Evening ladies,

I feel so depressed today, I'm starting to realise I am doing everything wrong with Cameron!!! Basically, although we have a routine, Cam sleeps for very short periods of time during the day. Today after his bottle at 10.30 am he slept for only 20 minutes. I took him to the gymbaroo class and of course he was pretty grizzly as he was still tired. Then after we came home, he had a feed (he was due for one) and only slept for 10 minutes!!!! Of course by late afternoon he was hysterical as he was so over tired. I think my problem is that after he has a short sleep I don't try to leave him to re settle himself back to sleep. He knows that by whingeing I will pick him up, so de does and that's where I'm failing. Also, I am doing the sleep/play/feed routine instead of the sleep/feed/play, so he tends to fall asleep after his bottles (he associates feed with sleep). When I put him to sleep he is almost or fully asleep so he doesn't know how to put himself to sleep. I have to rock him to sleep which is really bad as he is always counting on me to rock him to sleep. I went to my hairdresser friend today and she has a baby girl 2 weeks older than Cam. She says that Layla has a 2 hour sleep from 8.30 to 10.30 am, and then again from 12.30 to 2.30. She then has an hour nap from 4 to 5 and then goes to bed at 7 and wakes up at 7. What I am doing wrong???? No wonder I am going out of my head trying to entertain a baby throughout the day because he is up for most of it. She did say she took Layla to sleep school at 6 weeks old (Rooey, it's the Koo Wee Rupp Sleep School, comes highly recommended), and they basically taught her ways to make Layla sleep longer through the day. They don't believe in CC, they showed her how to resettle Layla if she wakes up after a short period of time. My problem is that I pick Cam up too soon if he wakes up after half an hour for example, when he is clearly still tired. She said they encourage the patting and walking away thing, but my problem is I can't stand Cam crying so I pick him up. He of course has worked out that if he wants to be picked up he needs to cry. I feel like a failuire today, I feed guilty of not establishing good routines and poor Cam is only doing what I taught him......Sorry for the vent, just feel pretty low. Glad everyone is going well.

B xxx