yeah murph i'm with the other's. I read it cover to cover after it was recommended by some friends (all whose baby's were bottle fed unlike Ash at the time) and promptly disregarded it.
i ended up giving it to a friend who was going to buy a copy. she mainly used it when her 2nd arrived to give her an idea of timings for managing 2 kids.
but I really didn't like the tone nor the do-or-die structure of it and I'm like marcellus, I just follow DS's tired signs and he goes to bed when he's tired and gets up when he's awake - and i find that he naturally has his own routine (which changes slightly day to day but is pretty much the same).
for what it's worth, Ash did the same thing when DH got home from being away ... a few days after he got home, he just decided that he WOULD NOT go to sleep without mummy or daddy with him. It took us two nights repeatedly going in and calming him before leaving and returning when he cried... but he soon got hte gist and managed to go back to sleep by himself. But it killed us! happened from 9pm to 11pm one night and from 2.30am to about 5am the next.
I do do some controlled crying (don't shoot me people!) but i think he's old enough to understand and I also am good at guaging his cries. Often they are 'hollow' whingey cries and if i look on our video monitor, his body language is relaxed and playful. So he gets left and often will eventually just lay down and go to sleep. I'm telling you this video monitor changed my parenting!!! i can see everything that little manipulator is doing to draw me in lol. telling you, these kids are crafty characters!
but we are also very structured in our bed routine ie change nappy, get dummy and sooky rag, have a cuddle/bottle if night time; at night he gets a couple of books and henry lawson's Andy's Gone with Cattle Now (bub loves this when dadddy sings it); then every single time (except in the middle of the night of course) i sing twinkle twinkle while cuddling and as i put him down say "it's sleeping time now, nigh nigh" and leave.
I sing twinkle in cafes, in the street, in the imaging centre this morn as that's his major sleep cue - i have dummy, sooky rag, clean bum, my song... Oh! it's bed time. i'm a terrible singer too! but it works! lol.
murph, i think read the book and make up your own mind. there are certainly some good suggestions but i think you need to take it with a grain of salt... BUT horses for courses so if it works for you - then that's great.
oh ramble!!!! what were you saying KellyD!!!
oh one more thing, Ash had his 2nd kidney scan today... remember when he was born we had to get one down and they found one kidney was slightly not formed properly??? (we had a single umbicial artery during pregnancy - where you suualy have 2, ash had 1) so anyway, find out the results in a couple of weeks when we're home. I get the impression that even if it is slightly "not perfect'' it's no biggy... i hope!
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