Sleeping FAQ: 6-9 months

My 7-month son, who weighs 8.5kgs, sleeps in his cot for all his naps. But sometimes he refuses to settle for his lunchtime nap unless given a dummy, and I always have to give him a dummy for the late afternoon nap.   I am unable to drop, as he gets very tired by then, due to him still waking at 5am for a feed.  How long can I expect to him to go on waking for a feed at 5am, and how do I get him to settle for naps without the dummy?

He sometimes fights going down at lunchtime and is only given a dummy if he has not settled after 30 minutes.

He settles at 9am for a nap of 45minutes, but how do I get him to stay awake past 9am?

Feeding details

5.00am: 7ozs formula
7.00am: 8ozs formula, followed by 3 tbsp porridge and pear
10.30am: 5ozs formula, followed by 3 tablespoons chicken/salmon/lamb with vegetables, 1tbsp natural yoghurt, few sips of water
2.30pm: 8ozs formula
5.00pm: 2ozs formula followed by 3 tablespoons baby rice mixed with vegetables
6.30pm: 6ozs formula

Total daily intake: 36ozs formula

My son naps at 9-9.45am, 12-2.00pm and 4.15-5.pm. He settles at 7pm.
Team Response

Lunch time naps have always been a problem with my son. He loves his morning nap and will sleep for 1 1/2 hours then if allowed but we try to keep to the one hour to avoid compounding the problem at lunchtime.
He was sleeping at lunch but not without much protest first and several visits from me. I had learned to live with this routine however the past few days he really has started screaming and getting very agitated keeping it up until 2pm when I give up and give him his 2.30pm milk.
It is then far easier to get him to nap after the milk and I decide a late nap is better than no nap. I don't think hunger is the cause as he eats a good lunch at 12 noon.
I am wondering if I should cut back on his 1 hour nap at 10am to try and sort out the lunchtime nap battles?

He feeds at 7am 4/5oz formula, 3tablespoons porridge, sometimes banana. 12pm 3 cubes: 1 meat and 2 vegetable, a petit filous or fruit puree pot and watered fruit juice. 2.30pm 5ozs formula, 5.30pm 3 cubes: 1 meat, 2 vegetable with a petit filous or fruit puree, watered fruit juice. 6.30pm 9ozs formula. He weighs around 19lbs.

My son naps at 8.45-10am, 12.45-2pm and is settled by 7pm. He wakes around 6.30am.
Team Response

I seem to be surrounded or read about people's babies who take long naps. I can count on both hands the number of times my 61/2-month-old daughter has ever done a stretch of sleep longer than 45 minutes at lunchtime. I can't remember when she last slept for 2 hours. Rarely she sleeps for 1 hour and 20 minutes. I used to leave her crying and sometimes she resettled herself at lunchtime but she's changed and in just 1 month seems so much older and wakeful. She sleeps all night 7.15pm to 7.15am and at every nap time and bedtime she screams constantly until she finally falls asleep. She doesn't have any wrong sleep associations (never has had): no dummy, cuddling, she is not hungry or thirsty, she sleeps in a dark quiet room, she has a light show and wind down time - you know the drill!
She's naturally cut her morning nap to 30 minutes (she naps at 9.30), at lunchtime she will only do 30/45 minutes and whereas she used to need another nap at 4pm of 20 minutes she now stays awake until 4:30/4:45 which is so on top of her dinner at 5pm (not to mention the end of the day). If, on those rare occasions, she has a lunchtime nap of 1 1/2 hours, she can make it till bedtime. At lunchtime she won't nap until at least 1pm. She fights at every nap. She a big girl and has been crawling for weeks now and is very inquisitive which I thought would wear her out.
The older she is getting, the more worried I'm getting as I can see her last nap coming past 5pm and she won't be able to make it to bedtime without it (or won't want to sleep either). (I also have a 3-year-old so sometimes her naps are out). Is there anything I can do to tweak her routines?
Team Response

My son is 8 months old and sleeps at 9.30am until 10.15am, from 12.30pm till 2.30pm and the full 12 hours at night from 7am-7pm. However, due to other commitments, I need to move his lunchtime nap to 1pm. I was thinking that I could let him sleep from about 1.15pm to about 2.45pm, giving him about 1.5 hours and maintaining the morning sleep as is. Can you please advise me if this is the right thing to do? Will he be able to go from 10.15pm till 1pm comfortably?
Team Response

My daughter has been ill with a virus and for last 3 weeks taken to waking again between 10/12pm and not settling. While poorly - coughing etc- I found she would only settle on my chest and spent several nights with her asleep on me or able to slide her next to me. Then I tried leaving her to cry it out which on the first night went well. It took her less than an hour to settle at 1am and she slept until 7am. But last night she was still going after 2 hours! Before this illness she was sleeping through and taking milk well. I didn't really feel that solids were that well established. My daughter had just started on protein but this illness has knocked her eating for six. She will sometimes take few mouthfuls at breakfast, lunch and tea. Other times she purses her lips. I have gone back to stage one of weaning and reintroduced milk at 11am feed. She is not finishing all her milk feeds as before. She seems to like finger foods though , she does have a 2 year old sister to watch eat. I feel at sea again as far as eating and sleeping going and think must be some link. I have taken on some advice from message boards but getting confused and anxious. My daughter does seem to arch back and get uncomfortable / even distressed after some meals. I have tried yoghourt but she seems to prefer warmer food.

At present she is taking 8ozs of formula at 7am, 8am, a few spoonfuls of porridge and fruit puree. 11.30am 3-4 tablespoons of vegetable puree if she takes anything followed by 4ozs milk, 2.30pm 4-6ozs, 5pm few spoons of vegetable puree, nibbles at soft vegetable finger food or toast, fruit puree. 6pm 6ozs of milk, [offered 8ozs].

My daughter naps at 9-9.30am, 12.30-2.30pm and 4.45-5pm. She is settled by 7pm.
Team Response

I need to break my son's habit of night time waking. We found that offering him a drink of very diluted juice would usually settle him when he woke once at 3/4am but now he is waking at midnight, 3am then 6am and rarely going back to sleep after 6am. I am going to change the juice to just water but I fear that will not solve the problem as it is already very weak so I doubt he'll notice the difference.
I suspect babies do not need to drink anything at night but we adults do often wake for a drink of water, so would babies not need something too?
My son is also not a very good eater particularly of meat and I believe he has intolerance to cheese as he always seems to vomit after a cheese meal so we have re-introduced the 10.30pm feed to try and keep him full overnight but it has not made much of a difference to his night time waking.
Prior to re-introducing the late feed we had a few nights where he would wake around 1am and get very distressed, we found 3 oz of milk did the trick hence we started up the late feed again.

My sons feeds at 7am, 5ozs followed by 10 teaspoons porridge with 1/2 banana. Lunch at 12. 1/2 to 1cube of protein [i.e. chicken, fish or pork casserole], 1 cube swede/potato/parsnip and one cube of vegetable. He will only take a very smooth puree or he gags and vomits it all back. This is followed by 1 yoghurt or fruit puree and 1 biscuit. 2.30pm 4ozs. Tea is the same as lunch, as much savory as he will take but usually 1/2-1cube of protienwith another 1-2cubes of carbohydrate and vegetable/ I add a teaspoon of Greek yoghurt to make it more palatable. Fruit puree with custard. 6.30pm 8ozs. 10.20pm 3ozs. He weighs 19lbs 6ozs.

My son sleeps from 8.45-9.34am and 12.30-2pm. He settles at 7pm.
Team Response

My daughter was pretty ok with sleeping and feeding, despite a few problems with bottle feeding and she is still not really interested in her milk. Now that she has started solids it all seems to have fallen apart. The lunchtime nap only works 50% of the time but that is not may major concern. She has started to wake several times in the night. I don’t have to go into her as she usually half cries or moans for about 20 minutes at a time before resettling herself. I don’t know why she is doing this. First of all I thought it was possibly hunger so I did try feeding her in the night but she refused. As she often refuses bottles at her feed times I am still not sure if it is hunger or not. I wondered if she was getting uncomfortable in the night as she is doing a lot of rolling around and usually ends up on her tummy. I can’t decide if she prefers to sleep in her front or when she rolls over she is uncomfortable and can’t get back which is why she is waking so much. She is not good at taking solids and I am concerned that she is not taking enough but she never seems hungry!

At present my daughter takes 7ozs formula at 7.15am. She has breakfast at 7.30am. This is a few mouthfuls of porridge and fruit but she is not really that interested. At 11.30am she has her lunch. This is 4 cubes of chicken casserole or chicken and vegetable gratin. It is a big struggle to get her to take this. She has a few sips of water with her meal and then is offered a 3oz top up before her nap at 12.30pm. 2.35pm, 3.5ozs formula. 5pm 2 cubes of a vegetarian meal from the Weaning Book. She is never hungry for this and it is a real struggle. Water is offered with this meal. 6.40pm 7ozs of formula, also a struggle. 10pm, 2ozs of formula. I would really like to drop this feed but worried she is not having enough milk in the day. My daughter weighs 17lbs.

She naps at 9.15-9.35am and 12.30-2,30pm. She is settled by 7pm.
Team Response

My daughter of 7 months has been sleeping through the night from an early age, which has been great up until now. We went on a short holiday where her routine went a bit out of the window. Due to the fact we were out most of the day, her nap times were taken in a push chair and she tended to go to sleep later in the evenings.

Since our return she seemed to get back into her routine at first other than the fact she found it very difficult to go down to sleep during the day. Previous to our holiday she had had no trouble at all. Then the waking at night occurred. She usually falls asleep on her 6.30pm feed [without finishing it] and goes straight to bed. She will then wake at various times. It can be 2.30, 3.30 or 5.00am. My daughter finds it difficult to go back to sleep again. I sometimes take her into bed with me but this does not settle her.

Since she falls asleep on her 6.30pm feed I try giving her the rest at 10.30pm. She goes back to sleep after this but still wakes later in the night. I have thought I have not been giving her enough solids, but if I increase them she does not take all her milk. She has never been a good feeder and I always have trouble giving her the suggested amounts.

With her daytime naps I have now taken to going out in the car in the morning so she falls asleep for the first nap. She then goes the 2 hours at lunchtime. Sometimes she does not have a morning nap and struggles to keep awake for her lunch. But I can’t always do this and she is starting at nursery for 2 days a week soon. I am worried about how she is going to sleep then.

She already has two teeth and I have been giving her teething granules for this which seems to help. But could this be the cause of her restlessness at night? The sleeping times given are very approximate as her day and night time sleeping is very random.

My daughter feeds at 7.30am 100-180mls. She will refuse most of this feed and I try an hour later. She takes 2-3 tablespoons of cereal/pureed fruit or similar at breakfast. Lunch is at 11.45am and consists of 3 tablespoons of protein food, mixed with vegetables and fruit yoghurt. She takes 1-2ozs diluted juice with this meal. 3pm, 150-180mls milk. Tea at 5pm is a rice or pasta dish of 2-3table spoons and 2 baby rice cakes. She drinks diluted juice with this meal. 6.30pm 210mls of milk which she usually does not finished [see above].

She naps at 9.30-9.45am and 12.30-2pm. She settles at 6.45pm.
Team Response

My 7mth son suffers from reflux but I don’t think this has anything to do with this. He is up or is woken at 7.30am. He takes his reflux medication and then his feed and breakfast. He takes two naps a day. We dropped his afternoon catnap as this meant he was not ready to settle at 7.30pm.

My son has always had a problem sleeping through the night but has managed 11.30pm -7.30am a number of times. We were dream feeding at 11.30pm but he then began waking at this time and staying awake so we moved it to the earlier time of 11pm. When fed at this time he did not take the 5-6ozs he had been having at 11.30pm and he was much more wakeful. So we moved it to 10.45pm and he would take 4ozs, then stay awake for and hour or more after that. As well as this he was waking at anytime from 1-3am. He would lie awake for an hour or two before crying on and off and dropping back to sleep for another 4hours. We have stopped the dream feed but he continues to wake up in the middle of the night and stay awake for 1.5-2 hours before crying on and off and dropping back to sleep. We cannot figure out why he does this. He is very tired during the day from this but we limit his daytime sleep to no more than 2.5-3hrs. This is usually two naps of 1.5hrs each. What can we be doing wrong? We never go into his room at night so we are not reinforcing this waking. Is he eating enough during the day? How can we increase his food and not have him vomit if he does so? If he still needs dream feeding, how can we do it and not disturb his sleep so much? If he is hungry in the early hours why is he not screaming for food? It is disturbing to see him on our video monitor just lying awake when we know he needs his rest. Our daughter was so much better than our son and she didn’t really eat more in the day and gave up her dream feed at 7mths, sleeping through the night.

Our son feeds at:
7.30am 3ozs formula with a further 1oz mixed in 2 tablespoons oatmeal and a 2.5oz jar of fruit.
9.45am, 4-6ozs formula.
12.30pm lunch, 4ozs jar of rice/lentil dinner or some other protein containing meal.
1.15/1.30pm, 6ozs.
4.15pm, 5ozs
6.15/6.30pm dinner, 2.5tablespoons rice cereal mixed with 1.5ozs formula and 2.5ozs sweet potato or squash.
7.15pm, 5-6ozs. He may vomit this bottle if he has overfed at dinner. This is when he takes more than 3 tablespoons of rice cereal and 2.5ozs of vegetable.

My son naps at 10/10.15-11.30am and 2.15-3.45pm. He settles within 10 minutes of going down at 7.30pm.
Team Response

My daughter is 24 weeks and has never slept well at night, although she goes down awake, is well tucked in and all the things such as darkness have been looked at.

I think her wakings were due to hunger because after we started weaning, once she was taking a decent amount, she slept through the night 4 times. Then she got a really awful cough and cold, and now conjunctivitis as well. She has been unwell for a month now and has only gained 5 oz in the last 5 weeks. The doctor says it’s just a bad cold and we just have to ride it out. She has not really progressed on the weaning front the whole time she has been ill and has often refused to eat anything. I have not yet introduced protein. She eats a good selection of fruit and vegetables at 11am and then has rice and fruit in the evening but small amounts each time. The problem is that she has started to wake several times a night. She won't settle with water from a cup and won't take a bottle. I am guessing it is hunger but I am also worried it could be habit from being ill for so long. (Many nights I have had to sit up with her as she has been unable to sleep lying down even with the cot elevated, humidifier on etc) But one good thing has been that she now sleeps the full 2 or 21/2 hours at lunchtime whereas before she was ill she only ever slept 45 minutes at lunchtime, so maybe being held upright to sleep has reset her sleep cycle. She still stirs after 45 minutes and often cries out but will then go back to sleep. I am exhausted from all the broken nights and I have a 3 year old who has also been ill too. How should I proceed on the weaning front? Should I introduce breakfast (she is not very hungry in the morning having fed at least once in the night) and protein now? And is there a way to stop her getting into bad habits at night and minimize her night time wakings even when she is so poorly and its been going on so long? (The times below are based on the last month whilst she has been ill)

I feel so fed up as I have tried to do everything right and in the last month everything has been going wrong and my happy little girl is so grumpy all the time.

My daughter is totally breast fed. She takes 5 minutes at 7.30 and 8.30am, 10mins at 10.45am, 11am, 2-3cubes of sweet potato and carrot or other vegetables, 5mins at 11.15am, 10mins at 2.30, 5.45, 6.30 and 10.30pm. At 6pm she takes 2 cubes of pear puree mixed with 1/2oz breast milk and thickened with baby rice. When she wakes in the night, which can be up to three times between midnight and 6.30am she will take 5-10mins and either go straight back to sleep or cry for about 10mins and then settle. She weighs 14lbs 3ozs.

My daughter naps at 9.10-9.40am, 11.45-2pm and 4.30-5pm.
Team Response

My son, who is just 7 mths, has slept well through the night since eight weeks. But, for the past three weeks, he has been waking in the night. He does not wake every night- it has averaged out as one in every three nights. Although I have found similar questions on the website and have posted a question on the message boards, I feel I have tried every suggestion given and I am running out of ideas.
We originally thought it was teething as he did not seem that well in the day for the first week, but it is not every night and most of the time he seems quite happy once I go in and check on him. I give him a dose of Calpol if his cheeks seem a little red. Then, sometimes he settles straight away and other times he cries for ages.
From the suggestion of other Mums, I thought about temperature of the room, but it has stayed constant and doesn't seem to be a factor. And, I thought about a growth spurt and therefore increased his protein at lunch (as you can see he eats quite a lot). From what I have read, he is getting the right amount of protein.
The only other two things I can think of is just habit- but wouldn't he wake every night through habit? And, I have always been very strict when I go in- I check if he is alright, give a quick dose of medicine if I feel it is necessary and then put him back.

I still have to tuck him in because although he can roll from back to tummy really well, he usually gets stuck on his tummy and gets cross! He can get back, but not every time. He is an active baby and I wondered whether he gets frustrated that he can't move around? Should I experiment with this?
As you can see I am stumped and would appreciate some advice.

My son has 6ozs of formula at 7.30am and 6.30pm. He takes 6ozs at 2.45pm.
Breakfast at 8.10am: ½ to 1 weetabix mixed with formula and 2 cubes pureed pear or 5 tsps Ready brek with pear. Toast fingers offered.
Snack at 10.30am: water and Cow and Gate biscuit offered
Lunch at 11.45am: 8 cubes of protein recipe- lamb, chicken or fish, 2 cubes of vegetables added. Yoghurt for dessert, or grated cheese offered if still hungry.
Tea at 5pm: 8 cubes of a carbohydrate recipe such as mixed root medley or vegetable broth with mini sandwiches. 2 cubes of fruit puree or yoghurt for dessert.

He naps at 9-9.15am and 12.15-2.30pm. He settles at 7pm.
Team Response

I am trying to get my son to sleep through the night but he just won't. He'll sleep from 7.00pm - 10.00pm and I go to feed him but then a little while later he wakes up again and just won't settle back down. I end up going to bed then and taking him in with me.
He is fully breast fed, and was weaned at 6mths.
He takes one side at most feeds which takes him between 5-10mins. He takes these feeds at 7am, 9am, 12am, 3pm, 6.30pm and 10pm.
For breakfast he takes 1/2weetabix, at lunch 1/2 jar savoury puree and 1/2 yoghurt, at tea 1/2jar of savoury and some fruit puree.
He weighs 17lbs 11ozs.
He naps at 9-10am and from 1.30-3.30pm.
Team Response

My daughter has followed the routines since 1 month old. In the beginning she would cry every time she was put down, but I persevered and up until last month she was a contented baby. I am now having the problem of her waking every morning around 4am. She settles well at 6.45/7pm. I have tried leaving her to settle herself back to sleep but it is just not working. I put a music box in her room but that is not working either. Is there anything else I can do to sort the problem out?

She is fully weaned on three meals a day. Her milk intake is 22ozs; 7.30am 8ozs, 2.30pm 6ozs, 6.30pm 8ozs.

She takes 1/2 weetabix at breakfast, lunch varies between vegetable soup, chicken casserole or fish pie, followed by fresh fruit. Tea is a similar meal, followed by yoghurt. Her protein based meal can either be at lunch or teatime. My daughter also has a snack at 10am and 3.30pm.She usually eats a full baby bowl.

My daughter naps at 9-9.45am and her lunchtime nap varies between 12-3pm, it is normally 11/2 to 2 hours long.
Team Response

My son of 7 months has followed the routines since he was 9 weeks old. He is a very contented baby, but has started waking around 4.30am. This has been exaggerated by the recent clock change as he was waking at 5.30am. He is happy to stay in his cot talking away to himself and sucking his thumb. He sometimes goes back into a light sleep but more often her stays awake. But he never cries. He is not hungry as he is content to wait for us to get his breakfast with out making a fuss. He doesn’t have a dirty nappy in the morning either. He was sleeping through the night until 7.30am.
I returned to full time work at the end of August and he is cared for by my mother. He still naps for 1/2hr in the morning and my mother tries to keep to his 2hr lunchtime nap. This is not always possible with the commitments she has but when at home with her she does try to keep to the routine I had for my son before returning to work. When I pick him up in the late afternoon he has a 15 min nap but still settles to sleep at 7pm with out a fuss. Sometimes he will drop off with in 5 minutes of going down, at other times he will stay awake for 15-20 minutes before settling to sleep.
Now he is "finding his feet" and knows he can move around his cot, when he wakes he kicks the side of his cot. Knowing he is awake means I am awake too.
His bedroom is very dark, with black out blinds. The heating is not coming on at this time and disturbing him, he just has an inbuilt alarm clock that seems to wake him up.
He eats well in the day, always having home cooked food and seems to love all the recipes in Gina's book. I recently increased his milk at 6.30pm to 8ozs, but this had no effect on this night waking.
At present he takes 7ozs at 7am, 6ozs at 2.30pm and 7-8ozs at 6.30pm. He eats 5-6 teaspoons creamy porridge and a piece of fruit in the morning. A full protein meal at lunchtime followed by petit fillous and a vegetarian tea such as pasta and creamy vegetables followed by a piece of fruit.
My son naps at 9-9.30am and 12-1.30pm.
Team Response

A former problem of my son vomiting at bedtime and so waking hungry in the night has been solved. However the night time waking has continued and after 4 wks of very little sleep I am at desperation point as to where I am going wrong. I did think that the waking could be due to teething - over the past 3 wks he has been cutting his 3 top teeth which has caused runny nose and lots of hand chewing and I do remember that the bottom 2 at 16wks did cause some problems but nothing like this. I also recall from Ginas books that teething should not cause ongoing disruption - is this still the case if a baby is getting so many teeth at once? He is waking once or twice at night and will sometimes settle with medised and water but on a number of occasions I have had to feed him (120 - 150 mls) - he then settles till about 8.00am. I am now wondering if it is due to hunger but he does seem to eat well for his age and I don't think I could get him to take more although he obviously does not have any desert after tea ( I tried dried rice pudding mixed with water again last night and he was sick). He has had the odd day when he has gone off his food but I have put that down to teething - whether this is right I am not sure but he has continued to drink his milk and last night had 350mls but still woke up. We have tried controlled crying but after an hour of wimpering/crying he starts screaming and even if he does settle it is only for 10-15 mins and the screaming starts again - should I continue to leave him? Is is because he is getting too much sleep during the day - although he wakes at 8.00 I think its because he has missed an hour - hour and a half at night and by 10.00am is ready for a nap. I really dont know what to do and after 4 wks of broken sleep it is affecting bothe my husband and myself. I dont feel I am in the right frame of mind some days to have a full day ahead of me with my son with only 4 hrs sleep.

8am: 140mls, 3-4 dessertspoons porridge mixed with forula and fruit. Natural yoghurt given with apple or banana. Remaining formula offered at end.
11.45am: 3 cubes chicken/beef casserole, 4 cubes vegetables. Yoghurt with fruit.
2.30pm: 140 mls formula
4.14pm: 2oz water
5.00pm: 2-3 cubes chicken/ beef casserole, 3 cubes vegetables or baked potato and vegetables or pasta and cheesy pasta sauce. He weighs 20lbs.
He naps at 10-10.30am, 12.30-2.30pm and is settled at 7pm.
Team Response

He has been a really good sleeper - right through the night from 7 weeks old. He took to weaning well and is generally happy and very content. We had a few disturbed nights when the lower two teeth came through but were getting back on track when he started to show symptoms of a cold about two weeks ago. This then turned into vomiting and diarrhoea. It was not constant but after every feed he would vomit much of it back up, particularly the milk, and fill his nappy.
We were advised by the doctor to water down the formula as it is not well tolerated by an upset tummy which we did. The trouble was, my son went right off his solid food and with watered down formula (and only taking 4 oz of that each time) was hungry a lot during the daytime and started to wake at night. I presumed this also to be hunger and continued to give him the watered down formula during the night. After three or four days of doing this, the vomiting and the diarrhoea stopped and he got his appetite back. He has a bigger appetite than before he was ill, which is good as he dropped some weight during his illness. So I'm feeding him up in the daytime.
The trouble is despite being well and eating properly again, my son is still waking up at night and it seems to be getting worse. The last two nights I settled him at 7.00pm and he woke at 10.30pm, 11.40, 1.00, 2.40, 3.40, 4.15 when eventually having tried and failed to settle him with water, I gave him some formula. He took 4-5 oz and settled until 7.50am (I was too tired to set the alarm for 7.00am!).
He wakes up crying quite hard and if I leave him it gets louder. I try to settle him in the cot and resist picking him up but he just gets hysterical rocking backwards and forwards on his hands and knees, sobbing and grabbing at my arms. Often when I do pick him up he falls asleep almost instantly in my arms and I can put him back in his cot on his back and he shuffles, rolls onto his side and goes back to sleep.
I follow the weaning guide almost to the letter, making sure he has at least 3 portions of carbohydrate, a good 3.5-4.0oz of protein with vegetables. He eats well, but lets me know when he's full and I don't force it.
I'm getting to the end of my tether with him! Including the time he was poorly, this has been going on for over two weeks now. I'm exhausted as I keep him on track with the routine during the day - so he (and I!) only get 2 1/2 - 3 hours sleep during the daytime. It's like having a newborn again except he wasn't this challenging even as a newborn!!
I'm not sure whether it's separation anxiety. He has shown signs of this during the day and cries when I leave the room he's playing in. Could it be his upper teeth coming through? I've tried the gels and powders but they don't seem to settle him. Is it possible that he could be hungry? Should I start the 10.30pm feed again? The only other thing I can think of is that he took a tumble out of his buggy just before he got the cold (it was a new buggy, new straps… he does like to lean forwards). Fortunately he landed on sand rather than a hard surface as we were walking in the woods. Is it worth seeking out a cranial osteopath to check him over? The GP has seen him. He still sleeps well during the day though and doesn't show any signs of discomfort.
I just don't know what to do. My husband and I are both exhausted and really need some help.
His present feeding is; 7am 5ozs formula, 5-6 tsp oat porridge or baby muesli. Sometimes with added apple, banana or blueberries. 3ozs milk used to mix porridge. Offered the rest of formula at the end.
11.20am Protein and vegetables such as salmon/ chicken pie. Followed by yoghurt, sometimes a biscuit or rusk. 4-6ozs of water.
2.30pm 5ozs formula- varies as it depends how much he ate at lunchtime.
5pm savoury biscuits, toast fingers, vegetable pasta cheesy bake, another yoghurt if needed. 6.30pm 8ozs formula. 5-7 ozs formula given as a last resort in the night.
He naps at 8.50-9.30am and 12.15-2.15pm. He is settled at 7pm.
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My son is now 6-months-old and still does not sleep through the night. He is still having a 10.30pm bottle of 7oz. By day he takes breakfast at 6.30am of 6ozs with cereal and fruit. He naps 8am-9am, and then he has a 4oz bottle at 10.30am. He will play until 11.30am and then has a half-hour nap before lunch. Lunch is at 12 noon and he has 6-8 cubes of vegetables and some protein followed by fruit and juice. He will then nap from 1-3pm and have a 4oz bottle at 3pm. He will nap again at 4.30-5pm and then have his tea - usually fruit with baby rice and milk. I bath him at 6pm and then it is a struggle to get him to drink any milk but I can usually get him to take 4oz. He settles well at 6.45pm until 10.30pm (I keep him awake for 30 minutes). The problem is: he will wake at 3.30am, again at 4.30am and 5.30am and I have settled him back to sleep with a dummy. Lately, as well, (I am now desperate for sleep) in bed with us where he settles really well. He has been in his own room since 3-months-old and takes all his naps in there too. He can roll onto his tummy and gets stressed about it (I have tried tucking his grobag in the end but he gets really stressed with this). He will sleep soundly on his tummy when comfortable.

At present he weighs 22lbs and has about 24oz of formula through the day. At breakfast he has 1 weetabix with 2oz formula and a mashed banana. For lunch 6-8 tablespoons of vegetables and protein followed by 2-4 tablespoons fruit puree. At tea he takes 6-8 tablespoons of fruit puree and baby rice mixed with 1-2 oz formula.
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My daughter is suddenly waking up to 5 times each night. The last 3 nights she has stirred at 8.30pm, 10.30pm (very quick and asleep again within 5 minutes) 12.30pm (I fed her as per the suggestion on the FAQ's) then wakes again at 3am (leave her to cry and she settles within half an hour) then wakes at 6am to start her day.
She was born a month early and is still on the lower end of the weight scale. She has a small appetite and will not take any more solids than I have mentioned above. Due to diabetes and Coeliac disease in our family I am not giving her formula, gluten or dairy in her first year, which somewhat restricts her diet. All my daughter's food is home-made and organic.
I have not given her any water or diluted juice as I feel with her weight I should be filling her up with all the food and breast milk that I can.
Can you give me any ideas on how to get her to sleep longer in the night?
At present she weighs 14lbs and feeds at 6.30am both breasts, 8am 4 cubes apple/pear mixed with tbsp baby rice mixed with the 2ozs breast milk. 10.30am 1 breast, 12pm 4 cubes, 1 chicken, 1 sweet potato, 1 carrot, 1 squash. 2.30pm both breasts, 5.30pm 2 tbsp baby rice with 1 cube pear mixed with 2ozs breast milk. 6.30pm both breasts, 12.30am one breast when she wakes in the night.
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Carmen has always slept well at night, but during the past month she has started to wake at about 3am and then at 6am. She is never distressed; she contentedly makes little baby noises, so I wonder why she wakes when she never used to. At 3am, after 20mins I end up going into her, give her a cuddle and she quickly settles herself back to sleep. I know I shouldn’t complain as she doesn’t cry but she still keeps me awake. When she wakes at 6am she doesn’t go back to sleep. The result is, that she is really tired by 8.8-30am. She always falls into a deep sleep at this nap although I wake her after 45 minutes. She tends to sleep well at lunch time and only needs 10 minutes between 4-5pm, but not every day. I am not sure that she is getting enough sleep and concerned she may be awake for longer periods at night when I don’t hear her. Carmen is not crawling yet; is she simply not tired at night?
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In general, Ben has settled into the routines well and goes down happily at 7pm. Following several episodes of illness, however, he has become very unsettled at night, sleeping for no more than two hours at a stretch, before waking up crying. This can happen more than ten times a night, and sometimes he even cries in his sleep. I try to leave him for five minutes before going in, and he will settle again if his dummy is replaced or if he is turned on to his side. As Ben suffers from reflux (due to milk allergy) he has more than the recommended number of feeds during the day. Please help, as I have no idea how to solve the problem.
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My son is 6 and a half months, was 7lb at birth and now weighs 16lbs. He is breastfeeding from both breasts at 7am; 2.30pm; 6.20pm; 10.30pm; about 2.30am and 5am. He is having 4 tsp cereal with grated pear at breakfast. Lunch is 2 cubes of chicken casserole, 2 cubes broccoli or 2 cauliflower. Dinner is 6 tsp baby rice with grated apple. I have kept to your routine in the weaning book. I’m just about to start him on a carbohydrate in the evenings. His daytime naps are 0915 to 0955, 1300 to 1345 then 1915 to 2230. He settles on his own in the day but at night it is a complete different story.
After his baby rice and apple in the kitchen I then bath him. Then in his bedroom with the light on low I breastfeed him. For the 2nd breast I turn the light off and sit in darkness. He goes to sleep straight away at 19.00. He wakes up about 3 to 4 times. The first wake up is at about 10.30pm. I breastfeed him and he is happy to go back to sleep. Then he sometimes wakes up at 2.30am. I offer him a drink of filtered cool water but he drinks only about half an ounce and screams. I end up breastfeeding him. Even after breastfeeding him he cries and cries. It takes about 2 hours to settle him. Then he wakes up again at about 5am. I offer the water to him but he rejects that. Then I breastfeed him. Sometimes he manages to go back to sleep or I just pace around in his room desperately trying to settle him.
I appreciate that you are busy and cannot answer everyone's questions but I am simply exhausted and don't know where I am going wrong. I have tried to stick to your routine, except my son has never slept very long at lunch. I have left him crying and crying in the hope he will settle himself but it simply doesn't work. There are black-out curtains in his bedroom so daylight is not the problem.
Night time is a nightmare! I have approximately 4 hours sleep a night and am exhausted. Where am I going wrong? Does he need more food, or more milk? I really hope I have given you enough information.
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I have a seven-month-old son who has gone into his own room to sleep. It’s not going at all well…! Once an hour he starts crying, so I go in and give him a dummy. If that doesn’t work, I give him a bottle feed while he’s still in the cot. Then, if he still cries, I pick him up, comfort him and breastfeed him, which does the trick in the end. But he keeps waking, some times as soon as I’ve put him sound asleep from my arms into the cot. He has routine day sleeps although I use my night techniques to get him to settle in the afternoon, and he sleeps every day in the sling or pram when we go out. Is there something obvious I’m missing?
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My daughter of nearly seven months used to sleep 7pm-7am. But now she has begun to wake at 6am chatting loudly. I have followed the CLB routines and read advice on the site about pushing on daytime naps. She settles within five minutes of going down at 7pm.

If I cut the morning nap to less than 40 minutes, my daughter becomes very grumpy until her lunchtime nap, which can then be disturbed. She no longer takes an afternoon nap.
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My 7month old son has recently started to wake between 4am and 6.15am. Having read all the advice I understand I need to offer him a feed and get him back to sleep. This I do but if he wakes after 5.30am he will not go back to sleep after having a feed. Should I wait for 15 minutes to see if he will settle himself before I offer him a feed at this time in the morning or go straight in and feed him?

I have moved his daytime naps forward and try to give him a small breastfeed at 2.30pm so he will eat a good tea.

Feeding details

4.00am: 20 minute breast feed from one side
7.00am: 20 minutes on second breast
8.00am: 6 teaspoons baby muesli mixed with milk
10.00am: few sips of water, 6 teaspoons apple puree
12.10pm: 6 tablespoons Tuna pasta/ Lamb casserole/mince and lentils, 150mls water
2.45pm: 15 minute breast feed from one side
4.00pm: few sips of water
4.45pm: 6 tablespoons potato and leek soup, toast fingers/ pasta with cheese sauce and selection of vegetables, small drink of water
6.10pm: Breast feed from both breasts for 15 minutes

Daily milk total: 2 and half breast feeds

Weight: 18lbs 7ozs

My son naps at 9.40-10am and12.45-2.45pm. He settles at 6.45pm.
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My baby aged nearly seven months has been happily following your routine, since Christmas. Since starting nursery 5 weeks ago his daytime sleep has become very erratic. Some days he sleeps for a total of 2.5 hours, others for only 1 hour. On non-nursery days, his daytime sleep is fine, but he always naps in the late afternoon. He used to wake at 5.30 - 6.00am, chatter for 20 minutes and then go back to sleep, but now he cannot do this. He invariably has a dirty nappy, and if I go in and change him he is full of smiles ready to start the day. I also have a 4 year old, and a 5am wake is too early! My baby’s room is fully blacked out.

Feeding details

7.30am: 8ozs formula, 2 dessertspoons Ready Brek.
11.30am: 6 cubes chicken casserole/ fish based recipe, 3 cubes fruit puree mixed with rice, water.
2.30pm: 5ozs formula
4.30pm: 6 cubes vegetables such as potato, leek and pea, 3 cubes of fruit mixed with rice, water.
6.15pm: 8ozs formula

My son naps at 8.50-10am, 12-2.00pm and 5- 5.20pm. He settles at 6.50pm.
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My 7-month son, who weighs 8.5kgs, sleeps in his cot for all his naps. But sometimes he refuses to settle for his lunchtime nap unless given a dummy, and I always have to give him a dummy for the late afternoon nap.   I am unable to drop, as he gets very tired by then, due to him still waking at 5am for a feed.  How long can I expect to him to go on waking for a feed at 5am, and how do I get him to settle for naps without the dummy?

He sometimes fights going down at lunchtime and is only given a dummy if he has not settled after 30 minutes.

He settles at 9am for a nap of 45minutes, but how do I get him to stay awake past 9am?

Feeding details

5.00am: 7ozs formula
7.00am: 8ozs formula, followed by 3 tbsp porridge and pear
10.30am: 5ozs formula, followed by 3 tablespoons chicken/salmon/lamb with vegetables, 1tbsp natural yoghurt, few sips of water
2.30pm: 8ozs formula
5.00pm: 2ozs formula followed by 3 tablespoons baby rice mixed with vegetables
6.30pm: 6ozs formula

Total daily intake: 36ozs formula

My son naps at 9-9.45am, 12-2.00pm and 4.15-5.pm. He settles at 7pm.
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My son of 6.5mths has always struggled with 45 minute naps. He used to take four 45 minute naps at three months old. At four months old he learned to settle himself back to sleep and would do two 45 minute naps and one nap of 90 minutes. As he got to six months he started being able to stay awake for longer without becoming overtired but, rather than dropping the third nap, he reverted to three 45 minute naps. He seems very grumpy and overtired on this and is quite restless in the first part of the evening, often waking anything between 45 minutes to 2 hours after he has gone to sleep, though he does usually settle himself back to sleep. I don't believe that the answer is to shorten his morning nap as he can be quite grumpy after that nap and sometimes falls asleep on the breast at the 11 am feed. My son was going 12 hours in the night without a feed from four months old but in the last couple of weeks has started waking anything between 4am and 6am for a feed. He takes a good feed and then takes ten or twenty minutes to go back to sleep.

My son is totally breast fed. He feeds well at 4.30am, 7.30am, short top up feed. 8am 2tsp oatmeal mixed with expressed mil and 2 cubes of fruit puree. 11am one side, 11.15am 2 cubes of vegetables, one cube of sweet potato and one cube of courgette. My son struggles with solids, particularly vegetables; he will then lose patience when he has had this amount. 11.30am second breast offered. 2.30pm breast feed, 5.30pm one breast, 5.45pm 4tsp baby rice mixed with expressed milk and 2 cubes of apple puree. 6.30pm second breast.

My son naps at 9-9.45am, 12-12.45pm, 3.30-4.15pm
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My son is nearly 7 months and is a very CLB except for a recent problem with early morning waking. He was sleeping 7-7 (when I would have to wake him) from 5 months old.
He then developed a nasty tummy bug at 6 months with vomiting and diarrhea and lost 800gr in one week due to only taking water for 3 days (no milk or solids on advice from GP). He is now back to his pre-sickness weight.
During his sickness he was waking during the night and early in the morning due to him being hungry and once he started taking milk and solids again he had a large appetite and I went back to feeding at 10pm to see him through the night.
My plan was to drop the 10pm feed once he was consistently sleeping through until 7 however this has not happened at all since he was sick. He has been waking at 6am for the past week although is usually not crying, just chatting and playing but starts to whinge around 6.45am when I open his door and he then plays until I go to him at 7am.
He does not seem hungry and the room is completely blacked out. The room is around 23 degrees (very high humidity though so it feels warmer) and he wears a short-sleeved jumpsuit (no legs) to bed with a 0.5 tog grobag and a single cotton sheet tucking him in (although he kicks this off in the early morning). He isn't rolling over onto his tummy in the cot yet so I am persisting with tucking the sheet in. He doesn't seem cold when I go to him in the morning either.
I am not sure what I am missing - I have searched all your FAQs but can't seem to pinpoint the problem. I have been wondering whether he needs to drop his pm nap but the few days I have tried this he has been too exhausted to eat his tea and can't drink his bottle at 6.30pm and is completely exhausted by 6.15pm.
He sleeps well during his morning nap and 6/7 days his lunchtime nap is a success - I usually have to wake him from all naps.
My son feeds at 7am 180mls

11.30am, 1-2cubes of protein, 4-5cubes vegetables, 2 cubes of fruit and 2/3tbsp organic yoghurt.

2.30pm 110mls

5.00pm, 2 cubes of carbohydrate and vegetables using Gina’s recipes, 2 tbsp organic yoghurt

6.30pm 200mls

10pm 110mls

My son naps at 9-9.45am, 12.15-2.15pm and 4.30-4.45pm He settles at 7pm.
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Following a cold my daughter is now waking during the night and sobbing for a few minutes before returning to sleep - but she then wakes between 4am and 6am and cries for a period of between 20 - 40 minutes before returning to a fitful sleep. We have recently bought her a larger cot as she was rolling over and hitting herself on the bars and getting very upset during the night. My main concern is the early waking, which is now around 5am - she also wakes with a dirty nappy 90% of the time. Up until the cold she would sleep until 6.45 - 7am every morning, later at weekends if we let her!

She has become very active recently as she can now crawl very well and is pulling herself up on everything. Her daytime naps have changed recently as well. She cut out her afternoon nap about two months ago herself and now has 30 minutes between 9 -10am and another 1 1/2 hours between 12.30pm and 2pm. She sometimes has a short catnap in the afternoon about 4.30 - 5pm if we are in the car or buggy but she is now so tired when it comes to tea and is only having a few spoonfuls of food and some bread followed by a yoghurt. She gets through bathtime happily but gets very irritable when being dressed for bed and fed her last bottle - recently she has only been taking 2oz before she gets so tired and has to be put down at 7pm if not earlier. I have listed below her daily intake and hope you can help me as she has been such a good Gina baby up until now and with me now back at work I can’t deal with 5am starts which then throw out her day!

My daughter feeds at 7am 5/6ozs formula, followed by breakfast; 6 spoonfuls cereal/ muesli with full fat milk and 2 cubes of fruit. Lunch is 6/7 cubes protein recipe from the Weaning book, and 2-3ozs water. 2.30pm 4/5ozs formula, 3pm 2ozs water and 2 small rice cakes or banana slices, 5pm 6 cubes pasta and vegetable or potato and vegetable or vegetable soup recipe. 1 slice of whole meal bread and small yoghurt.
6.30pm 2/3ozs formula. She weighs 19lbs 6ozs.
My daughter sleeps at 9.15-9.45am, 12.30-2pm and 4.30-4.45pm.
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On a good night my 7-month-old son wakes between 6am and 6.15am. Consequently there is no way I can keep him up till 9am. I can usually drag it out till 8.45 but then he passes out and sleeps for usually 20-30mins. So he is up by 9.10-9.20am. I have adjusted his lunch to 11.30 to get him into bed by 12 noon as he is exhausted; sometimes he even struggles to eat a good lunch. He is then up at 12:45. I have done everything from controlled crying, going in every 5mins quietly, to the Ferber method plus a lot of the advice on your web site but if he goes back to sleep it is usually after an hour of screaming for maybe 10mins of sleep. This, I might add, distresses my two-year-old daughter who returns from pre-school so our house is miserable. I do give him 30mins at 4pm to keep on track and he is asleep by 6.45pm.
How can I adjust the times so that if he is up so early, which I have never managed to conquer, that he may not be so tired and therefore sleep better at lunch time. He cries so much in his cot he hates it now so there is no chance he would gurgle to himself and go back to sleep.
He has 3 full breast feeds a day at 6am, 2.30pm and 6.30pm. He has three main meals a day and 2 snacks in between to keep him going. As we live in the Middle East and it is very hot in the height of the summer he takes 40-50mls of water at 7am, 10am and 5pm and 40mls diluted juice at lunchtime.
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I used the CLB book for my daughter from 3mths. She followed the routines after a week and is now a contented 2 year old. My son however is not adapting at all as well. He goes down exhausted at 7pm and falls asleep after about 1 minute of grizzling. He sleeps solidly through till 5:30am. He is then up and awake for the day - although not particularly hungry. I have been delaying his morning feed by ten mins each day until I am not feeding him milk until at least 6:30am. His room is in pitch darkness so much so he would not even be able to find toys to amuse himself with - should he want to! I have tried resettling him, controlled crying, cold turkey you name it. I tried each option for at least 2 weeks at a time and to no avail. Consequently it is a struggle to keep him up till 9am. When he goes down he falls into a deep sleep for 20-30mins and then he is up and screaming. He has a great breakfast and lunch with which I give him water so he is well fed and exhausted by 12:30 when he goes in his cot. But by 1:10pm he is up again and screaming. Again I have tried all the approaches and occasionally after an hours screaming he will sleep for another 15-20mins. I do give him a catnap of 20-30mins in the afternoon to catch up but he is still so tired and cranky. I know to get the day right the night would work better or vice versa. The problem is I can’t get either right. I can’t tuck him in because he automatically rolls on to his tummy to sleep - although he is in a sleeping bag. I tried to reinstate the 10pm feed but he was not having any of it - because he is just not at all hungry. Help, I am so tired from all the fighting that he now hates his bed and would never lie there and chat as he sees it as a horrible place to be. It is not the association I want for him.
He feeds at 6.30am: 20 min full breast feed, breakfast: 1 weetabix, with fruit puree, toast. 10am: Snack mashed banana or cracker or stick of cheese with 30mls of water from cup. 11.45pm - Lunch: spaghetti bolognaise, eats quite a large bowl and pureed fruit, 20-30mls diluted juice. 2.30pm: full breast feed of 15mins followed by biscuit or rusk. 3.30: water offered. 5.30pm Tea: mashed vegetable or tomato pasta, fingers of fruit, water offered. 7pm: full breast feed of 20 mins. He weighs 8.1kgs.
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Since about 6-6 1/2 months my 7 month has been waking early (6am on the dot) due to dirty nappy. I have got into a pattern now of going in, changing his nappy, giving him milk (I tried just water but he wouldn't go back to sleep) and putting him back to sleep and he goes back down until 7- 7.10 when he wakes by himself, but this is really getting me down.
His diet is varied homemade food and his naps are fine as well. I have tried all the suggestions of cutting out fruit in the day, adding prunes to breakfast to encourage regular poo, adding more carbohydrates to meals, trying to get him to do a poo before bed. I’ve tried everything but, apart from a few days progress a while ago where I could get him to do a poo before bed, we have had no success. Yesterday I even tried swapping protein round to tea time just to see if that helps and will do so again today but still we had a 6am waking! His room is completely dark. I know there have been suggestions on this site and in the sleep book but nothing seems to be helping, so any ideas are extremely welcome as with a 3 1/2 year old to look after as well, these 6am wakings are affecting the whole house.
He feeds at 6am: 7oz, 8am breakfast: one weetabix with teaspoon of prunes, grated apple, slice of toast, water, 12pm lunch: 7mth jar size homemade vegetable medley, banana, water, 2.30pm: 7oz, 5pm tea: 7 month jar size of homemade nursery kedgeree, rice cake, 6.30pm: 7oz. He takes a variety of protein meals such as: chicken, lasagne, spaghetti bolognaise, lentils etc which are all homemade. He weighs 21lbs.
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My daughter has started waking up at 6am every morning, chatting in her cot until 6.30 and then wanting to get up and start her day. The big problem is that she can only stay awake in the morning a maximum of two hours before needing a sleep. By 8.30 at the latest she is asleep again. I don't know how long to leave her to sleep so that it doesn't interfere with her lunchtime nap. Yesterday she woke up at 9.30 and so by 11.30 she wanted to sleep and didn't want to eat her lunch. I put her to bed at 11.30 and she woke again at 13.30. I tried to get her to have a short nap at about 4pm but she didn't want to sleep and was rather bad tempered and tetchy all afternoon. She went to bed at 6.45 and cried until 7.00pm, then woke again at 6.00 this morning. I have black-out blinds in her room and have not done anything different to her routine.
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My son, Luke, is 6 months old and is my first baby. He weighed 7lbs 4oz at birth and now weighs 17lbs. At present, he gains approx 4/5 ozs per week.
I have been following your CLB routines from birth with varying success. My problem is that although Luke settles very well at 7/7.30pm, he wakes at between 6/6.30 every morning, which is too early!! I weaned him at 5 and a half months and so far he's followed your weaning routines although I started him on the 4 month weaning programme rather than straight in at 5 and a half months, so we're still yet to introduce protein. Consequently, he's still having a milk feed of 3/4 ounces at 1130, then lunch at approx 1200. He's had a bottle of SMA Gold formula at his 10pm feed since he was 3 months and now has a breast feed at 7am, and one at 6.30pm, formula at 1130, 6oz formula at 2.30pm and approx 3oz formula at 10pm.
He sleeps for 45 mins at approx 9am, then between 90 mins and, rarely, 120 mins at lunchtime, then, depending on the lunchtime nap sleeps for about 30 mins between 4 and 5pm. I always put him down for his sleeps while he is still awake and he settles himself down. Unless he is ill, he doesn't usually wake in the night after 10pm. If he does wake, I (or my husband) go in, check he's not in a tangle, wet/dirty, then if he's fine, just leave the room.
I am still feeding him 3ozs of SMA Gold at 10pm because I am too scared that if I drop this feed, he'll wake even earlier in the morning. However, sometimes it takes almost 10 mins to wake him for this 10pm feed.
In order to get him to sleep until 7/7.30am, I've tried putting him to bed later, not feeding him until 7am in the hope that he just "gives up" waking so early, keeping him up until 9am even if he's woken at 6am, letting him cry and then going in at 7, letting him cry himself back to sleep even if that means him going back to sleep at 7.20am, going in every 10 mins to check him, but none of these things seem to work. He wakes like clockwork at about 6.15 every morning! I seem to be surrounded by people whose babies sleep until 7.30/8.00. I only want him to sleep until 7 - doesn't seem like too much to ask! What else can I do, or do I just have to accept that he's one of life's early risers and adapt my own routine accordingly? Please advise!!
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My problem is that Lila is 7 months and waking every morning around 5-6.30am. I have tried various methods, suggested in your book, to try and correct this. I have blackout curtains and have made sure it is completely dark in her room. The early morning waking started around 6 months when I introduced protein (vegetarian). I have been following the CLB routine since she was 2 weeks old.
Lila wakes 5-6.30am and I leave her until 7am when she drinks 6oz formula, then has breakfast. If awake early she naps around 9-9.15am until 10am. Around 11.30am she has a vegetarian lunch with some water then naps at 12.30pm until 2.30-2.45pm. At 3pm she has 4oz formula. At 5pm she has vegetarian tea and some water, then at 6.30pm she drinks 6-7½ oz of formula and goes down at 7pm to bed.
Can you help please as I have a 3½-year-old who is waking early because her sister disturbs her.
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My baby has been following the routines since five weeks old. He has been happy and sleeping until 7-7.30am. At five months I pushed the routine back by 30 minutes to fit in with playgroup pick-up at 12noon, which worked well. Over the past few weeks, however, my son has woken up around 6.15am. Ideally I would like him to sleep until 7.30am. Over the last few days, I have tried to drop the afternoon nap and let him sleep later at lunchtime. He has managed to keep going in the afternoon, but has fallen asleep immediately when put down at 7.30pm. The first morning he woke at 7.30am, but the last two mornings he has woken at 6.30am quite unhappy. I heard him cry for a moment at 6am and then resettle. After leaving him for 15 minutes at 6.30am, I rocked him back to sleep until 7.30am, but I am concerned about creating a problem by doing this.
Can you please suggest a way of getting him to sleep longer in the mornings? At present he sleeps from 9.30-10.10am and 1-3pm. He is settled at 7.30pm. He eats three meals a day and drinks 4oz formula at breakfast, 4oz at 3pm and 6-7oz at 7pm.
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My baby son, aged 7 months, is following the CLB routines really well and is sleeping and feeding at the recommended times, but he is still crying down for 5-10 minutes before each sleep. We have tried introducing some books at bedtime and a lullaby light, but these just seemed to make him more excitable. As yet, my husband and I have not had a night out together, as we are reluctant to leave him with a babysitter. My mother has offered to babysit but has made it clear that she will not leave him to cry for more than a few minutes. Do you think that the crying down will start to reduce in the near future or is this something that could go on for months, and are there any other rituals that I could introduce to help reduce the crying down ?

Although it can be very stressful to hear your baby cry when he is ready to sleep, please try and take some comfort from the fact that once asleep he sleeps so well. Some babies continue to cry down for five to ten minutes during the first year, and we are sure that you will find that the crying down will decrease over the next few months and will eventually stop altogether. Over-stimulation and over-tiredness can cause some babies to fight sleep when put in the cot, so we would recommend that you try bringing your baby's bedtime forward by ten minutes in the evening.

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How do I get my six-month old son used to sleeping in a cot in his own room?  He cries the minute that I put him in his cot, and it can take up to an hour to settle him to sleep.  He then wakes up crying within 45 minutes to an hour.  I go to him, almost immediately, and start first of all by putting his dummy in. If this doesn't work I then offer him a bottle of milk.  If this doesn't work I usually resort to picking him up and rocking him to sleep. However, he will wake up again quite soon and sometimes as soon as I put him back in his cot despite him seeming deep asleep in my arms!!   Where am I going wrong?
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Until about a week ago my 6.5month daughter slept through the night from about 6:45pm through to 6:30am. She has always needed to be put to sleep and finds it very difficult to resettle herself. This is not through the want of trying. Now she goes down at about 7pm and then wakes up 2-3 hours later screaming, we go in to check on her, reassure her and she goes to sleep again, this then repeats every two hours all night until about 6:30am when she wakes to start the day, she is bright eyed and all ready to go, you wouldn't think that she has been awake half the night. I have tried milk feeds, cooled water, adjusting sleeping positions etc. But now am finding it very difficult to cope with doing day to day activities due to my lack of sleep. Is there any reason why she might be waking so frequently? What can we do?

My daughter feeds at 6.30am 8ozs formula, 7am 2tbsp porridge with fruit puree, fingers of toast.

11.30am, 2-3tbsp protein savoury, petit filous or fruit. 3ozs water from beaker

2.30pm, 3-4ozs formula.

5pm, 2tbsp carbohydrate such as couscous, rice, pasta or potatoes, rice cakes/fruit chunks depending on hunger.

6.30pm 7-8ozs formula

She naps at 9.15-9.45am, 12/30-1pm, 2-2.30pm and 4.30-4.45pm. She settles at 6.45pm.
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My baby who is almost 7 months has been following the routines for 3 weeks. I have almost got him doing the day time routines, but have tried bathing him at 5 30 pm and bottle at 6pm but he still falls asleep before he has taken half of his feed. I therefore have to wake him to finish his bottle. Then he is awake so when I try to put him down in his cot and he then screams until 9pm. Occasionally I have given in and rocked him to sleep. Sometimes he has fallen asleep crying. I have tried controlled crying but he gets worse if I walk out the room. I have also tried bathing him later at about 6 30pm but he still falls asleep and I have to wake him. As a baby he would always go to sleep on his bottle and I would put him down with no problems. I recently had him diagnosed with silent reflux and during that time I had him in bed with me as he was not drinking enough so would wake him at 10pm to feed him. Now he wants me all the time.

My son feeds at 7am 4ozs, he sometimes only takes fruit at breakfast as he does not like cereal. 8am 20z or the rest of his bottle. 11am 4-5ozs milk, followed by chicken casserole, two small yoghurts. 3pm 4-5ozs, sometimes 6-7ozs. 5pm vegetable variations followed by yoghurt and fruit. 6pm 7ozs.

My son naps at 9-9.45am and 1-3pm.
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Since staring nursery in the last couple of weeks, my 8.5mth son has become very clingy and has dreadful separation anxiety. He is unable to sleep at his naps now having previously been a great sleeper. Initially his lunchtime nap got shorter and shorter and he seemed unable to settle himself back. Now his morning and lunchtimes nap are just crying sessions. Today I read to him until he fell asleep then he woke 40 minutes later and has cried for the last hour. I don't know if I am right or wrong in letting him cry it out at the moment until he realizes that a) I will be back and also that b) he relearns how to settle.

He still sleeps from 7pm until 7 am no bother. He has breakfast at 7.30 am, a snack about 10.30 am, lunch at midday, snack about 3.30 and meal at 5 pm.
I'm pretty confident this is mixture of separation anxiety, teething . Please help me with advice on how to get back on track!

My son is still breast fed at 7.30am, 2.30pm and 6.30pm. He is offered water through the day and eats his main protein meal at lunchtime.

His nap times are 9.15-9.35 and 12.15-2.15pm.
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My son is now 8.5 months old and despite following the routines as strictly as possible, he has never quite settled into the proper routine. I can almost get him there, but for instance he has never slept longer than 1.5 hours at lunchtime, and still wakes several times in the night. He is always up by 7am, follows the feeding guide exactly - and eats well - and settles well at 6.45pm, but I think this is because he is very tired by then. My daughter, who is now 4, was a very contented baby and followed the routines perfectly, slept through from about 11 weeks.
In order to try to keep to the sleep and nap times, I have ended up giving my son a dummy and I think he is now reliant on it to get to sleep. He will go back to sleep in the night with it, without feeding. I haven't fed him milk in the night since before Christmas and am convinced it's not hunger that's the problem.

My question really is this: I want to get rid of the dummy but I know it's going to be very difficult, I'm prepared for the controlled crying and persevering, but how much do I sacrifice the nap times, especially during the day, as I think everything will slip as he is a very determined baby and can cry for a long time in his cot - hence the gradual increased use of the dummy in the first place!

He feeds at 7am. 2oz formula mixed with baby muesli/ Ready Brek/ Weetabix and fruit puree. 4ozs formula after solids.
10am 1oz water
11.45am chicken casserole/lamb hotpot/fish pie all served with finger vegetables, well diluted juice form beaker.
2.45pm 4ozs formula
5.00pm pasta and sauce, corn chowder or mixed root medley form the Weaning book. Rice cake or toast as finger food. Small drink of water.
6.30pm 6ozs formula

My son naps at 9.15-10am, 12.45-2.00pm and settles at 6.45pm.
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My 7 month old daughter has been going down in her cot very well since birth at 7pm but for the past few nights, she screams when put down into her cot. She will scream and scream until she vomits up all her tea. I then have to clean her up and rock her to sleep fearing that she might be sick again when put down in the cot. She now sleeps at 9:30-10 and 12:30-2:30. She refuses to have any afternoon naps. She's fed 6oz at 7am, solids at 11am, 6oz at 2:30, solids at 5pm and then 4oz at 10:30pm. My reason for not feeding her milk at 6:30pm is she usually vomits that up too therefore I give the dream feed. I don't want to use the controlled crying method because I know my daughter will vomit after crying so hard. What else can I do?

My daughter takes 6ozs at 7am,
11am, 5 tsp rice mixed with 2ozs formula, 2 cubes of vegetable 2 cubes of chicken or cod and 2-3 cubes of fruit. 1oz juice with this meal.
2.30pm, 6ozs,
5.00pm 4-5 cubes of thick soups using Gina’s recipes, 1.5cubes of fruit and ½ -1 tub of yoghurt depending if she is hungry or not, 2ozs water with this meal. 10. pm 4ozs formula.
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For a week my 8.5mth daughter was very sick with urine track infection. Loss of appetite, fever for five days, vomiting though nose and mouth, convulsing when temperature spiked. At her worst, she spent almost three solid days in my arms. After 10 days her appetite returned, she no longer had a fever and her urine sample was all clear. Since then she wakes 1 to 3 times during the time slot 8.30pm-10.30pm, cries, is not hungry, doesn’t need a nappy change but I have to resettle her back to sleep. Sometimes this can take up to 30minutes in which she cries almost the whole time. After the 10.30pm wake up she will then sleep until we wake her at 7am in the morning. Her room temperature is constant, there is no light coming into her room and no strange noises.

What is causing her wake up? How can we stop it? Up until she got sick she was like clock work, going to sleep at 7pm and would not wake up unless it was like 4am, never before has she woken before 10.30pm.

My daughter takes 6ozs formula at 7.30am followed by ½ weetabix, 1oz formula, 2 tablespoons of fruit.
10.30am ½ oz water, 11.45am 8-10 tablespoons of protein meal, 2 tablespoons yoghurt and 1 tablespoon banana.
3.00pm, 2-4ozs formula.
5.00pm, 8-10 tablespoons of a carbohydrate meal, 3 tablespoons yoghurt, ¼ piece of bread and butter with spread
6.30pm, 6ozs formula. She weighs 10kilos [22lbs]

My daughter naps at 9-9.45am and 12.30-2.00pm.
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I don’t really know where to start! I am that confused about what the potential problem could be. I thought I had resolved it one night but I haven’t.
My son has always had a dummy - but not for sleeping. However whenever he awoke during his lunchtime nap he wouldn’t settle unless given it so he has always had it for then and also he was given it for his early morning waking. He has never really slept until 7 am since I dropped the 10 pm feed about 8 weeks ago. It has been more like 6 - 6.30. If he woke in the night he would be able to settle himself back to sleep himself and if he cried for more than 10 minutes I knew something was wrong. However we went to see my MIL in October in Spain and my son shared a room with us. He was quite unsettled whilst there (probably all the people that were there) and so we used the dummy so as not to wake the household up. Then when we got home I had just got him used to not having the dummy at night again when he got a cold. So he was given the dummy during sleep time as it seemed to sooth him. He only got better for a couple of days and then caught another cold and so was given back the dummy. By last week I was tearing my hair out as he was waking up a lot in the night looking for it and so I did a day of controlled crying and no dummy and then he slept from 6.45 pm to 6.30 am. However the next night (last Saturday) my Mum looked after him. When he cried out at 5.00 am she went straight in got him up and put him in bed with her. She did say he was full of mucus and the next night he awoke again at 5.00 am. I left him for 10 minutes but when I did go in he was coughing and spluttering and I got him up for 30 minutes to clear him. When I put him down he started crying so after 10 minutes I gave him his dummy and he slept until 7.15 am.
Since then he has woken up at around 5.00 am and will not go back to sleep - even if he is given the dummy. He also wakes around 11 pm and won’t settle back well - last night my husband gave him his dummy after about 20 minutes of crying. He does not have it at all any other time day or night except sometimes I use it to entice him to feed. He seems to have got used to not having it during the day and when being put down at 7pm. During the lunchtime nap if he wakes up after 10 minutes I get him up rather than giving him the dummy. He does still have a cough and runny nose and the only time he is really coughing badly is early morning. I got a vaporizer which I used last night but it didn’t seem to make much difference.
I have also noticed he screams when I leave the room - he is ok during the day if I leave him playing so I am not sure if it is a separation thing. He never used to cry when I left the room before.
I have given him my tops/cuddly toys etc but he doesn’t seem to be attaching himself to anything.
Also - he does about 4 poos a day - always there is one in his nappy in the morning. You can see below how much he eats - he is a big baby but I am wondering if I am not feeding him the right food or the right amount which is causing him to poo and wake up? For example this morning I heard him stirring for ages before he started crying. At 5.45am I went in after 10 minutes of hard crying and he had done a poo. I changed him with the dimmer light on and then put him back - for him to scream blue murder so I gave him his dummy but every time I left the room it made him worse. He never went back to sleep.
Also - I caught him last night trying to roll onto his tummy. He is tucked in using a 0.5 tog sleeping bag and a blanket as when he wasn’t tucked in he ended up being upside down etc. He wears a baby gro and his room is normally around 23 degrees. Should I try a bigger tog and leave him un tucked - maybe he wants to be on his tummy?
He normally sleeps 2 hours at lunchtime but his waking’s in the night have gone on whether he has slept 45 minutes at lunch or the full two hours so I don’t think it is his day time naps. He never normally sleeps more than 2 .5 hours in the day. He can still go to at least 9.00 am even if he has woken early so I can keep him in the routine.
In terms of food he has been through a couple of fussy eating phases - this week he went off food after my Mum had him for a day - will eat now as long as it is totally pureed smooth.
I just don’t know what to do to resolve the problem - there seems to be that much stuff that could be causing it. My husband thinks we should give him the dummy until he is totally recovered from the cold and then do controlled crying but its not him that has to deal with it all plus another child in the house that now keeps waking up due to the crying!!
I would say in the last 8 weeks he has slept through the night twice.
My son feeds takes 8ozs formula at 7am and 6.30pm. He has 2-5ozs at 3pm. Breakfast: Baby cereal or Ready Brek mixed with 3ozs formula.
Lunch, 12midday: 8 tablespoons of one of the protein recipes from Gina’s book and an adult sized organic yoghurt.
Tea, 5.30pm: 8 tablespoons of a vegetarian meal from Gina’s book with rice cakes, bread sticks or rusk’s and a jar of organic rice pudding. He weighs 24lbs.
He naps at 9.30-10am and 12.30-2.30pm.
Team Response

My son was never a really good sleeper; I went to him 3/4 times a night from early on. The problem now is that he very active and before I could always put him down and leave the room. Now though, because he can turn over, sit up and get up, he does just that. So I lie him down and he just turns over and cries as he can't get comfy, then just stands at the end of the bed. This can go on for ages; up to 1/2 hour. I have even started to offer him a dummy which settles him quicker but not immediately.Then he may turn himself over 3/4 times in the night and need to be turned back.
He is also waking so much earlier: 5/5.30am every morning. The worst thing is that at the moment I don’t have the energy to sort it out. Having had a five year old who slept very well this is all news to me!
He naps at 9-9.30am and 12-2pm. He is put to bed at 7pm, waking at 10-10.30pm,1-1.30am, 4.30-4.45am then at 5.10am.
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My son has been a good sleeper (with exception to common problems in the lunchtime nap). He has a skin problem which we are seeing a specialist for very soon, but although it is not gone I don't think it is the cause of the problem. He has just dropped his late afternoon nap (except days like today when he only slept 1 hour at lunch), as sleeping generally seems to have gone out of the window. He feeds at the times stated in book and is not on meat protein yet as I want to keep his diet very basic until I see the dermatologist about his skin. I think that he is teething slightly, but don't think this is also the cause, as on the days he is ok and not seemingly ill, he is still unsettled at night. He does suffer from heavy mucus in his throat and a cough which can sometimes stop him settling down. Tonight he cried for a while when put to bed at 6.50, he then started to go off and coughed so much he woke himself up but the doctor says nothing is wrong. Tonight I went in every 15 minutes, but he was so hysterical that even when I picked him up he would not calm down. Eventually, I gave him a small amount of Calpol and his dummy to calm him; my previous methods have avoided this, as I don't want him to get used to me coming in or using something to get him back to sleep in case he gets used to it and starts to look for it at other sleeps. Last night he took 3 oz water at 11pm after crying on and off for 3 hrs but I am sure it is not hunger; he eats well.
I just don't want to miss something obvious, he sleeps in a 0.5 grobag and on nights like tonight (it is 18 degrees in his room) he is in a short-sleeved vest and long-sleeved body suit as well as his sleeping bag.
At present he feeds at 7am 7-8ozs milk, 11/2 tablespoons of cereal with 2 cubes of apple, 11.30am 4 ozs milk, 3 cubes carrot, 2 cubes parsnip, 1 cube apple and sometimes 1/4 small pot of soya yoghurt, 2.30pm 7 ozs milk, 4pm 2 ozs water, 5pm 2 cubes sweet potato, 2 cubes broccoli, 2 cubes pear/peach, 1/4 yoghurt if still hungry, 6.30pm 7-8ozs milk.
He sleeps from 9-9.45am and 12.30-2.30pm. He is put to bed at 7pm and once finally settled for the night sleeps until 6am.
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My twins are 7.5 months old now and they are sleeping until 7am with only 90 ml at 10 pm which I will decrease to 60 ml and drop all together in the next couple of weeks. We're following the routine for 6-9 months. They eat different varieties of vegetables, fruits, cereal and protein. They still have milk at 7.15am, 11.45am, 2.45 pm, 6.30 pm and around 90 ml at 10 pm.
My question is about the timings of the routine. I'd like them to wake up around 7.30am. In your books and FAQs you mention simply moving forward by 15-30 minutes. Is it really that simple or are there some details that I should be aware of? The last thing I want is to disturb their feeding and sleeping patterns, so I will be really careful about this.

If they wake up at 7.30, should our day look like the following:
7.30 awake
7.45am - milk and breakfast
9.30-10.15am - nap
12.15pm - lunch
13pm-15pm - nap
3.15pm - milk
4.45pm-water or juice
5.30 pm- tea
6.30pm-bath
7pm - milk
then going to bed probably around 7.15-7.30
Do you think this is going to work? Any other suggestions?

I also have two more questions;
1-How long should the bath time take?
2-In the book you say, after they finish their milk at 6.30, they should be sitting their chairs when mothers are tidying up and also lights dimmed, where should this be happening? In their bedroom, kitchen, living room? If in the bedroom, dimming the lights no problem but I don't keep the highchair in their room. If somewhere else, then am I suppose the dim the lights in the living room or kitchen? I am confused about what to do and where to do it after last milk and before going to bed? And it is very important for me to do the right thing because this will affect their behavior at bedtime.
I know other mothers from message boards also confused about this.
Team Response

I am not sure when to drop my 7.5mth son’s afternoon nap. We have to start our day at 6.15 for work and nursery and he sleeps well through out the day and night going from 7pm to 6.15 am. His lunch time nap varies from 1 and a half hours to 2 hours sleep, but he is still having his afternoon nap at 4/415 for 30 minutes. I can keep him awake but he becomes more miserable in the evening. Having the nap doesn't affect his night sleep but as he's 7 and a half months should I be cutting it out? Due to the time I finish work on a few days he has to have his bed time at 7pm rather than earlier. I'm very happy with the routine at the moment as it suits us all but should I be cutting it out or are we ok continuing until he feels he doesn't want it anymore? I am aware it is a longer day for him.

My son naps at 9-9.30am, 12.15-2.15pm and 4.15-4.45pm.
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My daughter is now 8 months old and I am wondering if I need to re-structure her day-time sleep. She wakes between 7/7.30am and has breakfast and then I try to put her down for a nap at 9.30am but for the last week she has chattered/whined for half an hour before eventually falling asleep at 10 for 30 minutes. I'm not sure whether to leave her or not put her down at all or just put her down at 10am. Her lunch time nap is very hit and miss. I put her down between 12.30/1pm; she sometimes has difficulty settling off as she sits herself up; she sleeps usually 1/1.5hours, occasionally 2 hours. Her average daily sleep very rarely goes above 1.5/2 hours. So far there have been no problems at night except the odd 6.30am waking or difficulty settling her off at 7/7.30pm. She is a really lovely, active baby who is just starting to crawl and pull herself up and is very curious about life. Even if she doesn't sleep that much in the day she is rarely irritable. Could it be that she doesn't need that much sleep in the day as her total sleep averages usually 13.5 hours?
Team Response

I have been fairly successful with the CLB routines so far. The only problem I have at the moment is that my son is very awkward at taking his 2.30pm feed and at nearly 8 months I thought that it is either his teeth bothering him or that he is simply ready to drop this feed. Today and a day last week I was forced to alter the routine to take my son to eczema clinic. It has been two of the best days we have had recently. It went as follows:
7.00am: Woke, drank 5 oz milk mixed further 2 oz with 4 tbsp of Ready Brek
9.15-11.15 am: Nap
11.50am: Lunch - Lamb Hotpot & Sweet Pot & Yogurt
2.00pm: Drank full 7oz formula (unable to get him to drink this feed for last 3 weeks)
2.15 - 3.00pm: Nap
5.00pm: Tea Red Lentil Savoury & Yogurt & Water
6.00pm: Bath
6.30 pm: 8oz formula & bed
I do understand that the sleeping routine is geared towards helping them when they are older, as the next nap they drop is the morning nap but would they not naturally increase their afternoon sleep? I am having to wake him at 3.00pm as I am aware that he needs no longer than 3 hours but I know that he would sleep longer, leading me to believe that it would be best to extend and bring forward his afternoon nap nap when his morning nap is dropped.
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My daughter has recently started cutting back on her daytime naps and is having about 30 minutes from 9am and an hour from about 12.15. She settles well each time and goes to sleep quickly. There is no reason for her waking that I can see: i.e. no dirty nappy or noise etc. She now has no established afternoon nap although may doze in car or pram at this time. She still sleeps well from 7pm to 7am. There has been no change in her routine but I need her to sleep longer particularly at lunchtime. I have tried controlled crying but she will have a tantrum for over an hour before sometimes settling again for a short time (by which time it is often too late). She eats well at lunch and is well established on protein and no milk at this feed.
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I have a seven-month-old son who has gone into his own room to sleep. It’s not going at all well…! Once an hour he starts crying, so I go in and give him a dummy. If that doesn’t work, I give him a bottle feed while he’s still in the cot. Then, if he still cries, I pick him up, comfort him and breastfeed him, which does the trick in the end. But he keeps waking, some times as soon as I’ve put him sound asleep from my arms into the cot. He has routine day sleeps although I use my night techniques to get him to settle in the afternoon, and he sleeps every day in the sling or pram when we go out. Is there something obvious I’m missing?
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My 8.5mth daughter has learnt to roll onto her front but she cannot get back again and so wakes up several times a night screamingMy 8.5mth daughter seems to be waking through the night because she has learnt to turn onto her stomach. But she hates this position and then screams as she can't turn back over. This happened 8 times last night. What can I do about it?
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We live in a two bedroom flat. My son of 2.5yrs sleeps from 7.30pm to 7.30am. My 7mth daughter goes to bed by 7pm. I wake her at 10pm for a feed and she wakes at 6.30am. Both of then are in separate rooms while my husband and I sleep in the living room. Is there any way fro a baby and toddler to share a room together so we can have our room back? My son is still sleeping in a cot.

My daughter was weaned at 6mths 2weeks and takes a breast feed at 6.30am. She takes formula at 11am 170mls, 2pm 140mls, 5.30pm 170mls and 10pm 170mls. She takes water and three teaspoons of baby oats mixed with milk at breakfast. Lunch is 2 cubes of carrot and potato puree and 3tspps baby rice mixed with 20mls milk. At tea she takes 3 cubes of pear puree and 3-4tsp of baby rice mixed with 20mls milk.

My daughter naps at 9-9.45am, 12-1.45pm and 4-4.30pm.
Team Response

I have a question about travelling with babies and how to adjust the routine with time differences. We have just returned from a trip to France and booked an evening flight which seemed to work as my 7mth slept on and off all the way home, but the time difference was only 1 hour so it was easy to adjust. However, we are planning to go to New York at Christmas and she will be 10 months then. Again we have booked an evening flight which departs at 6pm and arrives at 9pm local time. How would you recommend that I get her into North American time on that first day?
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I am immigrating to Australia at the end of the month. The time in Perth will be seven hours ahead of GMT. Harry, eight months, and Oliver, nearly three, are both in CLB routines. We leave the UK at 12.15pm and will arrive in Perth at 2pm the next day. How do I move them on to Perth time and how long might this take? Do I gradually move the routines forward by seven hours, or should I do it in one go? I have followed the routines since birth and don't want anything to go wrong now.
Team Response

My problem is a small one really compared to others, but my 8.5mth old son Ben
is a little angel when he is at home with me, a true Gina baby from day one,
goes to sleep by himself, no help from me, laughing and giggling all day, plays
by himself when I have to do the housework, totally content, loves meeting new
people, etc. My problem arose when I had to go back to work. My mother-in-law kindly offered to look after him for me. As she used to run a creche for 20 yrs I thought this would be fantastic for him, especially as she also looks after Ben's cousin who is 2yrs. The only problem is he won't go down for his daytime naps at her house. As soon as she takes him into the bedroom and the travel cot which he sleeps in, he screams and gets very upset. He doesn't sleep in the same room as his cousin in case he wakes up. She has tried controlled crying but with no change. As soon as she takes him out of the room he is fine though - smiles, wants to play etc. I wrote down in minute detail how I put him to bed (look out of the window with him for 10 mins, talking in whispers, put him in his sleeping bag, draw the blinds, kiss him goodnight, leave the room promptly etc) but he still screams.
The only blessing is that he has always slept through the night twelve/thirteen hrs for me, even with no daytime sleep, but it worries me that he isn’t getting enough sleep with her on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. With me for the rest of the week he is an angel and sticks to Gina’s routine to the letter. I have to go back to full time work soon though and am panicking in case he starts to get ill from lack of sleep or wakes in the night. I have always taken his cot toys, black out blinds, lullaby lights, sleeping bag and sheets (unwashed) so it smells familiar, thinking this might be the problem but to no avail. I have even tried to get him to sleep there myself, thinking it would just take a "mother's touch", how wrong was I? She says he seems to sleep better downstairs with them, in the light, in his car seat, but isn't this creating bad sleeping patterns? Or am I overreacting?
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