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A lot of babies practice new skills in bed at night. Often in their sleep. My son used to run back and forth in his cot like a lunatic! I think they are okay to be left to their activities, but the hard part is I felt compelled to lie awake in bed and listen to make sure he was safe. Just another crazy baby phase I suspect.

It did work for me, enjoyed it. Thanks!

Snowboarder, the good thing about having a hideous sleeper is that you are not really affected by travel. The first long haul flight we did was when my son was one, and he fared no better or worse than what we were already used to. You've been training for this for months :) (oddly I think he slept a bit better than at home once there). It's the parents of good sleepers who suffer since they're just not used to being up all night........ We did that first big trip against my better judgement, but it ended up being really fantastic and I have really fond memories. Have a great trip!

Snow!

I think that was written by my son!

My husband is in so much trouble! - didn't get a present - didn't get a spa treatment - didn't get help at home - didn't get a night off from feedings - nobody ever made me dinner - if I was lucky I got a shower grrrr I should NOT have read this thread - Rook it's a shame you're taken because you sound like a catch!

The child in the video is Severn Susuki. She is the daughter of David Suzuki, a highly respected environmental scientist. As far as I'm concerned, he is Captain Canada! Love him....... David Suzuki Foundation

I took my son to it a few times but didn't think it was that great. My son is a bit of a "free spirit" shall we say, and the girl who was teaching the classes seemed to have more of a background in theatre/dance than child development. I'm sure that's true of a lot of these classes, but I was annoyed that she rolled her eyes at him more than she tried to properly include him. I think I left every class angry, not really the point of going. He wasn't quite two yet, maybe part of the problem. It might be better for three and up. I think they offer a free class, maybe try and see what you think? Think it was ?3 per class. On the other hand, we did Little Bubbles and Claire was absolutely fantastic with my son and worked pretty hard to get him to join the activities. I found having a teacher who knows a bit about working with children made all the difference.

I look much worse in a swimming costume (everything seems, um, weirdly flabby......even my knees !!????) but for the first time in my life I actually don't care at all. I have never been less self-conscious in my life. Feels really nice.

Just saw this piece this morning...... nothing too deep but sums it up I think moms edited to say: please ignore the "climate change is a hoax" type mumbo jumbo in the margins...... sadly these are real politicians speaking and this Sarah Palin-esque right wing rag is the local newspaper (shudders). Whenever I'm homesick I read the Herald...... sorts out the homesickness pretty quickly!

Thanks so much for the post. We tried it and it's really fantastic!

alieh, good point about going from zombie to just really really tired. If you can get just that little bit of extra sleep, it's amazing the effect on your ability to cope. I , like you, thought I had PND but realized that I was just beyond exhausted. I also really liked what you said about comparing babies, it's so true. It seemed at the time that all of my friends with same aged babies were doing okay, and many were actually sleeping quite well. I think that knowing this was almost as harmful to me as the actual sleep deprivation. It did sometimes make me angry. And I started to take it personally. I really had to learn to filter out the messages I was getting because I was going crazy. Snowboarder, at the end of the day I think it's worth remembering that everything you are doing is out of love and if you need to put your baby down for a bit to get a grip on things it doesn't mean you that you are cold or mean or love your baby less than the next person. It just means you are human and it is clear that your little guy gets loads of love and affection and care. I know plenty of people who have gone to extremes in both directions, and I can't honestly say there is any difference in how happy or well adjusted any of their kids are. There are as many experts out there declaring one theory over another, and if any of it was conclusive we wouldn't need to debate this. I think the only thing that really messes up a child is emotional neglect, and clearly baby SB is not in danger of this. I think I have a point here, bit of a ramble, but oh yeah...... my point is you won't break him or mess him up if you just do whatever feels right. By all means, hold him and snuggle him and inhale that delicious baby smell as long and as much as you can. But alieh said, only you know what you can live with, or what you need for that matter. Whatever you do, that little boy will be fine! :)

Not quite sure where this thread is going?

Hmmm, well that makes my son yet another parenting mystery I guess.

And sillywoman I love that story about your son.

Oh Snowboarder, I'm sorry that this is stressing you out. I hope my advice hasn't contributed to your stress, it wasn't meant to. I really do know what your position feels like and EVERONE'S an expert. Even my middle aged gay male friends had advice for me! :) Can you believe it? I think only you can decide if the sleep stuff is a problem for you. If you are a sleep deprived maniac (like I was) then there's your answer. If you feel like you are still at least somewhat in your comfort zone, then that is fine too and there is no point in getting stressed by anyone else's stories or experiences. I really can only speak for myself, and I was in hell. Other people have babies who wake in the night but still manage to get just enough sleep to not lose their minds completely. Just for perspective, the nights that I got more than four hours of sleep (very rare) I felt like a new woman (obviously not in a row but if I counted up the hours in between wakings), THAT'S how extreme my situation was. FYI, that article said more body contact meant less colic (wrong!) and formula fed babies sleep longer (wrong!) so I'm not convinced anybody really has any idea how these little guys work. As someone trained in the social sciences, I eventually turned my attention from the never ending theory out there and just looked at methods of approaching it. Less talk more action, as they say! :)

My husband bought ours without doing any research, not my style :) We ended up with one that only has a three hour battery life (I would look for one with more but not the end of the world). Ours also came without any way to attach to seat , but we did manage to find a thingy it goes into to strap on the seat. Those would be my two criteria. We recently ended up on a 10 hr flight to discover the on flight t.v.'s were not working. THANKFULLY we had the dvd so it wasn't a disaster....... can't say I would ever travel without it again! Also recently spent a weekend in a little hotel room with one sports channel. Again, dvd to the rescue. (My it sounds like my kid does nothing but watch tv... not true!) But it sure does take the edge off.........

My son just turned three and seems to be dropping his nap these days. He went from the 9 and 2 nap schedule down to one lunchtime nap (about 2 hours) when he was roughly 15 or 16 months, and that routine has stayed until recently. Yes, that means that for 2 years I have had a two hour break in the afternoon. He seems tired in the day but will NOT lie down for a nap now, but will always fall asleep in the car (kind of a pain frankly!) Part of the problem for us was that I let him sleep in the car, buggy, baby swing etc.. so they were never consistent or real naps. I don't think that "dropping from exhaustion" is part of a healthy sleep routine. Some babies can get by that way, as I kept telling myself, but really my son was not one of those babies and I ignored that for a long time. Even now, if in the car or buggy he will sleep for exactly one hour, at home in his quiet cozy bed two hours. What does that say? It is so worth it to get them into napping. The time for you in the day is priceless, and I absolutely believe the theory of "sleep begets sleep". If my son got overtired he simply would not go to bed easily at night and the night would be fitful. Speaking as someone who has been on both sides (horrible sleeper with nightmare non-schedule to brilliant sleeper with brilliant schedule) it is so obvious to me now where I was going wrong (easy to say in hindsight isn't it?) I look back and am so glad that I persevered and cracked it, and my only regret is that I didn't do it sooner. I have friends who sort of mocked my rigid nap schedule, because I have been relatively inflexible about making social plans that interfere with it. But then they were still up two or three times in the night with an 18 month old, arguing over whose turn it was to get up. I guess it comes down to what you can live with.

Sorry - want to add also the misery sounds right. The mouth sores are awful and painful, they can't eat or drink anything so that's what makes it so unpleasant. My little guy lived on iced lollies for a week (I made my own from fruit juice and liquid vitamins).

nunheadmum Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > One other possibility is hand, foot and mouth > which is ulcers in the mouth and also possibly on > the fingers and toes. It's worth checking his > hands and feet as I'm not sure GP's always pick up > on it - my GP didn't with me. As it's viral, I'm > not sure they can do much but let it run it's > course. > We just went through this, not fun and not treatable. But it's over in about a week and life goes on. If he has small white sores in his mouth, and little red dots on his hands and feet, then you can be pretty sure that's what it is. Apparently it's rampant in nurseries and pre-schools. I'd never even hear of it before I googled "spots on hands and feet" : edited to delete same message twice (?)

I know. I know exactly how tired you are. So tired that the "jet lag on jet lag on jet lag" analogy doesn't even describe it. I cried every single day from exhaustion and frustration. I think the only energy I had was from the hope that it would work. As far as I was concerned I had nothing to lose, it really was that bad. I had tried everything, listened to a thousand well intended pieces of advice, read every book, googled every parenting website....... also I felt robbed of my first year with my baby, more torture than bliss, and was determined to turn it around and start really enjoying him. At ten months I realized that it was going to take a lot more than hope to get this kid to sleep! I really think that babies like ours don't just one day become good sleepers. Some of them need to be taught how, and some, like mine, need to also be un taught the demanding habits learned in the early months. Lots of things we were doing at 4 months seemed harmless but I later understood how they made things worse as we went on. I promise you, it does get better. For myself, I really started to be a mother and not just a survivor once I was getting a bit of sleep. I've mentioned before that I owe my life to the Baby Whisperer, but I also remember other people convinced that their favourite would work but it didn't fit for me. I'd be happy to walk you through the process if you end up trying it......

Sorry sillywomen, didn't get to the sleep horror stories tales that I've lived to tell. Feel like I've monopolized the thread for now.....

Same old story with these guys isn't it? :) What I had to do to settle mine, who was at that point around 10 months , was to start in the daytime. He would not, ever, under any circumstances, go to sleep in his cot and I knew that was a big problem. Sooooooo I chose two naptimes, 9 a:m and 2 p:m. At exactly naptime we went to his room and I put him in his cot. Then I pulled up a stool and read a book with a tiny little book light, not paying him any attention (very dark and quiet room BTW). He was a wild man for about 45 minutes, jumping and screeching etc. (not crying though, just kind of manic. Probably very confused!) but I basically just read my book and once in a while said " shh, your okay, but it's sleeptime. Lie down now". After about an hour he sat down, then lay down, and eventually just gave up the fight and fell asleep. This tedious process lasted about a week, maybe more, but gradually he took less and less time to drift off. Sometimes I would just hold his hand and say "good boy, sleepy time, good boy" and he seemed to like that. I won't lie, I think it took a good four weeks or so to get to the point where I could lie him down for his nap and walk away but I did get there and I cannot tell you what that felt like. But it was not emotionally hard like letting them cry because I was right next to him to assure him. I found it so much more pleasant and comforting really than listening to him cry. But those hours were LONG let me tell you! That was the critical part because I had officially trained him to go to sleep, on his own, in his cot. I noticed a huge difference at bedtime and later night wakings just because of that. Anyway with night wakings the pick up/ put down can take hours. Not joking. My son has a tenacity I've rarely seen in another child (we've decided to believe that will be to his advantage when he's older :)) He was MAD as hell when I picked him him, soothed him, and then put him back down, and he did not go down without a fight. But after , oh I don't know, 50 or 60 times in about an hour, even he realized that the gig was up. I did try a lot of these things when he was younger, but didn't realize how long the process would take so gave up, thinking it just wasn't working on my tough guy. Desperation drove me to commit to doing it for as long as it takes. And it changed our lives as a family. In no time we could put him in his cot at 7, say goodnight and walk away, and he'd be up at 7 the next morning. Oh and proper naps, in his cot, at 9 and 2. That is a HUGE difference from up every hour of the night, unable to settle again at 1 and 4 a:m, up for the day at 6 and the sporadic cat naps around the day. Oh and GRUMPY (both of us) from an obviously unhealthy sleep rhythm. The good thing about learning these skills was also that I finally understood how to approach my son, as he was never textbook and quite a demanding little monkey! As it turns out, the same methods have worked for most things with him...... I have to be consistent and firm or he will test and test and look for a week spot! edited to add: in the night waking situation, the trick is to say very little and keep the hugs and kisses to a minimum....just pick up, soothe, say "you're okay, I love you but it's sleepytime" and put them back down. Say as little as possible, because as I said earlier, they know mommy's weak spots and yes it is emeotional balckmail that they are playing at! They are way smarter than we give them credit for and those little guys know EXACTLY what they're doing :)

Sounds just like my little guy was, only he started around four months. Pure torture. He never could sleep with us either. Still can't. He just gets too excited and nobody gets any sleep. I'm afraid the only thing that got us out of that cycle was the old "pick up/ put down" method by the Baby Whisperer. I think if you google it you can find the method, super straight forward but mind-numbingly tedious. Nothing compared to sleep deprivation though! It can take a few (hundred :)) tries but it really does work. I have yet to hear a worse baby sleep story than my own (and here I am to tell the tale ::o) so if it worked for my little bundle of joy........... Hope it helps!

We're going to do that too. Just a bit worried that he will think of Father Christmas as that mean man who steals important things from small children :) We tried to do it with his birthday (Birthday Fairy) but realized he was starting to dread his birthday so we decided it wasn't worth it. Good luck!