Leah- We have had Caitlyn in her own room since we got back out here when she was 3 or 4 weeks old. I can hear everything that goes on but the room is at the other end of our rather small house and we use a monitor. She seems to go alright by herself. I do bring her into bed with me after her 5 am wake up call though. When we have people staying at our place she will be sleeping in the portacot in our room.
Julia - We are not by the book at all. Caitlyn sleeps on her tummy during the day (helps with her wind), I always spray flyspray in the house cause we seem to get LOTS of bugs here. The whole peanut butter thing....I hate peanut butter so I dont have a drama with that. However, I had a bounty bar the other day and had a tiny (really tiny) bit of choclate on my finger and i stuckit in her mouth.....she didnt like it! Some books that I have read lately have said to not give baby water but we do....although I read one the other day that said I should add sugar to the water.....I wont do that.
In fact I have to say that we didnt even read that many books so have nothing to "go by" we have just tended to use common sense and a little bit of advice from family.
Anyway am off to surf facebook a little! MWAH