Sleeping FAQ: 8-12 weeks

Since my 3-year-old son has been back at nursery, the midday nap for my daughter has gone wrong. He has to be collected at 12.30 so I have to leave at 12.15. My daughter is tired at 12.00 so I put her to sleep in her car seat ready to put in the car. She sleeps fine until I take her out of the car at 12.30 to collect my son. I have tried putting the car seat in the buggy and just carrying it but she always wakes up and will not go back to sleep. I know it is because she has come into her light sleep but these are the times I have to collect him. When we get home I try to settle her in a dark room either in her cot or remaining in the car seat but she then cries on and off until 2pm. She is then overtired for the remainder of the afternoon. She will not sleep after her 2pm bottle either. Before my son went back to school she was sleeping brilliantly at lunchtime. What can I do before it begins to affect her routine? Should I try to keep her awake until 12.45 when I get home? Her 2pm bottle will then be late.
At present she naps at 9-9.45am, 12-12.35pm and 4-4.30pm. She settles at 7pm.
She feeds at 7am 3ozs, 10.45am 5.5ozs, 2.15pm 4.4ozs, 5pm 3ozs, 6.15pm 2ozs and 11pm 3ozs. She weighs 11lbs.
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I wrote to you last week about my lunchtime nap problem and many thanks for your reply. I have been trying what you suggested but unfortunately without success. I have tried leaving my daughter for 10-20 minutes, sometimes 30, but she cries and cries. This last week after 45 minutes I have gone to her immediately before she fully wakes up. I know that she will not settle in her cot, so I pick her up and hold her in the dark. She will go back to sleep almost straight away, but when I try putting her back into the cot she wakes again. By doing this I am worried that she may learn the wrong associations and want to be held all the time. My other friends who have had the same problem say that it will disappear, but as I am now entering a 4th week of unsuccessful lunchtime naps, I am not optimistic.
At present she sleeps 9.00-9.45am, 12.00-12.45pm, 1.00-2.15pm and 4.45-5pm.
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I have been having the ever popular problem of the lunchtime nap. At 9 weeks old my daughter hasn’t had the full sleep now for 2 weeks and is becoming a very unhappy baby as a result. For the first week I kept her in her cot, pitch black, well tucked in but every day she woke after 45 minutes. I tried giving her a top up before going down but wasn’t interested. I then tried giving the 11am feed at 10.15 but still not interested so I don’t think her waking is a due to hunger. For the second week I have been taking her out in the pram to see if I could get her past the 45 minute mark. Today is the 6th day and she has made it past then twice, even then she still spent a lot of the time awake and crying. I don’t feel as if this is working and I’m my feet are killing me; I’ve done so much walking! To get through the afternoon I let her have 30 minutes after the 2.30pm feed (which she will fall asleep half way through) then another 30 minutes at 4.30pm. She is still very unhappy all afternoon and almost unbearable between 5 and 6pm. She still sleeps well at night but am worried that it won’t last. I am tempted to just get her up after the 45 minute waking and let her make it up in the afternoon but I realise how important the lunchtime nap is so desperately want to make it work again.
At present she naps at 9-9.45am, 12-12.45pm, 3-3.30pm and 4.30-5pm.
She feeds at 7am 6.5ozs, 11am 6ozs, 2.30pm 5ozs, 6.15pm 6ozs, 10pm 4ozs. She weighs 11lb 5ozs.
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I suffer from an immune disorder which makes me very weak physically; having a second child was a bit of a risk really. I have also just been diagnosed with PND. We have been trying the routine but are having such problems with the lunch-time nap as our 8-week-old wakes after 45 minutes. Our first child, was a “catnapper” and very unhappy as a baby; I am desperate for this not to be the case for our new baby. I have been reading the advice on the website and in the book but am at a loss as to whether to let my son sleep for the two hours by walking him or to start sleep training? He is also not sleeping through the night, he wakes between 2-4am. We need some help urgently. At present he feeds 7.30am, 10.30am, 2pm, 5.45pm, 10-11pm which are all 6oz feeds and takes 5ozs at 2.30am. He naps at 9-9.45am, 12-12.45pm,1-1.45pm and 4-4.45pm. He is settled by 7pm.
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Using previous advice you gave about getting my son to sleep without being held, he now settles well at all his naps and sleeps. However I have a problem with him remaining asleep for two hours at the lunchtime nap. He is happy to sleep for 30-45 minutes, but will never return to sleep after this. Sometimes he will be content to lie there for another 30-45 minutes sucking his thumb; at other times he will cry. I have tried the controlled crying method and just leaving him when he does suck his thumb but to no avail. He settles well at 7pm and does usually wake in the night, but will settle himself by sucking his thumb until 7am when he wakes for his feed. He is normally quite grumpy in the afternoon but has been more so lately. My son has 5 feeds of 7ozs at 7am,10.45am,2pm,6.15pm and 10.20pm. We have never been able to wake him for his 10pm feed, as he is deeply asleep but still takes his bottle. I am about to increase his feeds to 8ozs to see if it improves his grumpiness. He weighs 18lbs. He naps at 9-9.30am, 12.00-12.45pm, 2.30-3pm. I cannot understand why he will settle himself back to sleep at night but not in the day. His room is pitch black with blinds.
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My 10 week old son has been on the routine for about a month now, but it seems like the moment I get one problem solved, another pops up. Originally I was having problems with the lunchtime nap as well as early morning waking. So I started keeping him awake for 1 hour at the 10pm feed. Since doing this he stirs slightly at 4am, but goes back to sleep and again at 5:50 but goes back to sleep until I wake him at 7. The problem that we still have is his lunchtime nap at 12. At every sleep he cries when I put him down for about 1- 10 minutes but eventually settles himself and goes to sleep. The problem is that he wakes at 1pm, I'm sure it's due to his sleep cycles. Occasionally he will cry for 10 minutes then settle back to sleep, but if he has slept well through the night, he refuses to go back to sleep.I am trying to practice controlled crying, going in after 10 minutes, then 15, etc. However the main problem is that he begins to cry uncontrollably, working up a sweat and waking himself up completely. If he does fall asleep again, it's usually for about 1 to 10 minutes, when he wakes up again and starts the whole cycle over. Also because his crying is so wearing he begins to gasp which usually wakes him up if he does manage to settle himself. When I go in to settle him, he rarely stops crying, but I usually stay no longer than 2 minutes. Should I be trying harder to calm him down or just leaving him? If I leave him, he seems to get more uncontrollable and is unable to get back to sleep. This continues throughout the final hour of his sleep when I get him up at 2:15. I feel as if he will never learn, as I always eventually get him up when he's supposed to. Also if he does fall asleep it's not until almost 2pm. Should I still get him up at 2:15-2:30 or should I leave him to sleep a little longer? Also after his 9am nap, which is about 30-45 minutes, he is very grumpy through to the lunch time nap and is often very sleepy at 11am. I make sure he gets his full feed at 11 by giving him an expressed bottle of 6ozs at this time so I know it's not hunger waking him during his lunch nap.He also has an afternoon nap of 30 minutes from 4.15-4.45pm.At present he is breast fed at 7am, 2.30pm, and 5pm. I give expressed feeds by bottle at 11am, 6.30pm and 11pm. At those feeds he takes between 6-7ozs. He weighs 14lbs.
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Hi - my 10-week-old daughter, Alice, has been following Gina's routines since birth and is a very contented baby. Thank you. However, she is waking up 35-45 minutes after I put her down for her lunchtime nap. I know this is a common problem and I have tried all the tips that Gina suggests to no avail. So that Alice does not get overtired later on in the afternoon, I put her down for an hour and 20 minutes after her 2pm feed. My question, therefore, is does it matter if Alice has her lunchtime nap after lunch?
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Last night I tried to settle him at 4am with water, but he refused to settle and then I had to offer him 100mls of expressed milk to get him back to sleep. After this he woke at 6.50am and wasn't interested in a top-up at 7.30am, but wouldn't settle for the 9am nap until I topped him with 60mls of expressed milk.

The core night method doesn't seem to be working - unless I am doing it wrong? I am a bit worried he will drop the wrong feed if I keep feeding him in the night.

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I am unsure whether I should be doing the core night method with my nine week old daughter, who has been sleeping very regularly to 5am in the morning; we have even had a couple of 6am wakings. However, in the last week we have had a couple of 4am wakings. One night, I tried settling her back to sleep with patting and the dummy, but after an hour I ended up feeding her to get her back to sleep. I am really worried that I will get her into bad habits by feeding her in the night. She weighs nearly 13 pounds and is gaining weight well each week. She is fully breast-fed during the day, and takes 150 mls of formula at 10pm and 120 mls of expressed milk in the night. Do you think that I should continue to persevere with the core night method to get her sleeping through the night?

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Since birth my 9 week old daughter has always woken once a night for a feed anywhere between 2.30am and 6.15am (even going 3 consecutive nights until 6am at 6 weeks) but for the past 10 days she has been waking consistently at 2.30-2.45am and will not settle. I am sure she is not hungry and there is nothing obvious waking her (I have checked room temperature, nappy, noise etc). I have tried resettling her with water and a dummy and once succeeded after one and a half hours when she then slept through until 5.45am (surely proving it is not hunger?), other times I have given in after an hour or so of trying to settle her to find she does not take a full feed before resettling easily and then happily goes through until 7am. I am now only breastfeeding during the night so wondered if the smell of my milk was stopping her resettling but my husband has tried and found the same thing. She was a big baby at birth (10lb 10oz) so I am sure she has the physical capacity to go longer - I am wondering if she is waking at this time because she is in such a good feeding routine during the day she is now waking almost exactly 4 hours after the 10.30pm feed. She is a very, very windy baby (we now use Dr Brown bottles, infacol and gripe water) and is on Gaviscon infant for a very mild reflux problem. She settles well providing she has no wind but this is rare and we usually have to go back to the nursery several times to wind her before she eventually goes to sleep. She often wakes midway during her daytime naps (with classic wind symptoms) and won't resettle. She feeds well during the day - I fill each bottle with 7fl oz and she normally leaves a little bit (taking about 6.5). Sometimes I have to wake her for a feed so she is not an overly hungry baby and does not seem to be having a growth spurt. I also have a 15 month old daughter (who slept through from 10.30pm until 7am from 8 weeks!) so I am really very tired coping with such a lack of sleep and don't know what else to try except leaving her to cry.
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My 11 week son is causing me grief during the night. He has slowly become a very good sleeper, sleeping exactly at the times the CLB routines suggest. I don't have to even encourage him to sleep at these times. He has adjusted to the CLB feeding schedule; he is not necessarily consistent with the amounts he takes though. I make him 5 scoops of formula to 150ml water, and sometimes he takes all of it, sometimes leaving between 1 and 2 ounces. Despite the amount he drinks during the day, he always wakes at 2am. For more than 1 month now, I have not fed him at this feed, but give him a dummy, and he then will sleep until sometime between 3 and 4. Until recently, he was breast fed at this night interval, but then he started going off his morning feed, maybe only taking 1 or 2 ounces. So, I have not been feeding him in the night, instead, I have settled him with the dummy. I did try water, but that did not work, he was greatly offended! At any rate, the new pattern has become waking at 2am, dummy, waking again for 3-4am, dummy, waking between 5-6am, dummy then he would happily sleep until 8:30am, if I let him. As soon as I give the dummy (he is quite hungry so takes it eagerly) he falls straight back to sleep.

This current pattern has been in place for about 4 days, and has been exactly the same. Yesterday, he woke at 9pm starving hungry, I gave him 5oz, and then at 11pm he took a further 5ozs. So, yesterday, he had, (if you count the fact that 5 powder scoops and 150 mls actually make 6 ounces) between 30 and 35 ounces of formula. So, I think he is getting enough, but this night waking thing is killing me as I have not had a decent sleep for ages, and I have a 2.5 year old toddler as well, who slept though the night at 8 weeks.

Would you have any suggestions? I tried for a week the split feed at 10-11pm, but it had no affect whatsoever on the night waking. He seems to take more formula if I give this late feed as a dream feed and is happier. It was always 2am, even though he has not been fed at that time for more than a month, and goes straight back down with a dummy. I have tried a few times to see if he'll settle himself back to sleep, but he just keeps on crying. He does settle himself at other times, so I don't worry that he cannot settle himself on his own. I'm just torn about whether this is some ingrained habit, or whether he just needs a feed in the night, despite it putting him off his morning feed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. The sleeping schedule below is for his current evening routine with the waking, avoiding the night feed with a dummy, and him subsequently going back to sleep. We really don't have a period where he is awake, but he is more wakeful between 5am and 6am, presumably because he's hungry and he's more difficult to settle without feeding.

My son takes between 110-150mls at 7.30am, 10.30am, 2.30pm, 5.15pm and 10.45pm. At 6.30pm he takes 4 scoops of formula in 150mls water and may leave 30mls.

He weighs 6.25kg [13.12lbs].

My son naps at 9-9.45am, 12-2.15pm and 4-4.30pm. He settles by 7pm.
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My daughter has been following the routine since she was 3 weeks old and since 9 weeks, started sleeping through from 11pm to 6.45am (when I woke her). The next time she woke in the night, I settled her with a cuddle and some water and she went back to sleep 10-20mins. This had only happened a few times but generally she slept through on most days. All of a sudden, for the past 4 days she has started waking again at around 4am but not really looking for food, we have settled her with a dummy but consequently, she is very tired in the mornings when we wake her and I am also concerned about using the dummy. She sleeps in her own cot in her own room and has done so since 4 weeks. We also have blackout curtains in her room.
Secondly, we have a problem with the 10.15pm feed. We wake her at 10pm and allow her to kick around for at least 15/20mins before we start feeding her. She will only manage to take a 3-4oz at a struggle and by 10.45/11pm is ready to go back to sleep no matter what we do. We were not too concerned as she was able to go through the night with a feed but wonder if this may be the reason for her waking early again (although she doesn't want a feed!)
We have tried keeping her awake longer but it has made no difference and she doesn't take anymore feed really and only ends up getting very frustrated and agitated with us and herself. The other thing is that she is never hungry in the morning, I wake her at 6.45am and start feeding by 7am at which point, she will take 3-4oz but then can't really be bothered. It seems like she is not actually hungry.
Am I following the routine correctly? Can I do more for her to take a bigger feed at 10.15pm? What is her reason for not being hungry at 7.00am - I thought she would be starving!
She is generally a very contented baby and I always make sure she has some fresh air everyday at the 4.15pm nap and ensure that she has plenty of kick about time during the day. I would really appreciate your help as I am completely baffled by what I’m doing wrong!

My daughter feeds at 7am 6ozs, with a struggle, 10.45am 6ozs, 2.30pm 6ozs, 5pm 4-5ozs, 6.30pm 2-3ozs. I have tried to make her wait until after the bath but she just cried. She will never take more than this although I have tried numerous times.  My daughter weighs 13lbs.

She naps at 9-9.45am, 12-2.15pm and 4.15-4.30pm. She is settled at 7pm.
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My 9 week son wakes up consistently at around 2am-4am and continues to wake up every hour until 7am. I cannot get him to sleep longer than an hour stretch after 2am. I have tried to settle him with a dummy, cooled boiled water, pat/sshhing, white noise cd, before feeding him 2.5 ounces which he usually is sick after but he will still cry for more. I don't want to increase his night feeds and struggle to get him to take more in the day but feel like I have tried everything else. I have tried to leave him cry but this doesn't make him stop and again if he does sleep he will wake an hour later crying. I am unsure whether he wants to be with us as he settles well at 7pm and 11pm really well and goes down well in his cot for daytime naps too. At present he feeds at 7am 4ozs, 10am 5ozs, 1.30pm 5ozs, 4.30pm 4ozs, 6.30pm 4ozs, 11pm 6ozs and 3.30am 2.5ozs. He weighs 11lbs 4ozs. My son naps at 9-10am, 11.30-1.30pm and 3.30-4.30pm. He is settled by 6.30pm.
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My 11 and a half week old baby has gone through the night without feeds a couple of times, I had suspected she did not need them for a while as I was only giving a couple of ounces and she was cutting back on her 7am feed. However, she has now started waking in the night again and the only way I seem to be able to resettle her is to give the dummy. I have tried water which does work but then she wakes again 10 minutes later. With the dummy I have to give it a number of times before she finally gets off. What can I do? Should I just let her cry? Or should I go back to feeding her. She never has had the dummy at night before, however I have always given her one to settle herself for daytime naps - I don’t know any other way. She does usually spit it out fairly quickly though and is fine. I am really worried I am creating (or have already created) a dummy dependency that will mean I am up and down all night every night but I don’t know how to break the habit without leaving her to cry. For the day naps, I have just started using the dummy to settle her but then removing it when I put her in the cot..... But this doesn’t work at night. Just for information, I cannot get her to have the full lunchtime nap whatever I try, so I give her half hour after her 2pm feed, and another half hour at 4.30. My daughter feeds at 7am 6ozs, 10.30am 7ozs, 2pm 6ozs, 5pm 6ozs, 6.30pm 2ozs and 11pm 6ozs. She weighs 12lbs 2ozs. She naps at 9-9.45am, 11.50-12.50pm, 2.40-3.05pm and 4.30-5pm. She settles at 7pm.
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My baby son is our second baby and we have implemented the routines since birth as we did with our first son. He is very content and we are really enjoying him. However he has not yet slept through from the 10.30pm feed to morning. He slept until 6am twice but apart from that it is anything from 3.55am to 5.15am usually. He was capable of this from a very young age. I have ruled out hunger as he was cutting back a lot on his 7am feed. I gradually reduced the feed in the night and now (for the last 4 nights) settle him with water. I have to put a bit of sugar in it to get him to take it. The pattern is very erratic - it could be 4am tonight and 5.10am tomorrow. He has no bad sleep associations and settles very well for all naps and at 7pm and 11.30pm. We have even got through the lunchtime light sleep issue within a couple of days of letting him fuss and I always have to wake him at 2.20pm. Light or noise are not the issue as we live in the country so there are no street lights, car alarms, etc. and no one in the house is noisy at these times. He is still fully swaddled as I wanted to try to figure out this problem before I added another variable. Some nights when he wakes he may have a hand out but often he doesn't. I don't think he is too hot as it is quite cold at night. Likewise I don't think he’s cold. I'm baffled - any ideas? How long will I continue to settle him with water? Will it become a habit itself? Is he starting to need it to settle back in the night? I dread having to get tough on this as he is such a good baby it seems unfair - also there's the issue of waking my contented toddler! I was considering sleeping in the nursery with him for a couple of nights to see if that reveals anything but not sure what I'll figure out in the dark? My son takes 6-7ozs at 7am, 11am, 2.30pm and 10.30pm. He takes 7-8ozs at 6.15pm. He is offered water in the afternoon. He naps from 9-9.50am, 12.05-2.20pm and 4.35-4.55pm. He weighed 13lbs at 9 weeks old.
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My 9 week old struggles to take a morning nap. He sometimes goes down for a lunchtime nap but can waken after an hour in which case I cannot get him back to sleep, which results in a really cranky baby from about 3.30 onwards until bed time. My husband and I are at our wits end with the constant crying all day if we can't get him to take his naps. He is an excellent baby at night. He goes down no problem at 7pm, gets woken up for the 10.30pm feed and goes back to sleep until 6.30am/6.45am in the morning. We don't understand why he sleeps so well at night, which we want, but can't settle for his naps during the day. Could it be we are over stimulating him too much in between feeds or do we possibly need to use the controlled crying method?
He takes 6ozs at 7am, 10.30am, 6.15pm and 10.30pm. He takes 5ozs at 2.30pm. He weighs 12lbs 5.5 ozs.
He naps from 8.50-9.20am and 12-1.15pm.
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My 11-week-old daughter has been in a good sleeping pattern but for the last three days this has gone a bit wrong in the evening. She has started to wake at 3am wanting a small feed and then again at 5-6am. Although if she fed at 3am, she will put herself back to sleep at 5-6am and wake up around 7am. She used to sleep from 11/11.30 through to 6am before but recently has changed to this new pattern. What can we do to correct this habit? And when should we look to bring the 10.30pm feed forward? How can we increase daytime feeds as she always refuses more, and if we try and give her more she vomits? At present she feeds at 7.30am 90 ml breast, 10.30am 90-110mls formula, 2.30pm 90 ml breast, 5.30pm 90-130mls formula, 6.45pm 50 ml breast/formula, 10.30pm 90-130mls formula and 3.30am breast 2 minutes, giving her a total of 540mls. She weighs 4.22kg.
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My mother gave me all of the Contented Baby books before my son Pasha was born and I had read the book, made my charts and was ready to have him on a schedule from day one. He was born a healthy 7lbs 10oz and today, at eleven weeks he weighs 12.5 lbs. Unfortunately Pasha was born with jaundice and I had to feed him every two hours for the first two weeks of his life which made putting him on a schedule very difficult. He is bottle fed. I have been following your schedule for the past month and everything has been going smoothly – he naps well during the day and goes to sleep very happily at 7:00pm. We wake him up at 10:30pm for his final feed but unfortunately he is still waking up at 4:00am. How can I start to have him sleep through the night? I feel like he has an automatic alarm clock because whether we feed him at 10:00pm /10:30pm or 11:00pm, he will always wake up at exactly 4:00am. He will sleep until 7:00am after his 4:00am feed (3oz). What should I do? Another concern is that, according to your book, he should be eating around 35oz but his general daily consumption (including the 4:00am) is 28oz. I feed him 5oz at 7:00am, 11:00am, 2:00pm, 6:00pm and 10:30pm and 3oz at 4:00am. But my doctor says he should not have more than 30oz per day and no more than 5oz per feed, so do you recommend a extra feeding time slot and if so what time?
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My son of 8 weeks is fed at 10.30pm and goes through until 3.45/4am. He will take 3-4ozs of formula then is settled back by 4.30am. For the last two nights he has woken screaming at 5.30/45am.

What could be the reason for this waking? Surely he is not hungry? I manage to settle him with a dummy and cuddle and then have to wake him at 7am.

Should I think abut settling him with water at 4am and seeing what happens then?

I have also started to half swaddle him at the 7pm sleep. When should I half swaddle him for the rest of the night? When do you recommend a sleeping bag?

My son takes 6ozs feeds at 7am, 10.30am, 2.30pm and 10.30pm. He takes 3-4ozs at 5 and 6.15pm and also at 3.30am. He weighs 11lbs 1oz.

He naps at 8.50-9.50am, 11.30-2pm and 4-4.15pm. He is settled at 6.30pm.
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My 11 week old daughter is waking at around 4.30/5.00 every morning for the last week. She settles well in the evening and only has 3 hours (sometimes less, as the lunchtime nap often goes wrong) sleep in the day. I am concerned it is linked to her becoming dependant on her dummy as when I go in and give her a dummy she goes back to sleep, sometimes waking again but then settling once the dummy is in her mouth. She will then sleep often past 7am; I always wake her by 7.30am. She is kept awake for 1 hour from 10pm to 11pm each night and takes 4-6 oz then. I have not fed her in the night for 4 weeks now. Should I go cold turkey with the dummy? She does not have the dummy when she goes to sleep at 11pm.

My daughter is fed with expressed milk and formula.

She takes 4ozs expressed and 3ozs formula at 7.30am, 10.30am and 2.30pm. At 6pm she takes 4ozs expressed and 4ozs formula, at 10pm she takes 2ozs expressed and 3ozs formula.

She weighs 11lbs.

My daughter naps at 9-9.45am, 12-2pm and 4.30-4.45pm.
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My son is 10 weeks old; he is well established on 5 feeds a day as per the CLB routine for 8 - 12 weeks. He naps well during the day in the morning, at lunch time and in the afternoon, however he will not settle when we put him in his cot at 6.30 - 7.00 pm and has not done so since he was 4 weeks old. I feel like we have tried everything! He has a bedtime routine of a bath at 5.30 and then his feed at 6.00 and then bed at around 6.30 pm and I try to keep him calm and quiet after his bath. As he is now on formula I am confident he is not settling due to hunger. After his 10.30 pm feed he sometimes cries for another 20 minutes and then sleeps through to between 6 - 7 am. In the evenings we have been leaving him to cry for about 15 - 20 minutes and then pick him up to calm him down and then put him back in his cot. As this is not working we are now not picking him up but just going in to re-assure him every 10 minutes or so. When we did pick him up he stopped crying almost immediately but then would start to cry as soon as we put him back in his cot. I am hoping that he will grow out of this but am beginning to be concerned that this will not happen and hate having what feels like a constant battle evening after evening, especially as in the days he is so good at sleeping and settling himself.

My son takes 5oz feeds at 7am, 10.30am and 6pm. He takes 6ozs at 2.30pm and 10.30pm. He weighs 11.10lbs.

He naps at 8.30-10am, 11.30-2pm and 4.15-4.45pm.
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My son is in the perfect routine; he settles himself nicely and is waking up contented before I even get into his bedroom after his day time sleeps. He goes to bed in the evening well - normally around 6.45 (so that I can get the older child settled for 7pm), but the he wakes up between 7.30 and 7.45pm crying. The only way I can settle him is by picking him up and cuddling him for about 3min. He goes back into his bed awake and settles himself back to sleep for the night. This time is the only time when I have to pick him up, any other time he requires settling I can always do it from the bed. I am just rather worried that this is going to become an issue in the future?

My son takes feeds of 210mls at 7am, 10.30am and 10.30pm. He takes 180mls at 2.30pm and 120mls at both 5 and 6.15pm. For the last three nights he has not woken at 5.30am needing a 90ml feed.

My son takes infant Gaviscon for reflux

He naps at 9-9.45am, 12-2.15pm and 4.30-5pm.
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I would like to know a little more about crying down. I have successfully used controlled crying techniques with my older son, when he was a year, but it is recommended by Dr Ferber that these are only used on babies over 5 to 6 months. I have been struggling with my 11 week old daughter for 11 weeks now! She was very colicky (I think), fretful anyway all evening and wouldn't settle until at least midnight, until very recently, when I think she was no longer in pain and probably just over-tired. I therefore decided to try your routines. Feeding wasn't a problem as I had her on a regular feeding schedule in any case. Sleeping was more of a problem. She would settle well at the times suggested but needed a dummy to settle her. She also woke 45 minutes after being settled for her lunchtime and night time sleep. When I gave her the dummy 45 minutes after waking from the night sleep she then settled well but I left the dummy with her. I am very conscious of creating sleep association problems, as had happened with my older son, and note that you suggest not letting the baby have the dummy in the cot. I therefore, removed the dummy as she was getting drowsy before she was asleep and she began to cry and continued to do so for a good 30 minutes. She did finally fall asleep, but began crying again after about 45 minutes. Please help - I don't know whether to leave her or not, and if so how long for? Am I supposed to be going in to her at regular intervals as with controlled crying, or just leave her? At present she takes 6ozs formula at 7am 12midday, 4pm 7pm and 3am. I have only been using the routines for a day or two. She naps at 8.30-9.40am, 12.15-2pm and 4-4.30pm. She settles at 8pm.
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As I have to express all feeds, I am finding it difficult to stick to the evening routine. I start feeding at 6.15pm but it only takes 10-15mins to finish the feed rather than the 40 minutes it would take if I were breast-feeding. Should I be putting her down at 6.30pm after she has fed or keeping her awake until 7.00pm? It doesn't feel right to be stimulating her until 7.00pm when it should be her wind-down time – but will the earlier bedtime eventually have a knock-on effect? Also, if I put her down at 6.30pm, she's not going to bed two hours since last waking, as Gina suggests. Is that a problem? At present she sleeps 9.00-9.45am, 12.00-2.15pm and 4.30-5.00pm. Also, is there an equation for breast milk like the one for formula on page 62 of CLB?
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Oscar has always been difficult to settle to sleep at 7pm. For the last three weeks we have tried controlled crying, but he is still crying wildly every night for at least an hour. He only falls asleep when totally exhausted. I follow a strict routine between 5pm and 7pm and put him down in his Moses basket not fully asleep. He is given a full feed at 11pm, but takes this in his sleep. He then wakes about 3.30-4.30am taking between a half to a full feed and settles again until around 6am. Oscar followed the routines from about 2 weeks. He was put to sleep in his nursery which has full black out blinds and curtains. He has all his nappy changes there. During most days I took him out either in the car or buggy, at times which coincided with his nap times. Lately he has been waking at the lunchtime nap after 30-45 minutes and not re-settling. I decided to give him his naps at home in his room, as I felt he had developed wrong sleep associations with always being out at these times. I have tried controlled crying at these times for 3 days but Oscar is getting hardly any sleep as he cries hysterically when out sleeping in his moses basket. Despite such little daytime sleep he is still hysterical at 7pm, and now is beginning to wake really early [6am]. This makes it difficult to stay on the routine during the day. He is feeding at about the right times but not getting nearly enough daytime sleep. Oscar weighs 12lbs 8ozs and is taking between 29-36ozs of formula milk every 24hrs. His feeds are roughly 06.30 6ozs, 10.00 5 1/2 ozs, 14.00 51/2ozs, 17.00 2ozs, 18.00 4ozs, 23.00 6 ozs, 03.45am between 2 and 6 ozs. He takes about 1oz of water at 3.30pm. His sleeping and feeding are beginning to vary a lot each day. He has been fed Nutramigen since 6 weeks after he appeared to develop colic at 4 weeks and cried all day. I gave up breast feeding entirely at 5 weeks as it was suggested this was the cause of the colic. Before this, he had top ups of formula as I found he was taking two hours to feed. Oscar sleeps 08.30-09.30,12.00-12.30, 16.30-17.00 in the day.
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My daughter, Erris, is eight weeks old and well established on the routines, and feeds and naps at the correct times throughout the day. The only problem is when I put her down at 7pm. She naps in her pram in the morning, in her cot at lunchtime and in the afternoon she sleeps in the car while I collect her brother from nursery. After a small feed at 5pm (3oz) she enjoys a kick on her mat, followed by a bath at 6pm. I give her the second part of the feed downstairs while my son watches a DVD and drinks his milk. Erris is content to sit in her chair after winding until I take her upstairs at 6.55pm. At this point, however, she begins to fidget and I give her a dummy to calm her and prevent her from getting upset. Often she has hiccups and loses her dummy. I have to go in two or three times to retrieve the dummy, re-settle her and sometimes I even resort to rocking her before she settles at 7.45pm. I have bought a lullaby light, sat with her in the dark and tried top-up feeds, but nothing helps. What else can I try?
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My 10 week twin girls are sleeping after the 11pm feed through to 6/7am. They started off as easy to settle and were following the routine well. In the last week the girls are refusing to settle themselves to sleep during the day. We return from dropping my 3 year old to pre-school and they scream through their morning nap. I eventually feed them as close to 11am as possible but sometimes as early as 10.15am. I try to entertain them a little if they manage to stay awake until 11.45am, although they are sometimes tired and sleep before that. If they do sleep they wake shortly [20-30minutes] and scream through the rest of the nap. I check they are clean and dry. If I try to settle them by themselves, they scream the whole 2 hours. In the afternoon they catnap in the pumpkin seats whilst picking up their sister.

I have used the controlled crying method so far to no avail; I have separated them for all naps and sleep. I am at a loss as my daughter was a CLB baby to the last word. We moved house a week ago.

My daughters feed at 6/7am 4-6ozs, 10/11am 5-6ozs, 2.30pm 6ozs, 6pm 5-7ozs, 11pm 5-6ozs.

They weigh 12lbs and 12lbs 9ozs.

They usually nap from 11.30-12.15pm and are settled by 7pm.
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I have already been given a pretty detailed response by the Team about my daughter and her not wanting to sleep in the day. I have followed this but the advice unfortunately did not work fully, very frustrating!
Certainly the advice on wind down was of some help and she will go down now but wake up after 30 minute or sometimes 45 minutes at every nap.  For the morning nap I take her for a walk in the pram and she sleeps just fine, coming round after 30 minutes but after a couple of minutes of looking around she goes back to sleep (as long as I keep walking that is!). The lunchtime nap is a nightmare –I put her down after wind down, she wakes up after 30 minutes so I have tried a top up feed (40mls, even tried more - 70ml) either before she goes down or when she wakes up at 12.30. She basically just bawls her eyes out when she wakes up. She is not interested in my going in to sssh sssh her to calm her - she just cries even louder when I go in and I end up walking out with her in an even worse state than when I went in there. I have left her many times for up to an hour, today I left her for 30mins and she stopped crying but then started up again after 15 minutes (I went in after another 25 minutes of crying). Previously I let her sleep in the lounge as I was getting nowhere in the nursery but that does not seem to work now either (unless I am at my sisters house - she seems to like noise around her?). I have totally blacked out her room
My daughter sleeps perfectly at night - wakes up once or twice (4am or 2.30/5am). It can take me an hour to feed and get her back down though as she seems to wake right up.

At present my daughter feeds at 7.15am 100-140mls, not very hungry at this feed. 10.15am 100-140mls, hungry for this feed and not able to wait until 10.45am. 2.30pm 80-120mls, the amount varies depending how well she has slept at lunchtime as she can be sleepy. Woken at 3pm to be given more. 6.15pm 120-170mls Just dropped the split feed at 5/6pm as my daughter seemed happy to wait until after her bath for this feed. 10.30pm 120-170mls, 3am 60-100mls. She weighs 11lbs10ozs.

My daughter naps at 9-9.45am, 12-12.30pm 1-1.30pm, 4.30-5pm. She settlers by 6.40pm.
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For the last week my 10-week-old daughter will not settle at 6.30/7pm. She settles well at other naps and has been going through the night since six weeks. I wake her at 5pm for her split feed of 4ozs. I have tried to drop this but she is always hungry and demanding food at this time. Sometimes even after this she is still crying for more food. I bath her around 5.45pm and start to feed her again at 6pm. She normally falls asleep on me after this feed so I will end up putting her to bed at about 6.30pm. She will then wake at 7pm and demand more food, normally around another 4ozs then go down again to wake again at 8pm. Then I have an hour of trying to settle her until around 9pm. I have tried increasing her day feeds but she won’t take any more milk in the day. She also can't stay awake for more than an hour and a half. Why has this suddenly started happening?

My daughter feeds at 7am 7ozs, 10.45am7ozs, 2.30pm 6ozs, 5pm 4ozs, 6.15pm 4ozs, 7pm 4ozs and 10.30pm 7ozs.She weighs 12lbs.

She naps at 9-9.45am, 11.45am-2.15pm and 4.30-5pm.
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My 9 week old struggles to take a morning nap. He sometimes goes down for a lunchtime nap but can waken after an hour in which case I cannot get him back to sleep, which results in a really cranky baby from about 3.30 onwards until bed time. My husband and I are at our wits end with the constant crying all day if we can't get him to take his naps. He is an excellent baby at night. He goes down no problem at 7pm, gets woken up for the 10.30pm feed and goes back to sleep until 6.30am/6.45am in the morning. We don't understand why he sleeps so well at night, which we want, but can't settle for his naps during the day. Could it be we are over stimulating him too much in between feeds or do we possibly need to use the controlled crying method? He takes 6ozs at 7am, 10.30am, 6.15pm and 10.30pm. He takes 5ozs at 2.30pm. He weighs 12lbs 5.5 ozs. He naps from 8.50-9.20am and 12-1.15pm.
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Gina's routine works well for my 9-week-old son. At night he is taking 4oz after his bath and falling asleep by 7pm, waking at 10.30pm for another 4oz. He then he goes until 4/5/6am (it varies at the moment). We start the days at 7am but my problem is that he falls asleep without exception about an hour after the first feed starts, similarly this happens after the 10am feed, so his naps are always early and this throws everything else out of sync, and we never make it to 2pm for the next feed as he is awake by 1pm. He does however manage to get back on track for 5pm. He sleeps at 8.15-9am, 11.15-1pm, 3-4pm and is settled by 7pm. He presently breast feeds at 7am, 10am, 1 and 2pm split feed, 5pm, 6pm 4 ozs formula, 10.30pm 4ozs formula, 4/5/6am small breast feed. He weighs 13lbs 6ozs. He also will not sleep in his nursery at lunchtime; he sleeps much better during the day where there is noise and activity (i.e. in the middle of a BBQ for 14 people!) How can I change this?
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Although my daughter feeds at the approx times stated in the book, I find sleep in the day a bit hit and miss. She is very awake in the morning and does not settle well for her morning sleep; she cat naps and does not like being in her cot in the day. Because of this she is very tired and therefore she is only lasting to approx 11-11.30 am when has a good sleep. She then wakes any time from 1pm onwards, having a knock-on effect that she sleeps again at 3 not 4pm. Due to us having a 2 year old as well, it is not possible to do 2 bath times so we have moved his back and doing it at 6.15pm. She is very unsettled in the early evening; she is not always crying but wants to be cuddled or suck on the dummy to sleep. We then put her down and she wakes up any time from straightaway to 15 minutes later, resulting in her bedtime being any where from 8pm until her next feed at 10.30pm. She does not go to sleep on her own. I have tried pick up/put down, the dummy and then removing it when she is nearly asleep. I have left her to cry twice for 1/2 an hour to try and teach her to sleep on her own once in the evening and once for her morning sleep, but was not sure how long was too long to leave her and whether it was too early at her age to do this. After her 10.30pm feed she goes straight to sleep, and I can put her down from her night feed. Sometimes she is still awake and she goes to sleep on her own. How can I make her more independent to sleep on her own so we can have more of our evenings back? I do not want the same problem I had with my two year old who had to be rocked to sleep and patted down till he was 1, it was not until we left him to cry for over an hour that he now goes to sleep with no problems. Is she too young for this yet?
At present she feeds at 7am 5-6 oz, 10-11am 5-6 oz, 1.30-2pm 5-6oz, 5pm 3oz, 6.45pm 6oz, 10.30pm 4-6 oz. 2-4am 4-6oz. She weighs over 13lbs.
My daughter naps at 9-9.30am, 11.30-1.30/2pm and 3-4/4.30pm.
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My three-month-old daughter has never followed a routine, but now I have realised that I have to establish a routine if I am to maintain any sanity and get some sleep! She feeds approximately every two hours and obviously isn't drinking enough each time to keep her going for four hours. During the night, this is becoming a serious problem as I am suffering from major sleep deprivation. I have tried the routine suggested for her age group but after the 10.30pm feed she is still getting up at 2am, 4am etc... During the day, however, she can manage three to three and a half hours between feeds. I am breastfeeding and am trying to change to formula. She only sleeps approximately two hours a day, at thirty minutes four times a day. Please help me . . . I can't go on like this!!
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