tomo

I successfully used Andrea Grace's Gentle Sleep Solutions book to help when I was night weaning my son at 11 months. I found it really helpful in terms of establishing exactly what I should do on night one, then night two etc. I reduced the amount of time I was breastfeeding him till it got down to a couple if minutes the put him down in his cot awake. I then used controlled crying when he protested, but you could use gradual withdrawal too. No advise on how to deal with his dislike of the cot, but I would imagine it's because he doesn't get to stay with you! We have recently enlisted the help of Nicola Watson to help with chronic early morning waking. I'd highly recommend contacting her if you want specific advise for your situation. She's incredibly supportive. The key to any sleep training is to find a plan that you feel comfortable with and stick to it. Consistency is key! With time it will get better. Good luck!

I'd love to come along too, with my 17 month old son. Hopefully meet some if you then!

Yes, b&q had some today although were selling fast.

I'm with the gardens surgery and have had on the whole, a very good experience there. I find it easy to get an appointment when I need one and they are always fantastic about seeing my son 17 months, the same day if necessary. I have never been made to feel like the neurotic new mother! The reception staff are lovely too. A great practice in my opinion.

I've been having problems viewing the activity pages on the edtots website too. Although it seems to be a mac specific problem, as I could see them fine on husbands laptop. Also rely on it almost daily so hope you find a fix soon!

Oh I feel your pain! It's such a tricky sleep problem to deal with. We're still no closer to finding a solution. Last night baby Tomo was up at 4am the previous night was 3.30! Which is just ridiculous! For us I'm sure it's all about him being overtired and then no being able to resettle when he comes into light sleep in the wee hours. Black blinds are an absolute must. I chopped up a magic blind so it actually fits the panes in his window and stuck them up with Velcro. Beyond caring about how ugly it looks! We've also reverted to using white noise to block out bird and plane noise in the morning. He's a bit obsessed with planes (or cars as he calls them) After 16 months though we've finally admitted defeat and have called on the help of the big guns- sleep consultant Nicola. Have our consult next week, so hopefully we'll find a solution that works. I agree about cutting back the morning nap though. They can use it as catch up. Good luck- hope you find a solution that works for you.

Thank you for all your input. I have to agree with you KateW. Everything that I have read on the subject of early morning waking (which is a lot!) suggest that the morning nap can be used as a catch sleep for the last section of night time sleep. So pushing that nap out is the way to go rather than making it earlier. I don't think it's hunger that's waking him, he eats really well, except sometimes when he's obviously teething, but even then it doesn't seem to make a difference to when he wakes up. He has yoghurt and banana before bed so isn't going to bed hungry. He's definitely teething at the moment. He's getting his top incisors through which isn't helping matters but I do think he's waking early for that first morning feed, which we need to finally drop.

Sounds the same as my son, he'll happily eat cereal with cows milk but when he's offered it as a drink he sips it then rubs it off his tongue. Will maybe give toddler milk a go, although feel similarly having not ever had to buy formula. But it'll hopefully only be a short term measure. My husbands away with work at the mo, but once he's back we'll tackle giving up the morning feed. Giving up the bedtime one wasn't as difficult as I thought it might have been, fingers crossed the morning follows suit. Pickle Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > She is funny with milk - is happy to have cows > milk on her cereal, but any time I have tried to > give it as a drink she point blank refuses. All > of her milk was breast milk until April when I had > to go to NZ for a week without her. Thankfully > about a week before that I had tried the toddler > milk and while initially she was reluctant to > taste it (she could see it was milk!) once she did > she was fine. It is a lot sweeter than cows milk, > and while it frustrates me to be buying formula > having survived without for well over a year, I > figure it is better than nothing. > > I started out replacing her morning milk with it > (she has this at the same time as breakfast). > Sometimes I try adding a little bit of cows milk, > but she always notices! > > Personally, although it will be tough initially, I > would stop giving him milk when he wakes. It > means his little system is used to having food at > that time, so food wise his day is always going to > start at that time unless you try and break the > cycle. You could do it gradually, push it back > 5/10 mins a day?

Thank you all for your replies. We had a slightly better night last night with 4.20am the first wake up (yes that's now considered good!) I've been offering him water when he wakes and he does seem thirsty, so think that he may not be taking in enough fluids during the day to compensate for the dropped bedtime feed. He doesn't ever seem to sit still long enough to have a big drink. Will definitely try alternative milks to see if we can find one he likes. Julie P, I think you're right, that he looks forward to the morning feed. I think I need to give up this final feed before we'll see any change.

Hi Pickle, yes he's sleep has always been a battle! He'd certainly only be having one nap if he didn't wake up so early! I sometimes push him through and do an early lunch at 11.30 and he crashes out at 12pm. But then he has a bad night and I can't face jollying him along till lunch, so give him the power nap to see him through to lunch. Interesting that your daughter will drink toddler milk. My son's never had any formula. Did she drink it willingly initially? I do breastfeed him first thing in the morning, so we can all doze for a little while longer. We don't give him breakfast until closer to 7am though. I do wonder if things might change once I give up the morning feed. Covex, my sympathies! Early morning waking is a unique kind of hell! 6am would be a dream in our house. I start worrying if on the odd occasion he's slept through till 6.30! Our son goes down to sleep awake in his cot since we did the sleep training, so it's not a sleep association thing. He's starting nursery for two days a week soon so that may have another knock on effect.

I need help! My 16 month old has always been a poor sleeper. We did some sleep training around 10-11months which did help and he has generally been sleeping through from a 7pm bedtime till around 5am (5.30 on a good day). We've resigned ourselves to the fact that he's an early riser and take it in turns to get up with him then. However in the past couple of weeks he has been waking earlier and earlier 4.30am and more recently 3am! His room is completely blacked out, so it's not light waking him. We thought it might have been teething pain causing him to wake, so have been giving him some calpol and telling him it's still sleepytime (his sleep cue), he will lie back down and go quiet but then wake again between 15-30 mins later only for us to do more controlled crying going in every couple of minutes to give him his cuddly toy that he's thrown out of his cot and lie him back down. Sometimes this will work and he'll go quiet again for a short time, but we invariable give up by 5am. It's exhausting! I've recently given up his bedtime breastfeed, so he only has one breastfeed in the morning now (hoping to give that one up too soon). He's never taken a bottle and doesn't drink cow's milk as he doesn't seem to like the taste of it, but eats a good varied diet and will eat lots of yoghurt cheese etc. I'm wondering if this might be the reason he's waking up? Has anyone experienced anything similar when giving up breastfeeding or is it just a coincidence? Not sure what to try next! He still has a very short nap in the morning at around 9.45 which I cap at 10mins and then an lunchtime nap at around 1- 1.30 usually for 1hour 30mins, although if he's very overtired he sometimes only has an hour. It's all feeling at bit soul destroying at the moment, so any advise anyone can offer on what worked for you would be gratefully received. Thank you!

He didn't park there in protest, he came round to apologise and thank me for not slashing his tyres (this is what he said he would have done if it had been him!) He just didn't notice that there was a car there. In addition we haven't turned our front garden into a parking space, it's a legitimate drive that led to a garage. I agree that it is a waste of police time, however I had no idea how long the car was to be parked there and needed to use my car, what else was I supposed to do? I think the council used to deal with such issues, but as I mentioned earlier they no longer deal with this as of 1st May.

No line painted, just a dropped kerb. The SNT fella said that it was an offence to block a car in, in such a driveway but not to block the drive when there is no car there. That was just inconsiderate.

Car was eventually moved last night around 8.30pm. In case this happens to anyone else, the safer neighbourhood number is the one to report it to. They came round this morning to get my 'version of events' and were going to speak to the owner.

Thank you. I contacted southwark council who said that as of 1st May they no longer remove cars. Have left message with safer neighbourhood team and tried contacting local police, but lines were busy with people reporting what i imagine are proper crimes. Hopefully the owner will have moved it by tomorrow.

Can anyone help? A car is blocking our driveway, (dropped kerb) and I can't get my car out. I need to know who I report it to in order for it to be moved. The number I had is no longer working and the replacement number has no answer. I've already had to cancel an appointment this afternoon because I can't get out. Southwark website didn't help. Thanks!

Another cloth fan here. Not as much hassle as I thought it might have been and you have all the benefits of cost saving over the long term (even more so if you have more than one child) no landfill etc. I especially like the fact that I don't have to worry about running out of nappies. We used them pretty much from birth when he was about two weeks old. We had already bought our stash before our son arrived precisely so we could get going with it straight away. We use bumgenius pockets and all in ones for during the day and tots bots bamboozles with a wrap and booster at night. Got advise from the nappy lady as to which ones would suit us.

Can't help with the Kings v Tommies debate because I also had my first at home last year with the marvellous Brierley midwives, who specialise in home birth. I was lucky enough not to have to transfer to hospital as everything went pretty smoothly even with a very big baby. This blog helped me put all those stats into perspective when that birth place study came out. http://hackneydoula.co.uk/?p=492 Good luck with your decision!

Luckily it was, but it's not on for the next three weeks. Back on the 24th april.

Does anyone know if the All saints playgroup is on today? Not sure when they break for Easter. Thanks

Panasonic is the one to get. We got given ours a few years back and use it everyday. Like that we know exactly what goes it our bread and we can reduce the amount of salt to suit my toddler's needs. You can set it so you put all the ingredients in in the evening and the next morning you have freshly baked bread! Marvellous! Edited for phone typo

We've got the tiny dinner placemat and it works well on our kitchen table but can be a bit hit and miss on other tables. It doesn't stick very well on varnished wood type tables, like the ones you often get in pubs. And if course sometimes it just gets pulled up altogether. On the plus side it's very portable. I usually use a elastic band to keep it rolled up afterwards.

So sorry to hear what you've been going through and glad you've finally got the help you need. Interestingly there was a feature on The Today Programme this morning about the lack if support for women suffering from pnd and antenatal depression. http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21612543 This is the organisation they set up to help women such as yourself- not sure if you're aware of them? http://www.pandasfoundation.org.uk/about-us.html Hope you begin to feel better soon. Cx

Thank you! I'll check out the Sterimar.

Your right, anything with decongestants are out as it dries up your milk supply. Although avoiding all cold remedies when ill and looking after a poorly baby too makes life pretty miserable, hence wanting to avoid getting ill again! Not sure what the active ingredient in Vicks first defence is though. I've just asked my sister in law who's a nurse and breastfeeding counsellor who said that as it acts locally (ie- you don't inhale it)it should be fine.