Message for sydneygal - and other mums with good sleeping babies

I more or less let him roll then just pushed him down when he popped up on his knees and physically moved his head to the side...... repetitively :) yes we also had a 6:30 and even 6pm bedtime for ages and it helped a lot and was great for me too!, only moviing back to 7pm now at 15 months.

kiwi...how did you teach your one to tummy sleep? Mine doesnt know how to put his head down either when on his tummy...for the most part he sleeps on side and on back but I think eventually he might tummy sleep if he can work it out! I agree with you re: props and also about tweaking sleep timings. Getting him to bed earlier (6.30 instead of 7-7.30) definitely has helped DS, as well as more structured naptimes (in our case GF timings work, but generally he gets tired 2 hours after being up).

Is it also that he has started rolling over in the night? and doesn't know how to sleep on his tummy. I had to "teach" DS how to tummy sleep as he would pop up on his hands an knees into crawling position and could really figure out to put his head down. He's been a tummy sleeper ever since. It could be time for a nap transition/tweak too, I never found food quantities made any diff to sleep but naps/bedtimes certainly did. Waking every 30 min isn't a food thing, unless he is hungry in the night and you are refusing to feed him, it sounds much more like a "prop" issue, i.e he is being rocked to sleep,sucking to sleep, feeding to sleep and is having problems transitioning through sleep cycles when the prop isn't there. If you had any reflux issues when bubs was younger you might find the intro of solids rekindles those, especially starch and especially if you are trying to get a lot of solids in in the evening. TBH there will always be "something", teething, vaccinations, developmental changes etc, I don't think it is ever just one thing that you can fix and suddenly bam they go from 30 min waking to through the night. Our worst sleep was at around that age and we did co-sleep for a while with no problems switching back to his cot, but he always started the night and napped in his cot. Oh and kick DH to the spare room, you are co-sleeping, you are getting up in the night, you get the comfy bed.

Can I ask out of curiosity what you don't like about GF's approach to weaning?, I have no idea what her approach is but am curious as to what she recommends.

hey twinbutterfly...sorry to hear you are going through a rough patch with you LO...i know what that's like. My DS was a fab sleeper from birth to about 6-8 weeks when it all started going downhill and only in the past few weeks has he finally settled down. I think alot of his waking was due to various things at different times in our particular case - the dummy, me being in the same room and attending to him way too quickly, growth and developmental spurts etc... I hear you on Gina Ford books, I ended up buying 2 as well and actually am now following a loose Gina plan during the day which seems to work for him. He is basically up between 630 and 7, feeds at 7 (breastfeed) followed by small amount of fruit/porridge, sleeps 2 hours after his initial waking for about 45min to 1 hour and a half depending, feeds again at 11am (bottle plus solids, maybe 2 cubes), asleep again after 2 hours of waking and sleeps from 1 hour and a half to 2 hours. He still wakes from naps often but I get him back to sleep again. Feeds again (bf) around 2.30pm and then we usually go for a walk and spend time outside, he might nap for 20 mins or so in the pram around 4ish. Solids at 5pm (biggest meal, 2-3 cubes) and then bath by 6pm at latest, feed of bottle (240ml) and in bed by 6.30-6.45. I then wake him to DF at around 11pm. Don't underestimate the jetlag, travelling to Oz was a nightmare for us, especially going that way and he too was waking every 30 min to an hour and I too gave up and had him in bed with me! We went to see Cecile when we got back and I had visions of her making us go cold turkey on the dummy but actually she said it was fine to keep to get to sleep as long as he knew that he had to go back to sleep in the night without it. So first night we had to leave him for 20 min and he cried, but then after we went back to settle him (were allowed to give dummy after 20 min) he slept through! Since then it's been much better, he still occasionally wakes and may cry 5-10 mins but usually now goes back to sleep by himself. I moved out of the room too which I also think has helped. The other thing I do is use Limeflower tea (Linden) which I got at the organic to make up his last bottle and also give him some with his solids just as the tea. A naturopath friend recommended it in Oz as it is supposed to be fab to help babies sleep and I thought why not try it. Since I started using it he has really settled down so I have to say in his case it does work. He also seems to be sleeping better since starting solids - whether this is a contributing factor or just lucky timing I'm not sure. Lastly, he does wear an amber necklace for teething wihch I put on his ankle at night (with a sock so he doesn't kick it off)... hope some of this helps...any q's just let me know... x