Oh Rachel, you poor sausage.

When I read the first part, about him going down well during the day and talking himself to sleep, I was so pleased!!

About the night time sleep....do you have an evening 'routine', e.g. bath, feed, bed etc? We found doing Jacob's final feed for the day in his room, by the light of the baby monitor was nice and soothing - the room was dark, and warm and he was having a nice warm drink. That's not something we have done for his day time sleeps, so I think that helped him understand that his big sleep was ahead. Do you think he knows that it's time for his big sleep? What time is he going to sleep during the day and for how long, and what time is he going down of an evening? Is it possible he's not quite tired enough yet? Perhaps he needs some wind down time....something to relax him prior to that big sleep? A nice warm relaxing bath, perhaps a massage, followed by a nice long feed in a dark warm room might be the trick? Feel free to tell me to shut my pie hole whenever you like BTW, just tossing ideas around, ok? LOL

Is it possile that he's a bit scared of the dark? Have you tried leaving a light on for him perhaps? Have you tried a comfort toy for him maybe?

I know how hard it is when you feel like you're spending forever getting up to them to settle them during the night. Trust me, I've been there and I hear you on the sleep deprivation! We were up to Jacob some 12 times a night (yep, you heard right!) most nights of the week. It was exhausting - for us, and him.

But I must say that persisting with the settling techniques that he seemed to respond to, really helped over time. I won't lie - it took a long time and I cried many tears out of tiredness and frustration, but he is much more confident in going to sleep now (and as a whole I believe) as he knows we've been there for him. We tried really hard to put in a place a routine for the evening and we followed it every night for him and he responded well to that - getting him to sleep wasn't the problem. It was keeping him asleep LOL!

So as I said, we were in to him frequently during the night, patting, rocking etc. It's hard work, but it does pass. I think a lot of it seems to tie in with developmental milestones too and their little minds are so active with learning new things.

Anyway, yet again, I've waffled on! Sorry!! Obviously sleep is an issue close to my heart! LOL