"Hi. i've just ordered your book from Kalahari.net, however delivery is only in 10 working days as I live in south Africa.

In the interim, I need your speedy assistance as my lil girl sleep issues are compounding day by day, and I need guidance ahead of the 2 week book wait. Thanking you in advance.

From birth till 4 wk, she had great sleep habits. Good day naps (averaging 2 hrs each) and normal newborn evenings. Btw, shes
exclusively bf.

Anyways I was told due to lil ones green stools to bf on her demand and duration. I did this but became oversensitive to this and always offered breast first. I believe I caused the prob by feeding her when she wanted to sleep. The result being that from 4 wks till 8 wks she had minimal to no daysleep. She was regularly cranky, and would quickly escalate into unconsolable screaming/tantrums. I knew this was related to lack of sleep.

On advice, from week 8 till now (wk 14 starts today), she has been on a sleep/feed routine of feed every 2h30min and sleep max 1hr after start of feed-time, regardless of what time she awoke. The result being that she is now having very short day naps - approx 3-4 ranging betw 20 min & 45min each. She is not as crabby as b4, but still has her regular whining sessions and still escalates to full scale screaming.

Regardless of the above, her night sleep has been unaffected (down at latest 7pm, up max 2 times in night, up for day at 7am). Except in last week she is now waking 4 times at night, and last night has been up every hour betw 6pm and 6am this morning.

In addition, she regularly falls asleep at breast. When getting her to nap in day, she requires rocking (always), sometimes dummy, sometimes breast(when all else fails). She doesn't take a dummy any other time. She has never been able to put herself to sleep, and doest know how to self soothe

I want to restore my babys precious sleep, as it is important and makes a huge difference to her disposition. Plse help.

Plse advise an interim solution to restoring sleep soonest and then a longer term plan, once I have the book. Also, if she starts sleeper longer in day, will she not miss out on feeds, and hence require more at night.If within 90 min awake time, she falls asleep at breast, do I still put her to sleep 90min after her awake time, excl snooze/nap at breast.

Ps: I am not willing to employ cry it out at all. Tx for your understanding"

- Shaadia, Durban, South Africa

Hi, Shaadia,

I'm glad you're enjoying the success of reading your baby's signs of sleepiness, and that she's falling asleep regularly. Have your baby's naps changed in duration in the past few days?

Some moms tell me after a few days, the baby's naps begin to lengthen in duration, while other moms report an immediate lengthening of naps.

If they are still short length naps, check that the interval between naps is consistent at around 90-minutes.

At 14 weeks, I'm not overly concerned about the baby's need to fall asleep while breastfeeding.

She will have time later on to learn self-soothing.

If I were in your shoes at least for the time being breastfeeding is facilitating her sleep.

I suspect your baby is still catching up on lost sleep!

I'm hopeful that the nap duration will lengthen as she continues to catch up on the lost sleep.

Polly.