Just wanted to thank everyone for their wise words and encouragement on the issue of sleep and settling. Every time someone says to me "Oh, he should be sleeping better than that!" I have a renewed crisis of confidence and start thinking about sleep school or stressing to my partner about it. Then I read all your posts and am reminded of why I want to do things by instinct and not by others' rules. I don't know how many more times I can politely ignore the old "You're making a rod for your back!" comment either!!! What is so freakin' wrong with attending to your child when they are upset?! And whole-hearted agreement on the eye contact thing. A few lovely times I have sung Jethro to sleep with full eye contact, and the sight of his trusting gaze on mine, gradually drifting into sleep, is magical! Why would I deny either of us that pleasure?!

Keep up the great, hands-on parenting guys! I love knowing that there is such a network of like-minded parents out there!