12pm the next day, but then we had a very traumatic second stage as Kelly turned back to back and my contractions started slowing, by 4pm his heart rate had dropped and it became an emergency which was very stressful for both of us. They put me on the induction drip and he came out at 5pm with vontouse. He cried straight away so I could have him on me immediately and we had lots of lovely skin to skin the first few hours and days. He fed well but it took about a month for him to regain his birthweight.
He was on me feeding constantly. He only slept during the day on us with a lot of movement or on the breast. He would sleep reasonably well at night in a cot next to us after lots of breastfeeding, which I continued during the night. After 3.5 months he went through a regression and has since been waking up every hour/2 hrs or so during the night. With a deeper sleep at the beginning.
Kelly is a very active but very frustrated baby. He can’t yet crawl but desperately wants to move all the time. He needs a lot of stimulation to stay happy. He’s very social. He laughs all the time but also screams with frustration when something is wrong. We are pretty sure this is because he is overtired a lot of the time. He has 2 teeth and they were hard come by. He doesn’t put objects in his mouth other than food which doesn’t help with the teething. We think he has more teeth coming now.
He definitely has some separation anxiety which ebs and flows.
I breastfeed throughout the day, but I’m not sure how often. Maybe around 5/6 times. Less now he’s eating more. He takes a bottle with enthusiasm and now has formula in the mornings with his dad.
He’s doing quite well with solids. He likes to feed himself with finger foods but it’s now tricky to feed him with the spoon as he’s determined to hold it himself and he struggles to get anything in. With everything, his system is to take one bite then throw it on the floor. He gets restless in his high chair. Meals are either really fun or a complete disaster. He loves watery food like cucumber and watermelon and he always wants to drink water but he can’t hold his own cup yet. He also loves bread and pasta.
He sleeps in his pram during the day but normally maximum 30mins. Or in his cot if I feed him to sleep, again 30mins. Maybe 1hr. We’ve tried everything to elongate naps but it’s always been a struggle. He’s had phases of longer naps but not great at the moment.
He randomly takes a dummy sometimes but there’s no knowing. Sometimes it will help soothe him back to sleep mid nap if he wakes up crying. If we use at bedtime he spits it out after a while which wakes him up.
I’m afraid we have no consistency and as soon as we have a few similar days everything changes again. We are always trying to build a routine but it feels like a battle. Everything seems to depend on his morning nap which varies.
A day might look like this:
5am wake in cot/my bed and feed. Possibly more sleep if in my bed.
6/6:30am – My husband takes Kelly
7am bottle of expressed milk/formula (His dad has tried many times to give him porridge/banana/ things he likes but it’s often a disaster)
8:30/9am Breastfeed. Nap in pram or cot – 30mins
9:30am breakfast: porridge, fruit, yoghurt, toast
Lots of play (maybe breast)
12pm Lunch: Rice/lentils/beans/pasta and veg, fruit, yoghurt
1/2pm breastfeed. Nap in pram or cot. Always aiming to get to
2/3pm but rarely works. He might resettle if rocked/pushed
Lots of play (maybe breast)
5pm dinner – Same as lunch. Tammy told us about your magic porridge which we’ve tried a few times but it’s a lottery how much he eats.
6pm story then bath with his dad
Long feed with me. Sometimes one breast, sometimes both. If he’s overtired he crashes on the boob and I put him down. If not I can give him a massage and both breasts and if he’s still awake I rock him to sleep.
We have white noise, Ollie the owl lullaby, lavender oil, darkish room.
Sleep between 6:30 and 7pm
Then he normally always wakes after 30mins and one of us rocks him back to sleep which is very quick and easy.
9/9:30pm he wakes and wants a breastfeed. He doesn’t open eyes, but cries and arches his back until I feed him
12ish – next wake, feed
Then wakes with eyes closed every hour/2hrs until 5am. I always feed him. It normally only takes 5/10 mins and he’s back asleep and easy to put down. Around 4/5am he wakes with eyes open and I bring him into the bed with me and give him a long feed and hope for more sleep. On good days he’ll sleep till 6:30am
My husband has a bad back and things were really bad between 5-7months. We were stressed and tired and things didn’t improve until after he had back surgery. We used a sleep consultant at around 6 months who was lovely, and she helped us with naps but we couldn’t face any crying at night so ultimately didn’t manage to change things. This was before solids so a very different situation (and baby!)
We had a doula come for a couple of nights to help when I was exhausted and Kelly was waking close to every half hour. She soothed him between feeds.
We might be able to use her again if needed. I think that’s it!!
