Support NeoGAF

[kitch9]

My 2 and a half year old has gone from being am awesome sleeper to a nightmare. He refuses to go to sleep and we are having the hardest time figuring out what to do. We have an established routine, he is sleepy, but as soon as you leave the room he leaps up and follows you. We have tried leading him back to bed and having him lay down with a perfunctory goodnight, but he just gets up again - rinse and repeat for hours. After a week of 2 - 3 hour long stretches of this we put a barrier up in the doorway, with the intention of letting him cry it out, returning every ten minutes to 20 minutes, to reassure him and get him back into bed. We did this for 4 hours last night, he actually dozes standing up resting on the gate. Running out of ideas. Anyone got any suggestions? Meanwhile my 9 month old happily goes to bed at 8 and sleeps a solid 11 or 12 hours.

He's at that age where kids start to push the boundaries of what is acceptable and what isn't, here in the UK it's nicknamed "the terrible two's," and its where you'll find kids start to have tantrums in public places and do weird stuff like he's doing to you. You'll probably find that the behaviour gets worse if he sees hes getting a reaction out of you and you'll soon find yourself in a battle of wills that a lot of parents lose so they end up getting the lousy packets of sweets that they threw themselves on the floor for in the supermarket or they get to sleep in their parents bed if they keep refusing theirs.

Its tough, you need to keep calm and keep putting him back in bed without giving him feedback until he breaks, and depending on the kids will this can take a while. Months maybe if you are unlucky.

 

[mrkgoo]

He's at that age where kids start to push the boundaries of what is acceptable and what isn't, here in the UK it's nicknamed "the terrible two's," and its where you'll find kids start to have tantrums in public places and do weird stuff like he's doing to you. You'll probably find that the behaviour gets worse if he sees hes getting a reaction out of you and you'll soon find yourself in a battle of wills that a lot of parents lose so they end up getting the lousy packets of sweets that they threw themselves on the floor for in the supermarket or they get to sleep in their parents bed if they keep refusing theirs.

Its tough, you need to keep calm and keep putting him back in bed without giving him feedback until he breaks, and depending on the kids will this can take a while. Months maybe if you are unlucky.

Reverse psychology and doing what they're NOT told is part if normal development, I figure.

It's going to be tough, but I guess you just have to see it as one of those times you have to grit your teeth and do your best.

I imagine the kid will gave to sleep eventually.

 

[aceface]

Did the same thing with putting up a gate on my sons room to keep him in there at 2 years old. He would climb over, so we put up two gates. He would fall asleep on the floor in front of the gates.

 

[TheContact]

on sept 21st 2013 my daughter was born, she swallowed merconium and had to be in the nicu for a week while they monitored her and gave her antibiotics

breastfeeding was and still is a tremendous challenge for my wife, and she pumps around 4 times a day because the baby won't take to breastfeeding unless it's very early in the morning or late at night (when she's tired basically). She wasn't sleeping through the night after we took her home for a couple of weeks, but we were able to get some sort of schedule going for her, putting her to bed at the same time every night, and she usually sleeps from 9pm to 7am. Sometimes if she's not feeling well she wakes up at 5am and breastfeeds for 20 minutes or so then falls asleep until 9ish.

She might be a gamer when she grows up!


Here's a more recent one, aside from the nicu scare she's been a healthy baby

 

[muu]

Hey Baby-GAF, got a question for yall. GF is supposed to be due in the next month or so; we found out the baby's breeched (right side up) and have been trying some odd-looking exercises to hopefully get it fixed before the docs do manual manipulation to hopefully fix it. Did any of you have to go through this, and if so, are there any suggestions on exercises? Don't have very many days before she goes to the doctor so we're limited on options, but hopefully we'll get to try going in the pool, and if there's time slots open and we can find someone soon, going to the chiropractor or getting some acupuncture done.

 

[iapetus]

My 2 and a half year old has gone from being am awesome sleeper to a nightmare. He refuses to go to sleep and we are having the hardest time figuring out what to do. We have an established routine, he is sleepy, but as soon as you leave the room he leaps up and follows you. We have tried leading him back to bed and having him lay down with a perfunctory goodnight, but he just gets up again - rinse and repeat for hours. After a week of 2 - 3 hour long stretches of this we put a barrier up in the doorway, with the intention of letting him cry it out, returning every ten minutes to 20 minutes, to reassure him and get him back into bed. We did this for 4 hours last night, he actually dozes standing up resting on the gate. Running out of ideas. Anyone got any suggestions? Meanwhile my 9 month old happily goes to bed at 8 and sleeps a solid 11 or 12 hours.

How's his speech? Can you talk to him and find out whether there's any particular reason he's not sleeping? Someone local to us had a similar problem with a child who stopped sleeping all of a sudden, and it eventually transpired that she was afraid her toy crocodile would eat all her other stuffed animals if she fell asleep. Removing the crocodile fixed the sleep problem pretty much straight away.

 

[poppabk]

How's his speech? Can you talk to him and find out whether there's any particular reason he's not sleeping? Someone local to us had a similar problem with a child who stopped sleeping all of a sudden, and it eventually transpired that she was afraid her toy crocodile would eat all her other stuffed animals if she fell asleep. Removing the crocodile fixed the sleep problem pretty much straight away.

His speech is delayed, which makes it harder to find out what is wrong. Anyway we now have a routine where I sing to him and then sit in his room while he falls asleep, usually 10 minutes tops. The only issue is once or twice a week he wakes up in the middle of the night, and I have to stay with him until he falls asleep, which at 4 in the morning means I usually end up falling asleep in his room to. Plan on keeping the current routine for a while so that he gets used to going to sleep not being a battle, and then trying to leave after ten minutes whether he is asleep or not. Hopefully this way we can get back to him going to sleep on his own.

 

[BOND CO STOOGE]

Congrats to all the new dads! I've been lurking this thread for a while as my wife is due on the 24th. We've been in the hospital for the past few days due to elevated blood pressure. She had the urine protein test, and it came back a little high. So, we're scheduled for a c-section for Monday(baby is breech). I'll be in the room during the c-section, and I'm a little on the squemish side. I can handle it, but I would like to know what I'm in for. Can anyone share their experience either with c-sections or delivering at 37 weeks?

 

[GlamFM]

Congrats to all the new dads! I've been lurking this thread for a while as my wife is due on the 24th. We've been in the hospital for the past few days due to elevated blood pressure. She had the urine protein test, and it came back a little high. So, we're scheduled for a c-section for Monday(baby is breech). I'll be in the room during the c-section, and I'm a little on the squemish side. I can handle it, but I would like to know what I'm in for. Can anyone share their experience either with c-sections or delivering at 37 weeks?

c-section at 30 weeks.... don´t worry everything will be ( already was? ) fine.

So, how have the first days been?

 

[muu]

Congrats to all the new dads! I've been lurking this thread for a while as my wife is due on the 24th. We've been in the hospital for the past few days due to elevated blood pressure. She had the urine protein test, and it came back a little high. So, we're scheduled for a c-section for Monday(baby is breech). I'll be in the room during the c-section, and I'm a little on the squemish side. I can handle it, but I would like to know what I'm in for. Can anyone share their experience either with c-sections or delivering at 37 weeks?

Hope everything went well for you. ECV didn't get our girl to turn around and we're looking at a C-section next monday as well. Long as everyone's healthy I'm fine, next wk will be full term @ 40wks.

 

[BaronLundi]

Congrats to all the new dads! I've been lurking this thread for a while as my wife is due on the 24th. We've been in the hospital for the past few days due to elevated blood pressure. She had the urine protein test, and it came back a little high. So, we're scheduled for a c-section for Monday(baby is breech). I'll be in the room during the c-section, and I'm a little on the squemish side. I can handle it, but I would like to know what I'm in for. Can anyone share their experience either with c-sections or delivering at 37 weeks?

Emergency C-Section ~36 weeks here and everything went fine. But I wasn't in the room at the time. I know it's pretty quick though. You'll be ok !

It'll be painful for the mom for for a few days, be there as much as you can in order to help ! I was going to the hospital from 6am to 2am every day, and they keep women who had a c-section an average of 5 days over here. And don't worry, you most likely won't be very much interested in sleeping for a while : )

 

[Particle Physicist]

Having a child certainly made birthday gifts for family members much easier. Just sent my mom a mug with pictures of my daughter all over it, "best birthday gift ever!" Haha, nice.

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

Congrats to all the new dads! I've been lurking this thread for a while as my wife is due on the 24th. We've been in the hospital for the past few days due to elevated blood pressure. She had the urine protein test, and it came back a little high. So, we're scheduled for a c-section for Monday(baby is breech). I'll be in the room during the c-section, and I'm a little on the squemish side. I can handle it, but I would like to know what I'm in for. Can anyone share their experience either with c-sections or delivering at 37 weeks?

I was really nervous about the c-section. I get real squeamish at the sight of blood and would probably pass out if I had to actually see what they were doing. Thankfully, the way everything is set up, unless you actively stand up and look over the curtain you won't see anything. The procedure is really quick and your wife will only feel tugging.

All three of my kids (one singleton and a set of twins)were born early. My son was born at 36 weeks while the twins were at 37. With my son he was in the NICU for two weeks. Even though he was the biggest kid in there, they kept him because they felt he wasn't eating enough. Not going to lie, it sucked. Having to visit him for those two weeks and not be able to take him home was rough. Thankfully, he is a healthy and bright four year old. As for our twins, they were given to us that night. Both came out strong and healthy.

 

[BOND CO STOOGE]

Thanks, dads! Everything went fine, and I'm at home with my bundle of joy, rocking her wide eyed self to sleep (haha i wish) at 1 am. She's beautiful, healthy, and tiny, and Mom is recovering very well. I generally take the 10 pm to whenever she actually goes to sleep shift, and Mom gets the early am shifts. Right now we're powering through book seven of the Discworld series instead of sleeping. Please don't tell Mom!

Being in the room for the c-section was awesome! I couldn't imagine not being there, even knowing how squemish I can be. Total life changing experience!

edit: The c-section went fine. Mom had a little trouble with the spinal block, and i had to wait almost twenty minutes to go in the OR. I saw more than I anticipated, but it was fine. After ten minutes or so the baby was out, and I was able to go over to the warmer with her. About ten minutes later me and the baby went to the recovery room. Mom joinef us about 45 minutes later. Mom was sore for several days, but got better day by day. Baby pooped a lot, so I got a lot of experience changing diapers, and I've become a bit of a dirty diaper savant since we came home. Baby sleeps almost all day, and her night schedule is pretty random. We've had visitors almost every day since we got home, and she still sleeps most of the day. We had two good nights in a row, but tonight had not been so good. She acts like she wants to eat, then falls asleep on the breast. As soon as you move her she is wide eyed again. So, on bad nights there's not much we can do. She usually feeds on and off for about four hours then sleeps for three to four hours. Hopefully, tonight we are at the edge of that initial four hours. Of course the joy is worth it, but it's not easy. We'll move to bottle in a couple of weeks, then I'll be able to feed her, which will take a lot of stress off of Mom. For now, we just have to react to her needs.

 

[zephervack]

So parents with multiple kids, how do you fit gaming into it?

Im having a hard time, trying my hardest to at least play 1 hour a day to not give up on my hobby.

My evening looks like this:

6 Pm - 8pm get home, spend time with my 3 year old and my 5 month old babies.
8 Pm - 9pm they are all in bed, and I head downstairs to play for an hour.
9 Pm - 10pm Quality time with my SO.

Problem is that I almost never get to do that, bed time sometimes creeps into 8:30, which kind of bums me out on playing games as half an hour is not nearly enough.

Something else I do is play handhelds during the weekends when they are taking naps, or just watching TV.

 

[joeyjoejoeshabadoo]

So parents with multiple kids, how do you fit gaming into it?

Im having a hard time, trying my hardest to at least play 1 hour a day to not give up on my hobby.

My evening looks like this:

6 Pm - 8pm get home, spend time with my 3 year old and my 5 month old babies.
8 Pm - 9pm they are all in bed, and I head downstairs to play for an hour.
9 Pm - 10pm Quality time with my SO.

Problem is that I almost never get to do that, bed time sometimes creeps into 8:30, which kind of bums me out on playing games as half an hour is not nearly enough.

Something else I do is play handhelds during the weekends when they are taking naps, or just watching TV.

I've actually migrated more to boardgaming when I had kids. Thankfully, my wife also enjoys playing boardgames because I am able to play something and have quality time with the wife. As for video games, I usually wait until the kids are sleep and even then it's got to be a time when I'm not exhausted. Also I now only play games where you can save anywhere. It's impossible to play anything with save points.

 

[Marty Chinn]

So parents with multiple kids, how do you fit gaming into it?

Im having a hard time, trying my hardest to at least play 1 hour a day to not give up on my hobby.

My evening looks like this:

6 Pm - 8pm get home, spend time with my 3 year old and my 5 month old babies.
8 Pm - 9pm they are all in bed, and I head downstairs to play for an hour.
9 Pm - 10pm Quality time with my SO.

Problem is that I almost never get to do that, bed time sometimes creeps into 8:30, which kind of bums me out on playing games as half an hour is not nearly enough.

Something else I do is play handhelds during the weekends when they are taking naps, or just watching TV.

I'm kinda experiencing that now. I've got a 2 year 9 month old and a 2 month old right now. I rarely play games at the moment. By the time I get a chance to, I'm usually too tired and just want to either sleep or just watch TV. Oddly enough it was easier to play during the first few weeks of having a newborn than it is now. My schedule usually looks like:

6:00 to 8:00 - Spend time, eat dinner
8:00 to 8:30 - Prep the kids for bedtime
8:30 to 9:00 - Kids settle down alone in bed anywhere between here. Sometimes as early as 8:30 and sometimes as late as 9:00. Lately the older one has been throwing ever stall tactic in the book at us even though she used to love going to sleep and on time
9:00 to 1:00 - Spend time with the wife either discussing things that need to be discussed, watch TV with her, clean up, etc

 

[mrkgoo]

Every schedule is different and it changes as they grow.

Mine goes up and down.

As a new parent, I didn't find any time during new born stage to play games. But as my daughter got older and I became more experienced as a parent, I found ways to slip it in.

These days, she has a big 2-3 hour afternoon nap, which when i fit in an hour or so. For me, the biggest time sink was figuring myself out as a parent.

 

[zephervack]

I've actually migrated more to boardgaming when I had kids. Thankfully, my wife also enjoys playing boardgames because I am able to play something and have quality time with the wife. As for video games, I usually wait until the kids are sleep and even then it's got to be a time when I'm not exhausted. Also I now only play games where you can save anywhere. It's impossible to play anything with save points.

Im trying to get my wife into gaming so that I can also spend more time playing games, not going too well but I keep trying.

I'm kinda experiencing that now. I've got a 2 year 9 month old and a 2 month old right now. I rarely play games at the moment. By the time I get a chance to, I'm usually too tired and just want to either sleep or just watch TV. Oddly enough it was easier to play during the first few weeks of having a newborn than it is now. My schedule usually looks like:

6:00 to 8:00 - Spend time, eat dinner
8:00 to 8:30 - Prep the kids for bedtime
8:30 to 9:00 - Kids settle down alone in bed anywhere between here. Sometimes as early as 8:30 and sometimes as late as 9:00. Lately the older one has been throwing ever stall tactic in the book at us even though she used to love going to sleep and on time
9:00 to 1:00 - Spend time with the wife either discussing things that need to be discussed, watch TV with her, clean up, etc

So you go to bed at 1 AM, damn, what time do you usually wake up at, I just cannot sleep in anymore, my 3 year old wakes up at 7:30 am every day, she never fails, if I go to bed late, I have a hell of a morning the next day.

Every schedule is different and it changes as they grow.

Mine goes up and down.

As a new parent, I didn't find any time during new born stage to play games. But as my daughter got older and I became more experienced as a parent, I found ways to slip it in.

These days, she has a big 2-3 hour afternoon nap, which when i fit in an hour or so. For me, the biggest time sink was figuring myself out as a parent.

Same here actually, if I actually force our schedule I find my self with some time to play but most days im so tired that I completely forget about it.

I guess its just a matter of time, as they get older you get more time to play. Just got to be patient hehe.

 

[kitch9]

I'm kinda experiencing that now. I've got a 2 year 9 month old and a 2 month old right now. I rarely play games at the moment. By the time I get a chance to, I'm usually too tired and just want to either sleep or just watch TV. Oddly enough it was easier to play during the first few weeks of having a newborn than it is now. My schedule usually looks like:

6:00 to 8:00 - Spend time, eat dinner
8:00 to 8:30 - Prep the kids for bedtime
8:30 to 9:00 - Kids settle down alone in bed anywhere between here. Sometimes as early as 8:30 and sometimes as late as 9:00. Lately the older one has been throwing ever stall tactic in the book at us even though she used to love going to sleep and on time
9:00 to 1:00 - Spend time with the wife either discussing things that need to be discussed, watch TV with her, clean up, etc

My two 5 month old twins are strictly bathed, fed and in bed for 7pm where they sleep until 10.30pm, we wake them and give them their final bottle until the morning. I'm lucky as I can nip home from work during the day at dinnertime and I'm usually in the house on a night for 5.10pm.

I REALLY lucky so far in the fact they seem to sleep through and don't want to even wake up in the morning and want a lay in every day.

 

[aceface]

So parents with multiple kids, how do you fit gaming into it?

Im having a hard time, trying my hardest to at least play 1 hour a day to not give up on my hobby.

My evening looks like this:

6 Pm - 8pm get home, spend time with my 3 year old and my 5 month old babies.
8 Pm - 9pm they are all in bed, and I head downstairs to play for an hour.
9 Pm - 10pm Quality time with my SO.

Problem is that I almost never get to do that, bed time sometimes creeps into 8:30, which kind of bums me out on playing games as half an hour is not nearly enough.

Something else I do is play handhelds during the weekends when they are taking naps, or just watching TV.

All gaming for me takes place between 9pm after the kids go to bed and midnight. Thankfully my wife is into FFXIV so we've been playing that together for the past few months.

When my kids were newborns though I got little to no playtime. It literally took me a full calendar year to beat Xenoblade.

 

[poppabk]

So parents with multiple kids, how do you fit gaming into it?

Im having a hard time, trying my hardest to at least play 1 hour a day to not give up on my hobby.

My evening looks like this:

6 Pm - 8pm get home, spend time with my 3 year old and my 5 month old babies.
8 Pm - 9pm they are all in bed, and I head downstairs to play for an hour.
9 Pm - 10pm Quality time with my SO.

Problem is that I almost never get to do that, bed time sometimes creeps into 8:30, which kind of bums me out on playing games as half an hour is not nearly enough.

Something else I do is play handhelds during the weekends when they are taking naps, or just watching TV.

My schedule is (2 1/2 year old and 10 month old:
Get in about 7pm
7pm-7:30 Dinner
7:30 - 8:15 spend time with kids
8:15 - 8:30 get kids ready for bed
8:30 - 9:00 watch TV/movie on tablet while eldest falls asleep
9:00 - 11:30 depends. My wife works from home when she has a contract, which is roughly two weeks on one week off. If she is working I play games or continue watching movies/Tv, fitting in chores as need be.
When not working I spend time with my wife usually catching up on TV on demand.
Weekends I stay up until 2 in the morning and regret it the next morning every single time.

 

[Selner]

Right now we're powering through book seven of the Discworld series instead of sleeping. Please don't tell Mom!

Haha!
I also did a lot of Kindle reading with my first son while rocking him to sleep. Much easier to "turn the page" by just clicking a button. I totally forget what I was actually reading at the time though.

Now we have two infants, and there's no reading. Only feeding and sleeping.

So parents with multiple kids, how do you fit gaming into it?

Im having a hard time, trying my hardest to at least play 1 hour a day to not give up on my hobby.

Problem is that I almost never get to do that, bed time sometimes creeps into 8:30, which kind of bums me out on playing games as half an hour is not nearly enough.

Something else I do is play handhelds during the weekends when they are taking naps, or just watching TV.

With my first son, I learned the art of holding/bouncing him in one hand and using an Xbox controller in the other hand. I couldn't play anything with too much action in it, and I had to have the volume really low, but I was able to play!

I even put him in a Kick'n'Play so I could play while he slept. But he cried a lot when I did that, so that didn't last long.

Now, with the twins, there's no Xbox. We actually moved the entertainment center and neither the Xbox or the TV is even hooked up. It's just a big play space for the 2 year old.

The wife and I haven't watched any TV in like a year. We made an exception for Game of Thrones, and watched that on a laptop in bed.

My only gaming is Phone-based now. As I can generally hold the phone in one hand and bounce one of the babies. Just can't let the wife see me, as she doesn't like it when I play games while holding the babies .

 

[mrkgoo]

Haha!
I also did a lot of Kindle reading with my first son while rocking him to sleep. Much easier to "turn the page" by just clicking a button. I totally forget what I was actually reading at the time though.

Now we have two infants, and there's no reading. Only feeding and sleeping.



With my first son, I learned the art of holding/bouncing him in one hand and using an Xbox controller in the other hand. I couldn't play anything with too much action in it, and I had to have the volume really low, but I was able to play!

I even put him in a Kick'n'Play so I could play while he slept. But he cried a lot when I did that, so that didn't last long.

Now, with the twins, there's no Xbox. We actually moved the entertainment center and neither the Xbox or the TV is even hooked up. It's just a big play space for the 2 year old.

The wife and I haven't watched any TV in like a year. We made an exception for Game of Thrones, and watched that on a laptop in bed.

My only gaming is Phone-based now. As I can generally hold the phone in one hand and bounce one of the babies. Just can't let the wife see me, as she doesn't like it when I play games while holding the babies .

Ha!

As they get older and they understand more, they can practically demand you play! I've got a Chase McCain Lego mini figure and my daughter recognises it and likes to play with my Lego cars and helicopter while I do the same onscreen.

Eh, truth be told, it's cute but I'm not really playing, more just showing it to her.

 

[zephervack]

My schedule is (2 1/2 year old and 10 month old:
Get in about 7pm
7pm-7:30 Dinner
7:30 - 8:15 spend time with kids
8:15 - 8:30 get kids ready for bed
8:30 - 9:00 watch TV/movie on tablet while eldest falls asleep
9:00 - 11:30 depends. My wife works from home when she has a contract, which is roughly two weeks on one week off. If she is working I play games or continue watching movies/Tv, fitting in chores as need be.
When not working I spend time with my wife usually catching up on TV on demand.
Weekends I stay up until 2 in the morning and regret it the next morning every single time.

You are lucky you can go to bed so late, I have to wake up at 6:00 Am every day, which means my day ends at 10:30Pm the latest or I will regret it.

Haha!
I also did a lot of Kindle reading with my first son while rocking him to sleep. Much easier to "turn the page" by just clicking a button. I totally forget what I was actually reading at the time though.

Now we have two infants, and there's no reading. Only feeding and sleeping.



With my first son, I learned the art of holding/bouncing him in one hand and using an Xbox controller in the other hand. I couldn't play anything with too much action in it, and I had to have the volume really low, but I was able to play!

I even put him in a Kick'n'Play so I could play while he slept. But he cried a lot when I did that, so that didn't last long.

Now, with the twins, there's no Xbox. We actually moved the entertainment center and neither the Xbox or the TV is even hooked up. It's just a big play space for the 2 year old.

The wife and I haven't watched any TV in like a year. We made an exception for Game of Thrones, and watched that on a laptop in bed.

My only gaming is Phone-based now. As I can generally hold the phone in one hand and bounce one of the babies. Just can't let the wife see me, as she doesn't like it when I play games while holding the babies .

hehe same here, games like Rayman Jungle run come really handy when gaming one handed.

 

[BOND CO STOOGE]

Haha!
I also did a lot of Kindle reading with my first son while rocking him to sleep. Much easier to "turn the page" by just clicking a button. I totally forget what I was actually reading at the time though.

Now we have two infants, and there's no reading. Only feeding and sleeping.

.

I've gotten through two or three books in the series with her. I can rock her all night so long as she doesn't want to eat. I'll rock her for an hour or so, look down, and there's two big eyes staring back at me. I have done a little gaming as well. Some friends loaned us a swing, and she will fall asleep for a few hours in that. I've been playing Far Cry 3, and it's been pretty easy. It's a pretty simple game with not a lot of story (at least so far). So, if I want to go tiger hunting with a flare gun, and the baby wakes up then I can just turn it off.

 

[BOND CO STOOGE]

Anyone else familiar with the "Q-tip method"?

 

[GlamFM]

Anyone else familiar with the "Q-tip method"?

I think I know what you mean... And if I do all I can say is yes, it works.

We used a thermometer BTW - works.

 

[muu]

Planned C-section completed on the 27th. My god she's so cute. I love how so many problems came up once we got out of the maternity ward though; she never really burped until the first car ride home, first overflow also happened on the car seat and her first set of clothes. Now we're trying to get her to sleep in the crib/pack'n'play... She was fine at the hospital, back home she wakes up within 5-10 mins and starts fussing, whether or not she's swaddled. GF's exhausted now since she wouldn't sleep anywhere but on her last night, gonna get rocker I got from my brother set up and switch it up between that and the car seat... hoping that'll be a good transition from the "cuddle me or I'm going to be your background music for the day" situation we're currently in. Sleepless nights indeed, but goddamn she's so cute.

 

[BOND CO STOOGE]

Planned C-section completed on the 27th. My god she's so cute. I love how so many problems came up once we got out of the maternity ward though; she never really burped until the first car ride home, first overflow also happened on the car seat and her first set of clothes. Now we're trying to get her to sleep in the crib/pack'n'play... She was fine at the hospital, back home she wakes up within 5-10 mins and starts fussing, whether or not she's swaddled. GF's exhausted now since she wouldn't sleep anywhere but on her last night, gonna get rocker I got from my brother set up and switch it up between that and the car seat... hoping that'll be a good transition from the "cuddle me or I'm going to be your background music for the day" situation we're currently in. Sleepless nights indeed, but goddamn she's so cute.

Nobody tells you how bad it is until you have the kid. I'm not sure if it's a universal joke, or if people just legitimately forget how difficult it is at first. There have been nights that I would have painted the walls a different color if it would have made my preciouslittlebundleofjoythatneverstopsscreaming calm down. What I can tell you from my very limited experience is not to feed the baby too much too quickly. My wife is breast feeding and she her let down is like a river. The baby gets way too much milk, so her belly hurts, she spits up constantly and for at least an hour after feeding, she has bad gas that's hard for her to pass, and she gets constipated. Now that we know too much milk causes a lot if these issues my wife will pump some off before feed, pull the baby off to bumb more quickly, or I bottle feed a coupke of tines during the night.

 

[BOND CO STOOGE]

So, my six week old little girl started playing with toys tonight for the first time, and she rolled over from her tummy to her back for the first time as well. We've started doing tummy-time, and she hates it, so I think she would just about get up and walk to get out of it.

 

[marvelharvey]

Congrats, every little step is a huge leap.

Our son still hasn't learnt how to crawl properly and instead lies face down, dragging himself around the room with his arms… kinda looks like he's swimming.

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

It's nearly 5am and my 14 month old son, who has been self-settling now for months, has suddenly become really, really clingy. It's to the point where the second I put him down in his cot to sleep, he rolls over and sits up screaming.

He sleeps in his pram and when he's lying in our arms, so it's not a question of reflux or some other kind of ailment, and we give him Nurofen and teething gel too, he just seems to get desperately anxious the moment one of us leaves the room or puts him down to sleep. We're doing the thing where we comfort him, put him down, leave the room, wait five minutes and try again until he settles, but so far, all that seems to do is exhaust us all.

Anyone been through this and can offer any advice?

 

[yuna55]

It's nearly 5am and my 14 month old son, who has been self-settling now for months, has suddenly become really, really clingy. It's to the point where the second I put him down in his cot to sleep, he rolls over and sits up screaming.

He sleeps in his pram and when he's lying in our arms, so it's not a question of reflux or some other kind of ailment, and we give him Nurofen and teething gel too, he just seems to get desperately anxious the moment one of us leaves the room or puts him down to sleep. We're doing the thing where we comfort him, put him down, leave the room, wait five minutes and try again until he settles, but so far, all that seems to do is exhaust us all.

Anyone been through this and can offer any advice?

When we went through that after a natural disaster that traumatized her. We spent extra time in there and slowly eased her off. I'd sit in there until she fell asleep and then sneak out. Then I started sneaking out sooner and sooner, while she was really groggy, then less groggy, then awake. Took awhile but it worked and every day was a tiny bit easier on all of us.

It was kinda nice too because I laid out some ground rules to her and she still abides by them at 20 months. If I put her in the crib and read her a story, she wasn't allowed to cry or I'd stop reading until she calmed down. Now she's very attentive and listens when I read to her. At first at night, I let her stand up in bed and look at the book while I read. But once I say it's time to lay down, she had to stay laying down or I'd stop reading and physically pick her up and lay her back down. 20 times in a row sometimes. Next thing I knew, when I'd say, "you have lay back down" by god she laid back down on her own. Then when it was time to walk out, she'd stand back up crying. I wouldn't pick her back up, but I would always bend down, hug her tight and whisper that we love her but it's time to go to bed. Then I'd lay her back down and walk out. If she was simply being a brat and uncooperative, she got one hug and we walked out, despite her tantrum sobs. Usually by the time we went back in there < 5 min, she had passed out. Makes sense now because the only time she's like that is when she's absolutely exhausted.

I had a lot of people tell me we just needed to let her cry it out cause that's what they did with their kids. I just didn't feel that was appropriate since the only reason it started was due to her being scared after a tornado went through our neighborhood. We built up her confidence and trust until she didn't need us physically there.

God speed brotha. You'll figure out what works best for you guys.

 

[mrkgoo]

When we went through that after a natural disaster that traumatized her. We spent extra time in there and slowly eased her off. I'd sit in there until she fell asleep and then sneak out. Then I started sneaking out sooner and sooner, while she was really groggy, then less groggy, then awake. Took awhile but it worked and every day was a tiny bit easier on all of us.

It was kinda nice too because I laid out some ground rules to her and she still abides by them at 20 months. If I put her in the crib and read her a story, she wasn't allowed to cry or I'd stop reading until she calmed down. Now she's very attentive and listens when I read to her. At first at night, I let her stand up in bed and look at the book while I read. But once I say it's time to lay down, she had to stay laying down or I'd stop reading and physically pick her up and lay her back down. 20 times in a row sometimes. Next thing I knew, when I'd say, "you have lay back down" by god she laid back down on her own. Then when it was time to walk out, she'd stand back up crying. I wouldn't pick her back up, but I would always bend down, hug her tight and whisper that we love her but it's time to go to bed. Then I'd lay her back down and walk out. If she was simply being a brat and uncooperative, she got one hug and we walked out, despite her tantrum sobs. Usually by the time we went back in there < 5 min, she had passed out. Makes sense now because the only time she's like that is when she's absolutely exhausted.

I had a lot of people tell me we just needed to let her cry it out cause that's what they did with their kids. I just didn't feel that was appropriate since the only reason it started was due to her being scared after a tornado went through our neighborhood. We built up her confidence and trust until she didn't need us physically there.

God speed brotha. You'll figure out what works best for you guys.

Tornado?wow.

We 'trained' our kid from early on to self-settle (did involve a little 'crying it out', but it was organised not just random) and it worked, she learnt to self settle from about 10 months.

Been mostly goo, but recently at 20 months, she has been resorting to whining and complaining a short while after putting her to sleep. Doesn't take much to put her back down, but would like to get rid of that.

I have a hunch for us, it's mostly that her sleep schedule has been shifted later since our Christmas break when we spent a while out of town.

But yeah, shortly after she self-settled, I used to lay on the bed until she fell asleep. At one point I realised she didn't even really know I was there and that I actually risked disturbing her by getting up and leaving so I stopped doing that.

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

When we went through that after a natural disaster that traumatized her. We spent extra time in there and slowly eased her off. I'd sit in there until she fell asleep and then sneak out. Then I started sneaking out sooner and sooner, while she was really groggy, then less groggy, then awake. Took awhile but it worked and every day was a tiny bit easier on all of us.

It was kinda nice too because I laid out some ground rules to her and she still abides by them at 20 months. If I put her in the crib and read her a story, she wasn't allowed to cry or I'd stop reading until she calmed down. Now she's very attentive and listens when I read to her. At first at night, I let her stand up in bed and look at the book while I read. But once I say it's time to lay down, she had to stay laying down or I'd stop reading and physically pick her up and lay her back down. 20 times in a row sometimes. Next thing I knew, when I'd say, "you have lay back down" by god she laid back down on her own. Then when it was time to walk out, she'd stand back up crying. I wouldn't pick her back up, but I would always bend down, hug her tight and whisper that we love her but it's time to go to bed. Then I'd lay her back down and walk out. If she was simply being a brat and uncooperative, she got one hug and we walked out, despite her tantrum sobs. Usually by the time we went back in there < 5 min, she had passed out. Makes sense now because the only time she's like that is when she's absolutely exhausted.

I had a lot of people tell me we just needed to let her cry it out cause that's what they did with their kids. I just didn't feel that was appropriate since the only reason it started was due to her being scared after a tornado went through our neighborhood. We built up her confidence and trust until she didn't need us physically there.

God speed brotha. You'll figure out what works best for you guys.

Thanks for this response. Last night, my mum was visiting and volunteered to do all the getting up in the night for us, which let us at least get a good night's sleep. It's nearly 2am and he's up again today, same deal - he will spring awake as soon as you put him down.

I think it's a phase he's going through though. He'll cry when one of us leaves the room for whatever reason now, even if the other parent is there, whereas he never used to mind before. We're just going to have to train him all over again, I think.

The fact that you guys found a way to settle your baby while in the crib is interesting to me. Makes me think it's a good solution for us now that he's getting bigger.

 

[yuna55]

Thanks for this response. Last night, my mum was visiting and volunteered to do all the getting up in the night for us, which let us at least get a good night's sleep. It's nearly 2am and he's up again today, same deal - he will spring awake as soon as you put him down.

I think it's a phase he's going through though. He'll cry when one of us leaves the room for whatever reason now, even if the other parent is there, whereas he never used to mind before. We're just going to have to train him all over again, I think.

The fact that you guys found a way to settle your baby while in the crib is interesting to me. Makes me think it's a good solution for us now that he's getting bigger.

He's old enough now that its a possibility to get him calmed down, even in his bed, although it took awhile to get to that point for us. He's testing boundaries and trying to get his way. Yes, he does need you guys, but not as much as he thinks. He's just panicking because you're not there or you're leaving the room. Once he realizes that going to bed alone isn't scary or crappy, he'll do better.

It seems like this huge war, but if you start working with him on all these little battles, it'll be easier. I didn't do it all at once at first, just started with one battle and mastered it (dad being able to walk out and me stay for example, that was a big problem for us), then we added in the next battle - getting in the crib (standing up was ok at first) and staying calm so we can read a story. Once she did that consistently, it was onto the next battle. She quickly understood we were in control and as long as she behaved she got what she wanted, but we slowly moved her goalposts back lol She was also very interested when we would put these new rules in place, would test them as kids do, then would obey because she still was getting what she wanted overall.


We could be stupid when it comes to this stuff though. I'm the youngest and my husband is an only child, so we effectively have zero experience with babies. We are calm and consistent, and expect good, calm behavior and cooperation from her, and have since she was tiny. We must've done something right (or provided great genes) because the kid's an angel. We take her everywhere with us, and she's so well behaved. She's still silly and mischievous sometimes, but is so sweet, loving and caring with us, other kids, family, the dogs, her toys. You name it, she tries to mother it.

 

[muu]

Baby's gotten a little better. At 4 wks she falls asleep when i strap on (mom hates the way I say it) baby carrier and put her in there. She sleeps well long as she's put in the crib when she's well into sleep, it's still a hit and a miss but occasionally we'll get 4-5hrs uninterrupted sleep.

But hey, Titanfall in two weeks! I played a lot of the beta while trying to get her to sleep (she's got zero issues w/ noise, so we got that going for us), and she'll most likely be my copilot again come March 11. Walking around and bumbling up and down on my seat didn't affect gameplay too much, though I feel like I'm doing it in the office while working, too...

 

[BOND CO STOOGE]

So, does anyone here have advice about how to tell kids about immediate family that you have nothing to do with? For context, i have nothing to do with my mother, and I live 12 hours away from her. So, it's been a non-issue for years. However, it looks like she is going to move in with my brother, with whom I have a relatively close relationship. My brother, his wife, and their six month old are moving to the lower 48 from Alaska, and my extended family wants to plan a trip to see his family. They want me to come, because they have yet to meet my 7 week old daughter, and this trip would be most convenient for all parties. If my mother is there then I'm not going, which will likely cause tensions with my brother. If my mother moves in then for as long as there is even the remote possibility that we will run into her we will not ever visit. so, as my daughter gets older I'm going to have to explain this situation to her. I'm not a fan of keeping secrets from my kid, but I don't know how best to tell her why we can't visit her uncle and cousin. Has anyone had a similar situation?

 

[yuna55]

So, does anyone here have advice about how to tell kids about immediate family that you have nothing to do with? For context, i have nothing to do with my mother, and I live 12 hours away from her. So, it's been a non-issue for years. However, it looks like she is going to move in with my brother, with whom I have a relatively close relationship. My brother, his wife, and their six month old are moving to the lower 48 from Alaska, and my extended family wants to plan a trip to see his family. They want me to come, because they have yet to meet my 7 week old daughter, and this trip would be most convenient for all parties. If my mother is there then I'm not going, which will likely cause tensions with my brother. If my mother moves in then for as long as there is even the remote possibility that we will run into her we will not ever visit. so, as my daughter gets older I'm going to have to explain this situation to her. I'm not a fan of keeping secrets from my kid, but I don't know how best to tell her why we can't visit her uncle and cousin. Has anyone had a similar situation?

I'm curious about this too. We aren't exactly on the best of terms with my in-laws and unless they pull their heads out of their asses, our daughter won't be around them either. I'm almost more concerned about when/if she is around them, because they seem to enjoy emotionally abusing my husband, and have already said mean things to our daughter when she was a few weeks old, just to hurt him. Not sure how to start these convos with our daughter and at what age. She's going to wonder why she sees my parents daily and doesn't know Dad's parents.

Also not sure if I want to give my daughter my biased (but justified) opinion, or let her figure out my in-laws on her own. I'm leaning on the bias because I know if, or inevitably when, she's around them, my MIL will purposefully say hurtful things to her. She's got a proven track record to keep after all! If they were just annoying or weird or we simply had a disagreement, I'd probably let her form her own opinion.

My husband has no other family here, so we won't have the complexity your situation has, thankfully... With him being the only child, we will inevitably have to deal with them though. They're getting up there in age, and have had some health issues.

Good luck to you...

 

[mrkgoo]

Baby's gotten a little better. At 4 wks she falls asleep when i strap on (mom hates the way I say it) baby carrier and put her in there. She sleeps well long as she's put in the crib when she's well into sleep, it's still a hit and a miss but occasionally we'll get 4-5hrs uninterrupted sleep.

But hey, Titanfall in two weeks! I played a lot of the beta while trying to get her to sleep (she's got zero issues w/ noise, so we got that going for us), and she'll most likely be my copilot again come March 11. Walking around and bumbling up and down on my seat didn't affect gameplay too much, though I feel like I'm doing it in the office while working, too...

In my opinion, Just a warning about letting baby use YOU as a sleep aid, it can lead to them needing you to get to sleep all the time.

It might be ok, but it might not be. I guess she is only 4 weeks old now so it's ok, but just be aware of how you are training baby for the long term.

 

[genericsuperhero]

Our 7.5 mo old, up till now has been a great overnight sleeper. Went to sleep, stayed asleep. But lately, a combination of sickness (double ear infections), sleep movement (he rolls into the bars of the crib or scoots his head into a corner and can't move it), and new teeth have resulted in him waking up occasionally overnight. It's not every night, but when it is, it's rough.

Because he never has had real issues getting to bed or staying asleep we've been totally unprepared for this. When he wakes up and cant fall back asleep on his own, if we can figure out what is wrong and put him back to sleep after a few minutes he will stay asleep - a few times he will complain when we put him back down, but a little shushing and he'll be asleep. Seems like any longer than a half hour though, and he gets inconsolable. We can't shush him, distract him, rock him, or seemingly do anything to get him back to sleep, so in these few instances we have resorted to giving him a bottle, but I REALLY want to get out of doing that. Once he has a full tummy he will go right back down.

We have been very weak when it comes to trying CIO methods (my wife usually gives in first), and because it's only occasionally this happens, I don't think we would be practicing it consistently enough for the lesson to stick with him. Unfortunately a pacifier won't work, he kind of weaned himself off using them a few months ago, he went from sucking to chewing on them and playing with them, and now he isn't really interested.

We have been recommended to try giving him water, but we're hesitant to do that. Anyone find themselves in a similar situation have any advice?

Edit: Because there aren't enough cute baby pictures on this page:

 

[distantmantra]

My wife and I are going to Japan tonight for 10 days and leaving my 2-year old daughter with my parents. She loves my mom and dad so I'm not worried about her, but I'm having a rough morning knowing that I won't see her until Sunday the 13th. [sigh]

 

[mojo2]

Our son was born last Saturday, after 13 hours of labour. She did it with gas only, really proud of her Boy had some water in his lungs and therefore lack of oxygen so he has been in ER since birth. I almost fainted when they took him to the ER pretty soon after birth. They don't F around with that stuff, it's fast and efficient when they move the baby and of course looks very worrisome. They gave him extra oxygen for two days. Doctors say he's fine although his "infection ratio" (sorry for bad english, don't know the exact term) jumped a bit high and he's on antibiotics. Feels fucking horrible. No words to describe, even though I know it isn't bad compared to stories I've heard and witnessed.

Anyway, here's my son, about 1 hour old. Sorry for the shitty mobile quality, camera's still in the hospital. His hand looks huge in this shot

He is soon to be eight months now. Lots of milk at nights, wakes every 1-2 hours to eat and it shows!

And a meltdown:

 

[GillaTheGorilla]

Loving reading this thread and seeing all the pics, you guys have some ace kids.

We are expecting our second child later this year and are hoping we don't have a repeat performance of the last one which saw my wife getting pre-eclampsia and having and emergency c-section at 32 weeks. Our little girl was only 3pounds 11oz but has more than caught up.

 

[Icefire1424]

Late to the party, but checking in nonetheless.

My wife gave birth to our first daughter this past Wednesday after almost 30 hours of labor and 3 hours of pushing for the wife. Both are doing very well, and we were home after a couple days. Madelyn ("Maddie") is sleeping for 2-3 hours at a time overnight, we're still getting used to the lack of sleep. Been getting a bit easier already, but reality still hasn't set in as we both are out of work for a bit (me for a couple weeks for bonding), so I'm sure it will be tougher once we're back to a regular routine.

Will be checking in from time to time and reading back to get advice, glad to be here. Already can't wait for kiddo to sleep through the night, but have a feeling that's still a ways off.

Anyways, subbed!

 

[iapetus]

#3 arriving in June. Are we mad?

And to further increase the stuff we need to buy, this one's a girl...

 

[mrkgoo]

Welcome!

 

[GlamFM]

21 months.

Time flies.

 

[mojo2]

21 months.

Time flies.

Adorable!