Hi Everyone

This is the first time I've posted here, and I'm glad I found this forum - I think it's just what I need!

My beautiful little, almost 8 month old daughter Lucia and I are having some real issues with sleep! The main issue being that I am trying to wean her off her wrap, with no success so far. We have been wrapping her since birth, quite firmly, in those 'straight jacket style' stretch cotton ones with the velcro, as they were the only ones she wouldn't unwrap herself from. Even then she usually gets her arms out if she's feeling determined enough.

So at the moment, the only way I can get her to go to sleep is to wrap her and then breast feed her to sleep, and then hold her for a while and put her carefully into her cot. I have had the odd success with having one arm out, but can't seem to progress from there.

I used to be able to put her down sleepy but awake in her cot, leave the room and have her go peacefully to sleep within minutes, but that all changed at around 4 months when she had a really horrible outbreak of eczema, when the ONLY way I could get her to sleep, or even to comfort her when she was so uncomfortable, was to feed her. She thankfully got through the eczema out break with the help of a wonderful paediatric dermatologist (after several Dr's who were completely useless). She still has eczema, but we have it under control most of the time now, thankfully (it was heartbreaking for all of us), but we now have a firmly entrenched habit.

We really need to stop the wrapping as a priority, considering we don't have air con, and it gets so hot in our house! The few really hot days/nights we've had so far, we've attempted to get her to go to sleep unwrapped, but it has involved literally hours of trying to settle her, and her just getting really upset and more wide awake. We ended up dampening her wrap and putting it on her, as it was really the only way she would sleep (she would then be asleep within minutes, with me feeding her), but this isn't ideal, as the wrap does dry pretty quickly and then it's just going to be too hot. We have a ceiling fan which we put on high, but it doesn't really do a whole lot.

I am trying at least once a day to get her to go to sleep unwrapped, and putting her in her cot awake (without success). I originally thought it better to only try to break one habit at a time, but even though I can now sometimes get her to fall asleep while unwrapped by BFing her, there is no way I can transfer her to her cot that way without her waking. So every day, usually in the afternoon, when she starts to get tired I put her in her cot unwrapped and awake with a couple of toys. She starts off OK, and is happy to play around in there a bit, but she starts to get a bit frustrated and I end up giving up after about an hour or more of her being nowhere near going to sleep but getting increasingly irritable. When she starts actually crying (as opposed to just being a bit whiny, when I can go and settle her down with a few pats and a bit of comfort) I will admit defeat and wrap her and BF her to sleep.

One problem that makes this even harder, is that she has an awful habit of scratching her head when she's tired. I don't believe her scalp is really itchy because it looks perfectly clear, but I think it's a habit leftover from when she had the bad outbreak of eczema. I cut her fingernails as best I can, but they're still really sharp and she gets little scratches on her head which is awful (mittens etc are no good as she can get them off). The wrapping usually prevents this from happening. I am really worried about what we will do over Summer! Thankfully it hasn't really been all that hot recently, but it will get hot and we just can't continue wrapping her in 30+ heat!

I wondered if maybe I should try to get her to fall asleep by herself first, wrapped, and then worry about the wrap thing after I've got that sorted? The only problem is that it may take a while to train her back into doing that, and I feel that we may not have time before it starts getting hot again!

If anyone has any ideas I would really really appreciate them!

Thank you in advance!

Monique