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PamE
03-03-2003, 04:39 PM
Howdy all! I thought I'd give a quick update on ds2 and ask a few questions. He's doing quite well. No trips to the hospital in February at all (yea!) and his "colic" or whatever it was seems to be getting steadily better. His weight gain seems to have come to a stand still (11 lbs, 24") but I'm hoping that's going to kick-start again. One huge blessing is that he is sleeping 7 - 10 hours at night. I figure with a good night's sleep I can face just about anything during the day! :)

My first question is about eating. How much and how often should he be eating now (he'll be 4 months on the 7th)? I know it's supposed to be on demand as much as they want, but that kinda freaks me out since I'm not breastfeeding anymore. At this point he takes 4 - 5 ounces every three hours and sometimes 6 - 7 ounces. I think he could go longer than 3 hours but ds strongly disagrees!! :D

The next question is about sleeping. How do I get him to sleep during the day??? He does just fine in my arms, but I'd rather not spend the majority of my day in the recliner feeding and napping this little bugger! When he gets sleepy looking/acting I put him down in his crib an let him fuss. (I can't let him "cry it out" but I can let him fuss for a bit. If he gets truely upset I get him up) He generally falls asleep within a few minutes, but rarely stays alseep longer than 20 minutes. All attempts to let him fuss himself back to sleep don't seem to work. Should I just continue with the routine of putting him to bed and letting him sleep for as long as he will in the hopes that he'll get the hang of it? At night he does fine. I put him down, he fusses a minute and then is out for the night. I'm just trying to avoid the mistakes I made with the other three by rocking them to sleep and letting them sleep in their swings, etc. I really want him to be an independant sleeper.

Gosh, this has turned into another book of a post, but thanks for bearing with me! :)

angie r
03-03-2003, 08:56 PM
A friend of mine whose son had colic swears by a "noise box." She starting with the "white noise." She also taped a vacuum cleaner running and he was quiet as a mouse when it was on. Go figure?

bizymum
03-04-2003, 02:22 PM
Have no ideas how to help you in the sleeping during the day department...DS#3 is 4 months now and he maybe sleeps a total of 2-3 hours during the days. Sometimes though he does sleep longer. It is night time that we are having a time with. He goes down at about 10 and sleeps till about 1 then he is up every 1 hour after that.

As for feedings, I just feed on demand...Most days he goes 3 or 4 8 oz bottles and about 3 4 oz. Just started giving him water once a day he loves it as well as about 2 tsp of rice cereal at night before bed.

PamE
03-05-2003, 02:55 PM
Ds is sitting here on my lap, so hopefully this will make sense, lol! :) Angie, I tried the white noise yesterday ("snow" on the radio) and he slept great!!! Not so great today, but that's okay. Maybe he's getting into the swing of things. Maybe I can vacuum later and get it on tape to try.

I tried giving him more formula at one feeding but he ended up with a major tummy ache, so I think we'll stick with the 4-5oz every three hours instead of trying to get him to go longer between.

Rhonda, I hope your ds starts sleeping better for you at night. I know I'm such a zombie when ds doesn't sleep well and it's so hard to function during the day, especially when there's no chance for a nap some time during the day!!! They say sometime between 4 and 6 mos, so hopefully soon he'll sleep all night for you. :)

darlene
03-05-2003, 10:05 PM
No great advice here Pam....just wanted to say glad he is feeling better! :yippee:

Is he fussy when he doesn't nap during the day? I know my best friends dd slept 10-12 thru the night and never during the day....but was a happy baby.....so that made life easier for her.

:)

Amy
03-06-2003, 07:38 AM
My friend had two children who were chronic colic. Her dd only slept 20 minutes at a time too during the day. She never was able to break her out of it until the colic went away and could sleep more peacefully. With your ds, that is probably why he can sleep so long during the night. My friend didn't have much help with the white noise or the motion of the baby swing. She couldn't believe she had TWO kids with 16 hour a day colic. The good news is that you should only have a few more months of this! :)

PamE
03-06-2003, 09:46 AM
You're right, Amy, we should be nearing the end of this cycle! I stopped giving him his reflux meds, thinking maybe he didn't need them any more. Poor little guy is really paying for it now and is kinda hurting again. :( I've started them back up again so hopefully they'll kick in a lot faster this time. I should have known better! :banghead:

You know, the doctors looked at me like I had 2 heads when I told them that ds was fussy/crying/uncomfortable at least 16 hours a day. It's nice to know that I'm not nuts and it does happen!

Darlene, he does seem tired during the day even when he sleeps good at night. I'm wondering if he's going to be a bit like his oldest sister. She'd sleep 12 hours at night and then take two two-hour naps during the day! 8o