Baby Corner

[Empress of Groovy 373]

So...I have a sleep question for you ladies. Madeleine will be three months next week, and all in all, things are going well. She's now eating on a more regular schedule (3-4 hours between feedings, feedings about 5-6 oz. with the occasional top-up), hiccuping and spitting up a bit less, overall much better than a month ago. Honestly, I don't think we've really done much to bring this on, it has just happened as she's gotten a bit older. She has slept through the night on several occasions, but still not consistently enough for us to get excited. For example, two nights ago, she slept from 9:30 p.m. until about 7. She woke up twice but went back to sleep after a brief cuddle. Last night, however, she woke up at midnight, ate 4 oz., woke up again at 2 and went down after a cuddle, woke up again at 5 a.m. and had 5 oz. We're trying our best to normalize her daytime feedings, but if she is even remotely hungry, she screams bloody murder. I'm not all that worried about this given how young she is, and pretty much everything I've read says that babies tend not to sleep through the night reliably until at least four months, and in many cases it takes longer than that.

Yesterday, I brought Madeleine into Jon's office so his coworkers could see her. One of them has a son who is a week older than Madeleine (we were in the same childbirth class, and we delivered at the same hospital). She was boasting about how her son sleeps reliably from 7 pm to 7 am. It sounds like she and her husband basically have him on a draconian schedule that they started implementing when he was about a month old. They hired some sort of "baby sleep consultant." She said it's similar to Babywise, which I've read about. It sounds very weird. So, of course I'm envious--imagine, having your evening and a full night's sleep! But isn't 3 months a bit young to be going 12 hours w/o eating? I imagine the poor thing spent a lot of time crying in his crib before this 7 to 7 thing became the norm. I freely admit I'm being judgmental here. Any thoughts?

I hope everyone is well.

[Mommy2ZaidnSalma 11]

I never sleep trained Zaid (lol it cracks me up, reminds me of training a dog or something) but he was sleeping 10 hour stretches at 2-3 months old. Some kids are just good sleepers I think. 10 hours did seem like much to me but he was ALWAYS thriving so the Ped had no problem with it. Maybe your husbands coworkers baby isnt a good napper and is so tired by the night time, that was the issue with Zaid. Honestly, I would have rather had Zaid take some good long naps during the daytime then sleep all night bc he was soo colicky and cried when he was awake.

Id say your daugthers sleep pattern seems pretty normal to a baby her age. My friends baby is 3.5 months and sleeps 6 hr stretches occasionally but is still almost always up 2 times a night to eat. Dont be jealous. She will be sleeping through the night in no time and youll miss those nighttime cuddles <3

eta: Stef, the ped says swelling is normal and as long as Im showing no other signs of pre-e, they will just continue to monitor, which is why I see the OB every 3-4 days. I go back on Tuesday for an US and NST and they will check my cervix. Hoping for some progress. Last week I was still high and closed

38 weeks tomorrow Anna~~~Can you believe it? These pregnancies flew by!

On the subject of knowing when to have a baby...well, Zaid was planned, but by no means was the "time" right. We were only making about 35k a year, unstable jobs, hubby only had a 2yr gc, etc, but funny how it all worked out. I dont think theres truly a right time for babies. You just make the time right. I wouldnt change anything. Ill have 2 kids by 26, graduate college by 30, and my kids will both be in full time school. Life will be grand!

Edited January 22, 2011 by ZaidsMommy

[Anna C. 4]

Hm I wouldn't expect a baby that young too sleep through the night... And Babywise personally makes me wanna throw up... It's associated with failure to thrive and pediatricians are totally against it... I know it's a rough time, but Babywise is Draconian and dangerous in my eyes... I have no other advice for you... Jona woke up every 3 hours til 12 months.

[Empress of Groovy 373]

Yeah, I'm not tempted to try something similar. She said, "I can make copies of the handouts for you." I wasn't sure what to say, although I think my look said, "You're a controlling nutcase." I don't have a good poker face.

[^_^ 5,021]

Question. My wifes OB wants us to start "interviewing" pediatricians after her 20 week appointment (which is just over 2 weeks from now). Is her OB insane? Non-clinical judgmental responses are welcome.

[Anna C. 4]

@ Joyce: I can't keep a straight face either with such stuff, but it rarely happens luckily. The worst thing ever I was told from some nutcase was to strap Jona (at 8 months) in the car seat and put him on the patio til he stops screaming, cause you know, babies just manipulate you and only scream for attention which they should never get. This crazy person just had her first baby, I cannot say how sorry I'm for that little boy! Insane....

@ \: No actually a good idea. You should find someone you like, who's okay with your medical views and check how they work after hours and how soon you can be seen... That's really a pain if your child is sick and they are out on lunch break and nobody picks up, kwim? As for the medical views, it depends on your wishes concerning vaccination, circumcision, more natural or more medical approach - there's docs out there for everybody. Also don't exclude family practitioners, we are with a FP practice and they are always available and super nice, but the peds we saw before were on base military peds, not exactly very hm how can I say user-friendly docs (rude, rude, rude, never available, never call back, hard to get an appointment.... )...

Arhh still somewhat BH's every here and there, but it's just not doing anything. My only concern is that all those useless contractions will leave me exhausted by the time real labor rolls around.

[^_^ 5,021]

@ \: No actually a good idea. You should find someone you like, who's okay with your medical views and check how they work after hours and how soon you can be seen... That's really a pain if your child is sick and they are out on lunch break and nobody picks up, kwim? As for the medical views, it depends on your wishes concerning vaccination, circumcision, more natural or more medical approach - there's docs out there for everybody. Also don't exclude family practitioners, we are with a FP practice and they are always available and super nice, but the peds we saw before were on base military peds, not exactly very hm how can I say user-friendly docs (rude, rude, rude, never available, never call back, hard to get an appointment.... )...

I guess I'm more concerned with office hours and wait times. How will I know what wait times are? Do I expect a pediatrician to tell me "oh yeah you have to wait hours on weekends".

[Anna C. 4]

No, they won't advertise their waiting times, ask around - parents in your area will know.... But you can get a general vibe just on the phone... Like when I called around, several people didn't even want to talk to a prospective client - not a good sign.

[^_^ 5,021]

OK. Also the OB said we should "interview" peds. Is that what I should say, I'd like to schedule an interview?

[Anna C. 4]

Yes, it's usually over the phone, but like I said, many won't do it at all, at least in my experience... Back in CA I called 8 practices and only 2 let me speak with their ped, the others refused and said one has to wait til baby arrives and schedule a well baby visit....

[^_^ 5,021]

... many won't do it at all, at least in my experience...

Interesting. I guess my wife or I will have to make those calls and find out. Two of our friends recently had babies and they had no trouble getting peds to talk to them. But they also didn't call anyone until the 36th week or so.

[Eveline 9]

I never called around. With us having TRICARE we had a pedi assigned to us when Adam was born four years ago. Now we didn't click with him and I'm glad Adam never got sick worse than an ear infection or a drug reaction. When my husband retired and we moved to TX we still had TRICARE (Humana Military) and since I didn't know a pediatrician and didn't do any homework (that was my 'careless' time LOL) to find a pedi I just checked the box for them to assign us to one again. Now our pedi was 40 minutes away but she was awesome...I really liked her BUT I liked another pediatrician from the same office better so I just recently switched and demanded that certain pediatrician. It's still quite a drive but thank goodness we're mostly healthy or it's just stuff we can deal with by ourself. They are closed on saturdays but one of the three doctors (all women) is usually on call and they are really good with calling back.

None of the pedis was at the hospital at the birth of my babies. We always just had the on call pediatrican check over the kids and then went to our 'regular' pedi for the two week checkup.

[JVKn'CVO 11]

OK. Also the OB said we should "interview" peds. Is that what I should say, I'd like to schedule an interview?

I think the OB is just letting you know with a lot of time in advance, since you always have so many things going on with the pregnancy. I think 20 weeks would be a good time to start asking around for referrals: friends, family, even your OB may have some suggestions. Then you can narrow it down and interview. I would not wait to hit 36 weeks - She may be tired or too uncomfortable to be driving all around town...and of course, what if the baby arrives early? If you can plan to have your pedi by the time she is 32 weeks I think that is a good time.

And yes, when you call to make an appointment just let them know that you are expecting and would like to schedule an appointment to meet the doctor. They are used to that and usually will give you a goody bag

Congrats on the pregnancy! I think I remember you asking some questions about budgeting for baby, or maybe it was someone else?

Saludos,

Caro

[^_^ 5,021]

I think I remember you asking some questions about budgeting for baby, or maybe it was someone else?

I don't recall asking about that on this thread, but I have expressed my concern over daycare costs on other threads from time to time

Thanks for the advice. Everyone is telling me I need to hurry up and get the baby room ready already. I feel like it's too soon for everything! Besides, it would eat into VJ time.

Edited January 23, 2011 by \

[JVKn'CVO 11]

I don't recall asking about that on this thread, but I have expressed my concern over daycare costs on other threads from time to time

Thanks for the advice. Everyone is telling me I need to hurry up and get the baby room ready already. I feel like it's too soon for everything! Besides, it would eat into VJ time.

haha well, I think people just get excited and want to share in the fun but really, time flies...soon you'll start planning the baby shower, taking the birthing classes, going to the dr more often, then she'll get too big and uncomfortable to do anything at all...and the baby will be here

I wanted to add: We had our pedi picked out when Sebas arrived, and the hospital took note of that. All the tests and information they had on him since birth they sent a copy to our pedi, which I really liked. When Sebas was born he had a small heart arrhythmia, and our head pediatrician, cardiologist and hospital pediatrician all followed up and stayed informed on his progress. Thankfully the arrhythmia solved itself a couple of weeks after birth.

Saludos,

Caro

Edited January 23, 2011 by JVKn'CVO