Need help please!

[julesr]

Ryn - how's your diet? We had terrible problems with my DS taking ages to go to sleep and then waking up after a few minutes, needing more resettling. To my great displeasure I have found that cutting out tea, cola and chocolate worked wonders - 24 hours later, he was already a different baby. 48 hours later, he was sleeping beautifully (but not through the night). Also no packet food like flavoured pasta and rice.

I felt terrible for a few days while suffering through the withdrawal but at least DS was sleeping better! I also cannot have any alcohol whatsoever. My MCHN recommended a glass of wine half an hour before the last breastfeed but DS is "opposite boy" and could be up for 4 hours or more after that.

We had a phase a little while ago when DS recommenced this behaviour and DH demanded to know what I'd been eating. I thought for a minute. Icecream. I'd been tucking into icecream for about 3 days after we had people over and they brought icecream that never got eaten. Cut that out, sleeping improved again. So I don't have anything very sugary either. Sigh.

I make sure I eat meat at least once a day and have plenty of fruit and veg. On the bright side my pre-pregnancy jeans fit beautifully and I have lovely skin!

A couple of tips I gleaned from various baby books that worked for me are: I would also try bring forward bath and bedtime and aim to get your DS in bed by 7pm-ish - apparently this is when babies and children naturally get tired. Try not to let your DS be up for more than 2 hours maximum during the day. Could you also try taking him out at least once a day to give him new things to look at and therefore tire him out more? And the biggie for us - if he hasn't gone to sleep in about 20 minutes of feeding off to sleep, rocking or patting then it is highly unlikely he will do so. Give up, get him up again, and try again in a while. This "20 minute rule" has really been true for us. We use a lullaby CD and if DS is not asleep by the end of Track 2 we know he's not going to sleep right now. Believe me, I understand how BORING it is being in their room for ages and ages trying to get the baby to sleep! Try humming instead of singing, maybe in time to a lullaby CD? The lullaby CD might be nicer for you to listen to as well rather than the tinkly music from those machines!

In terms of bedtime routine, definitely keep up the reading. My DS is now 6 months and loooves The Very Hungry Caterpillar. As soon as he sees the book he reaches out and smiles and as I read "In the light of the moon, a little egg lay on a leaf..." the smile gets bigger, which is SO rewarding!