so frustrating

I just had a rough day, well rough couple of days. They have been waking up early from their afternoon nap so they have been wanting to go to bed earlier. Today I just gave in and put them down at 6 which is 30-60 minutes early but they were so fussy and tired I didn't know what else to do. Now they are in their cribs having a hard time settling down. They have eating issues to begin with so we see a GI specialist. I am not allowed to give them anything other than baby food, formula and cereal. They do not do well with bottles, never have. And I have to feed them so much cereal and baby food to be sure they are eating enough and to get them to sleep through the night. But dd who has always been difficult with solids also, has really been giving me a hard time this weekend. I know she is hungry (by how she is acting) but I had such a hard time getting her to at first eat and then to continue to let me feed her. And they won't take mid morning and mid afternoon bottles or a small jar of fruit, so they want their meals 30-60 minutes early. I never give in with dinner, sometimes I will do lunch a tad early. So it is just really hard, I need to be able to give them more substantial foods to fill them up with less food.

So my questions are:
They don't handle texture too well and do not feed themselves and GI said no yogurt, any suggestions on what to feed them to be sure they are full with less food??

How can I either get them to go longer inbetween am nap and pm nap or how can I get them to nap longer in the afternoon. Today was about 90 minutes, which I thought was not bad. But they have napped 2 and a half hours before in the afternoon. Oh and the morning nap was about the same, 90 minutes give or take.

Thanks!

 

Hi there. My babies are younger than yours (they'll be 7 months on the 3rd) but I guess they're not too far apart considering your babies' adjusted age. My kids are generally waking around 6:30 in the morning and then going down for a nap at 8:45. They sleep for 2 hours on a good day, but it's often an hour and a half. They take another nap in the afternoon, usually around 1:30. James sleeps for 1.5 hours and Evan can be up in as little as 30 minutes. That's it for naps for James, but Evan often has a cat nap in the late afternoon if we're out in the car or stroller (because his afternoon nap is short). My kids go to bed around 6:30 but if they're very tired or cranky it can be as early as 6:00. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that our afternoon naps are shorter than our morning naps as well - not sure if that makes you feel any better. I don't think an early night is such a bad thing. It doesn't always seem to mean an early wake time in the morning.

As for feeding, I feel for you. I don't have any suggestions because we haven't even been doing solids for long, but I just wanted to suggest a teething feeder as a low-stress source of some extra nutrients. I've been using one with my boys. Evan isn't too interested but James (who has a hard time with bottles) is in love. I've given him chilled steamed peach slices, bananas, and chilled steamed apple slices so far. With James, who has had trouble with feeding since day one (not to the extreme that your babies have, by the sounds of it), I am glad when he eats at all, so if he's hungry early I feed him at least a bit and then I feed him the rest when his brother is hungry later.

Good luck. Sorry about your rough couple of days - I'm hoping tomorrow is better!

 

Sorry it's been so tough for you today...I know we all have days like these! I don't really have any suggestions as far as feeding goes. I'm not sure if meats are more filling...maybe give that a try?

As far as naps go, I'm going through the same thing, the amount of time between when they're afternoon is over and bedtime, is way too long and we are stuggling with either getting them to take a third nap or moving the 2nd nap later. However, if they take two, 1.5 naps a day, I think that's pretty great! Mine took a 45 minute morning nap, and a 1.5 hour afternoon nap, and that's pretty average for us. Mine have NEVER taken a 2.5 hour nap! Maybe do what we're doing and try to get them to take a 3rd catnap in late afternoon? We're having mixed success at the moment, but we don't know what else to do at this point.

Hang in there mama, I know things have been tough for you, and remember we're all here for you.

:itwins: hugs!

 

How about a cream based soup.

 

Two 90 minute naps in a day is great! Mine did used to do that, now they are down to 1 90 minute nap a day. Occasionally they'll sleep longer, but it is rare and not normal.

I have no good advice on the feeding thing. Mine really never cared much for baby food, so they didn't eat more substantial amounts until we moved to table foods.

 

How about trying mashing bananas with formula? Usually you can get the texture pretty runny and it's very filling.

 

Thanks ladies. They actually didn't wake up too much earlier this morning (ds was up for a bit at 3am but dd slept right through) so today I put them down at the same time since that is how it worked out again. I tried a catnap on Saturday late in the day and it was a disaster but thanks for the suggestion. Feeding was really rough again today but I discovered some new distraction techniques, so I got them to eat after alot of effort. I am going to try bananas in my mesh feeder tomorrow. And I got them to eat the baby food chicken today (which they absolutely hate) so I am pretty proud of myself. Hehe. Now they just need to sleep through the night because I am wiped out!!