Dear Tizzie,
It's not me...it's you...
I'm going to say this right off the bat, I'm a fan of routine. I know that may not go down with some mums, but I need a routine to get me through the day. I like knowing that Angus will be in bed at 7pm, and he likes it too.
Your book was a godsend at the start, I followed it to the tee from 8 weeks. We did the self settling techniques and the 7pm bus, the dreamfeed, and the schedule, and it worked. It was like magic. Angus wasn't sleeping through the night, but he would go down at 7pm and at least have a few hours before needing the dreamfeed at 10.30pm.
You stated that any baby using your routine would be sleeping through within 3-6 days...well Tizzie I hate to tell you, it's been 6 months!
The pages of your book have become worn and dog-eared from flicking through desperate to find an answer or solution to the problem. Teething? Well you don't believe it should disrupt sleep (come live here for a week and see if you change your mind!). Sleep associations? I wasn't rocking or feeding Angus to sleep, so I could eliminate that one. Not warm enough? Well I piled on and took off layers (including your reccomended 5 blankets), but still no sleep through!!
And then one day I decided to rebel. Chuck your routine out the window and drop the dreamfeed. Nooooooo you screamed in your book, don't do it till your baby is sleeping through! Well I could be waiting for another year for that milestone!
Guess what Tizzie? It worked! My little 6 month old slept 10 hours straight that night. Now granted, it hasn't happened every night since, but it is definitely happening a lot more since I stopped following your strict guidelines.
What I've learnt from books like yours, is that you don't take into account that every baby is different. They are not robots who can be programmed to fit into our lives and schedules. They have personalities (some more cheeky than others!), and they have bad days and nights, just like us.
So Tizzie, while our fling was a relatively short and passionate one, I'm going to have to say goodbye and pop your book on the bottom of my go-to list.
Yours sincerely,
Mum to a beautiful little boy (who's now sleeping through!!!)
Read more from Erin on her blog, Sleepless in St Kilda
