Forum : Mums

Hi, I wouldn't give him hungry baby milk at night as it only has the same number of calories as stage 1 milk but is designed to make them feel fuller for longer, so if he went longer on a night he would actually be reducing the amount of calories he was taking in 24 hours, and as he's only having 4oz per feed during the day I would say you don't want to be reducing it. Hopefully you'll find that over the next few weeks he will start to take more and go longer between feeds, you could try stretching out the daytime feeds to 4 hours every time and see if he'll take a bit more that way but to be honest he's still only tiny so I would just go with it for the time being.
Regarding daytime sleep, I had the same problem with my son. I used to put him in his bouncy chair on vibrate and that seemed to help, the hv said he should be laid flat though but it was the only way I could get him to nap in the daytime. My sister in law had a baby swing for her two and that really helped to soothe them, especially the eldest who had reflux. That's another thing you could look into - if he's uncomfortable when laid flat and sleeps better upright then he might have a bit of reflux which could also affect his milk intake. My niece was like a different baby when she was put onto infant gaviscon.
Its so hard isn't it when you are exhausted and especially with a toddler as well. Hopefully things will settle down soon for you :-))xx

i agree with buffy - dont use hungry baby milk for all the reasons she said. you can expect him to have a growth spurt in a few weeks time so things may change then.

i feel your pain with the sleeping! i have a 13 week old and a 4yr old and my 13 week old has a real hatred of me putting her down! she only place i can get her to have a sleep without me holding her is in her car seat. i never want to get into the habit of having to go for a drive just to get her to sleep though so i tend to just put up with it. she'll only sleep for 10-30 minutes at a time if i put her down but can happily sleep for a few hours if i hold her. it is a pain, as i said, i have a 4yr old so if i have to spend my whole day holding the baby then my eldest doesnt get any attention. all i can do is spend as much time with them both while my youngest is awake so that if i do end up sitting and cuddling my youngest while she sleeps then at least i have had some time with my eldest. while my youngest is asleep and if she is being cuddled, then i tend to just sit and cuddle my eldest as well - she will want me to read to her or we put one of her favourite programmes on tv. i know it's not quite the same but my feeling is that these difficulty early stages dont last long and my eldest is being very understanding about the whole thing.

Thanks for ur posts girls. When he is laid down flat asleep at night he will be fine , but wakes himself by pumpin then begins crying/screaming so im unsure if its pain too? Do you think it would be worth using comfort milk with him as my hv has said its exact same as the stage 1 but is for babies that suffer with colic / wind etc. He had colicy spells up untill 8 weeks then they stopped, but when they stopped the waking up screaming started. Tho only think that settles him is a bottle when he is like that, for hours iv tried comforting him rather than just giving him a bottle but nothing works at all. Plus with our daughter asleep i dont want her being woken by his screams esp with her being at nursery incase lack of sleep effects her.
My daughter is very understanding but i just feel guity to her and dont ever want her to feel left out. She always gets involved with changing etc by helping get the bits and bobs out i need etc. We also sit and watch a movie while little one is snoozing on me.
I know things get better in time, after all iv already been thrugh it once with our daughter, but with 2 children its just that bit more challenging :) xx

He could be uncomfortable with wind or reflux, if only they could tell us! Have you tried wind remedies at all? I used infacol with my son and dentinox colic drops with my daughter and they both worked really well but have to be used before every single feed for at least a week to allow them to build up in the system. Would definitely be worth trying one of them. I wouldn't rule out reflux completely though, even if he's not a sicky baby there is a type called silent reflux where they don't bring up the acid but swallow it back down again so its harder to diagnose. Reflux is common in most babies to varying degrees but some suffer worse than others and it can be relatively simple to treat, even if infant gaviscon doesn't help there are other medications that can be used. I would give the wind remedies a go first though and see how you get on. If you think reflux might be playing a part in it you can buy wedges to go under cot mattress so it raises them up slightly and that can really help. :-))xx

Hiya,
It sounds like we are in the same predicament!
My daughter is 12 weeks old and only goes 2-3 hours between feeds (day and night) although we have had 4 hours out of her once or twice :) and HATES being put down!! . .I also have a 21 month old son so it is really important that I spend time with him as well
when you say your son wakes screaming and the only thing that settles him is his bottle; why can't he have it?
throughout the day what I have found works is laying youngest under her play gym and putting the hair dryer on (obviously not near her), she loves the sound and it gets her to sleep, as soon as you turn it off she wakes!
also I involve her into the playing. . we bought our son some marackers, a tambourine , crinkly animals and other various things that make lots of noise and get him to play with them for our youngest i.e. "shake the maracker so DD can see it", "bang the red drum" . . your daughter is older than our son so you just make your directions more challenging i.e. you tap a tune and get her to copy it or tell her 'tap the red drum twice then shake the maracker'
LO's like noise and things being waved in their face and we all know toddlers are good at making the noise!!
and like you said you are doing, watch a movie, read a book whilst LO is snoozing
by the sounds of it, it is you that is puttting the extra worry on yourself! Your eldest isn't feeling left out (she would tell you probably by tantruming if she was) sounds like you are doing a great job of keeping them both happy!!
Lea xx