KateW

What a stressful time for you all. I'm so sorry that you're having to deal with all this. How long a nap is he having during the day? I agree that he needs some sleep during the day, but I'm wondering if he is having too much sleep during the day and that is contributing to his night waking?

Buggie, I think that the issue with the HV's advice is that the baby is 4 WEEKS OLD. If the baby was 20 weeks old, then yes, maybe a suggestion to the parent to start trying to help the baby to nap in a cot, would have been appropriate. I would still have questioned the use of the phrase 'bad habits' even then. I would have expected a professional health care worker to understand more the needs of a 4 week old and have more sensitivity to the anxieties of a new Mum. I'm speaking as a very routine-led Mum of a toddler, who worked very hard to get my daughter into good napping 'habits'. I am currently pregnant with our second baby and have ordered a sling so that I can carry my baby for the first few months and will not worry in the slightest about creating 'bad habits' because, like many previous posters have written, nothing can't be fixed from those very early months.

Do you use black out blinds?

Aaaaah, incisors! Our daughter suffered terribly with her canines - her last molars were a walk in the park after those! Take heart in the fact that, if he is eating well, it is most likely his teeth that are causing him to wake early. My daughter would cry out in pain at 3/4am when cutting her canines: I would give her Nurofen, a quick cuddle, then back in her cot and she would sleep til 6/7am. When I knew she was teething, I would often just curl up on a mattress in her room and dose until she went back to sleep. I

We have a little girl who is 2.5 and I'm pregnant with a little boy, due in October (there will be a 3 year age gap). I feel so lucky that we are going to have one of each; I think it will be really interesting to experience being a parent to both a boy and a girl. I grew up with a younger sister (18 months age gap) and we certainly aren't close; at times we've had a very turbulent relationship (she has often suffered raging jealousy towards me in the past - regarding marriage, children etc - no idea why as she is happily married with a 7 month old baby girl!) so I have never been under the illusion that having a sister guaranteed a life-long friend. Like Jollybaby, I have more girlfriends who have positive relationships with their brothers than do with their sisters. That said, I was convinced that we were having another girl (just a feeling) so it took a little while to sink in that I was having a boy. Couldn't be more chuffed now. Hope you start to feel less anxious soon x

At 16 months, he will be getting/should be getting all the nourishment he needs from his daily intake of food; in other words, milk at bedtime is more of a comfort/enjoyment thing rather than a necessity. If you are worried he is waking hungry, I would up his calorie intake during the day. Also, sorry, but I disagree with Minder about the earlier nap: if little ones wake early and then have their first nap early, this reinforces the early waking because their body clock knows they will be able to catch up on the sleep in a few hours after waking. The theory behind pushing through to a later morning nap (yes, lots of 16 month olds still have a quick morning cat nap) is to break the waking early habit, so they have a quick cat nap, before a big nap after lunch. By the time he is managing on just a 10 minute nap, you can drop this out altogether and push on through until after lunch. Just a thought.

Our daughter, who was a brilliant sleeper both for naps and through the night at that age, did like to wake up early (5.30am ish) until we dropped her morning nap at 14 months. Once we stopped giving her that 15 minute catnap, she had one long nap after lunch and that cracked the early waking (never woke before 6.15am after that and only early if teething). I would: 1) Agree an acceptable get-up time for you (say 6am) and don't get him up before then. 2) Stop giving him the BF when he wakes. We gave our daughter her breakfast first, then milk, to stop the association of getting milk on waking up. 3) Tell him it's still night time and tell him to go back to sleep. Reassure him, but don't get him out of the cot and tell him that you are going back to sleep. 4) Ignore his shouts. he will soon learn to lie quietly (and hopefully go back to sleep) 5) Be consistent. Agree a plan and see it through. It can take a week or 2 to combat early waking. 6) Our daughter always woke early when teething and we found Nurofen eased her pain much better than calpol. 7) She adapted better than I thought she would at pushing through until lunch for her nap. Very quickly she was on 1-3pm nap. 8) Get to bed early yourselves and accept that, for the time being, you have an early riser. I found accepting the situation was a big help to me. 9) good luck. Early mornings are a killer!

Alphablocks on Cbeebies followed up by the Alphablocks books. We do little 5 minute bursts of the programme followed by the book and my daughter loves it. At 2 and a half, she can phonetically spell her name and can certainly recognise most of the letters by their phonetic sounds.

VW Passat estate, diesel. Love it.

We do a lot like Fuschia, plus: Toasted bagel with cream cheese Wraps with cheese and ham Fish cakes Cheese and crackers Beans and toast Cheese and tomato flatbreads (from Sainsburys)

My daughter (now 29 months) has always been a pretty good sleeper and I did a 10.30pm feed (woke her, not a dream feed) religiously til she was about 5 months old. (She was BF til 3 months then formula). I stopped because, despite having a late feed, she never slept later than 5.30am, when she would wake, have a feed then I'd try and get her back to sleep til 7am. So, at 5 months, I just stopped giving her the feed and she slept from 7pm til 5.30am, quick feed then get her back to sleep til 7am. meant I could go to bed at 9pm and have a better sleep. Have you tried just not giving it to him?

My daughter didn't walk until 17/18 months; don't worry, they all get there at their own pace! She was a really early talker though and has been chatting away in sentences from a young age. My HV said they often focus on developing a certain skill at one time, so in my daughter's case, it was verbal communication early, walking later.

Chicken and butternut squash risotto. Make a basic risotto and add shredded chicken and cooked, diced butternut squash, big handful of cheddar and spoonful of mascapone. My 2 year old loves it. Made a big batch earlier today and have frozen 3 more batches of it for her.

Your Child Benefit is reduced by 1% for every ?100 you earn over ?50k, so for example, if you earn ?55k, you will lose half your CB, which is why it is withdrawn once you reach ?60k.

We bought the Little Tikes Wooden Kitchen for our 26 month old daughter a few months ago. It wasn't cheap, but we figured it was probably something she would play with for years. It's fantastic and she plays with it every single day. It has lots of cupboards to open and keep things in, which she loves.