Couple of things about this... Nothing will help a baby "sleep through the night" except maturity. Giving them cereal to try to do this is a well-worn wive's tale. Solids are discouraged by the AAP before six months because avoiding them decreases the incidence of allergies. Babies have very sensitive GI tracts. They're not meant to eat solids this early. As someone already mentioned, give solids before they're ready and sometimes this can backfire, cause GI upset/gas/hard stools and they (and you) will be up more. (But with number one child, I tried it early anyway. Didn't do a darn thing.) Babies wake a lot during the first months/year because of many things...First, their sleep cycles are not like adults (takes years to get to that point). Their's last only 45 minutes long. And "sleeping through the night", MEDICALLY-speaking is considered a single five hour stretch. So if you put Junior down at ten, and he sleeps until 3am, THAT is considered sleeping through the night. And it can be YEARS before you see them do the 8-10 hour thing (and even then, they don't necessarily do it consistantly..might do it one night and then won't again for weeks...). Every child is different in this area. (Some do it very early, but I always tell new moms, don't count on it.) Growth spurts will wake them (they'll want to eat more)..teething...gas or GI discomfort..something you ate (if you're breastfeeding)..reflux...illness...and all of the developmental leaps they go through. If they are about to 'do' something new, THAT will also inevitably increase night-waking. This would be things like rolling over, sitting up, crawling, standing/walking..language development, you name it. (*If you watch them closely, you might see them acting some of this out in their sleep.) Too much stimulation during the day (like lots of family activity)..changes in their routine because of other family needs (like having them out during naptime). Basically you name it, it can cause them to wake up. And if it's not one thing, it's another..My 7 month old ds started to crawl, a few days later pulled himself, caught his sister's mild cold, and just cut two teeth..All in a two week period! Lemme tell you, we've had a lot of late-night partying these past couple of weeks! LOL! And it will end when he's done with it. So, sometimes it can be more than one thing going on at the same time. With two kids, this is my only advice about sleep. You can make it conducive for baby to sleep, but you can't MAKE EM sleep. A calming routine, a calm household, a warm bath, cuddling, eating, rocking (whatever) can lull him down IF he's ready to go. If they don't want to go, ain't going to happen. Not like they have a sleep switch (and trust me, if they have one, I would've found it! I looked! LOL!). That's the bad news (if there's any bad news with babies). The GOOD news is that this time period doesn't last forever. Blink, and they're crawling. Blink twice and they're walking. Blink several more times and they're riding a tricycle and sleeping like a log. That first year goes by in a flash...but yes, you will have some year-long nights. And then all of a sudden it hits you that your 'baby' is not a baby anymore..they're a KID. Running, climbing, laughing, talking up a storm, playing...And then something weird happens. The woman that wished that her baby would go to sleep, now wonders where her baby went? And would he/she please slow down enough for a lap cuddle? :)) I'm 40 years old and this is my last baby. Although the sleep deprivation is really kicking my behind, I'm ever mindful that I'm not going to do this again. And considering that my first baby is going to start kindergarten in the Fall (how did THAT happen so fast??), I already know how quickly this part of motherhood is over...The baby that woke up every two hours for almost a YEAR (I'm not kidding), and currently sleeps like a rock, came up to me the other night and said "Mom, when will it OFFICIALLY be my bedtime?" I told her and she said "fine, thanks for letting me know"..and trotted upstairs, got into bed, snuggled down and went to sleep (She turns five in March). My how things change! LOL! So hang in there ladies, you'll do fine whether or not they sleep when you want them to. And cherish the baby time. It's amazingly fleeting...

Don't know of a book, but when my dr. recommended the Ferber method--not letting them cry it out, but not giving in either. Wait 5 minutes before going in, the next time wait 10, etc. until it just isn't worth the child's effort. I'm sure if you looked up Ferber on the web, you'd get lots of info. It suited my parenting style, too--lovingly consistent, letting a child know they can "count" on me, but trying not to be manipulated, etc. It seemed good middle ground stuff and it worked. I started having a problem around 9 months, too, during cold and flu season. What started out as sympathy on my part ended up as routine for DD--several wake-ups with mommy running in. Within a week, the Ferber method greatly improved everyone's sleep. She's now 2.5 and I have had to go back to it occasionally (after a vacation, illness etc.) but it's not taken more than 2 nights to get her "back on track"--with the exceptions of nightmares, of course, which do require cuddles. Good luck and hope you get some rest.

Firstly, beagles like to play with small fluffy things. If you're not going to seperate the animals by crating, or whatever, your beagle WILL play with the cats. My beagle will wake from a dead sleep, to play with the cats if it's near. These are dogs that are bred to hunt small furry critters. So naturally the ones not bred to hunt, will still have the instinct to go after small furry critters. If the cats were harassing the beagle in his crate, cover the crate, or put it in a room with the door closed. Beagles are stubborn. The chances of you being able to train that dog not to go upstairs at night, is very slim. they are mischevious, smart, and hard headed. They know when you're not there to give them heck, and they'll do whatever they please. Most beagles like to chew. Give your dog something to do when it's night time, so he doesn't get bored and decide to give himself something to do. Also at 5 months, he's still teething, and needs to chew. As for the howling, try SG's method, but also make sure you're correcting noise during the day, out of the crate too. 5 months is too young to understand the difference between when something is allowed, and not allowed. If you allow noise during the day, he will naturally think he can be noisey at night. Expecting a puppy (let alone a beagle puppy) to be as well and quickly trained as a border collie, is unreasonable. I will tell you right now, most beagles are puppyish in their behaviour and stubborness for over a year. They're hounds. They aren't stupid, or dumb. They're quite the opposite. They're manipulative and extremely smart. They know exactly what they're doing more often than not. You need to establish yourself as pack leader to them, or they will establish themselves as pack leader, and all your rules will go right out the window. My beagle is now two, and she is the best dog I have ever had. But for the first year I swore I'd never get another hound. But now I would have 30 if I could. It takes time and patience, all dogs and breeds are different so don't have expectations based on past experiences, focus on this dog and it's needs and learning abilities/speed and you'll do much better and be a lot less frustrated. Also, this forum has helped a ton with behavioural problems for all my animals, the few things I couldnt do on my own, most of the people on here really know their stuff.

I had a horrible nightmare again this morning at about 4 AM, and I had to stay up long enough for the memory of it to fade. I think I need to look into the effects of cheese and dreams because I did have some Brie last night late in the day. It's a snack I like to have late at night, and I'm not sure how often it causes nightmares, or whether it is the cause at all. I also ordered some Magnesium taurate supplements to see whether they can help. I'm going to see my doctor tomorrow regarding new BP medication that he had prescribed for me (Nifedipine ER) that I believe is causing my feet and ankles to swell. This is a know side effect of this medication, and so I plan to stop taking it after I get my doctor to prescribe something else. The dream I had this morning was another university nightmare, but this time I was going back to the first university that I had attended but was being put into on campus residential housing. I was assigned a roommate that I liked, but when we went to our housing, it was in a large building that we had to share with a lot of other students, and there were very few defining walls to separate the individual spaces, and so I could not tell where our space ended and someone else's began. I wanted to have more walls to provide privacy, and this was causing me anxiety that made me wake up. The interactions I had with other students and staff were particularly disturbing. The closet that I thought was going to be ours was already full of someone else's stuff, including a huge collection of heads or busts that were storing wigs. Some of the busts were somewhat grotesque, and I wanted them out of our closet. There were also a lot of very small dresses on hangers in this closet that looked like they were meant for dolls. There was an office in the building with managers, and I tried to get them to define the limits of the space that we were supposed to occupy, and so they started painting lines on the floor to show exactly where our space was. The lack of real walls was what caused me the most anxiety, and so I woke up and was afraid to go back to sleep. I do appreciate all of the good advice that I have received here and will try to implement more of it - especially the suggestions right before going to sleep. Yesterday or the day before I was watching old episodes of Candid Camera with my brother, and there was one that had a small girl in the early 1960s being interviews by Alan Funt. At one point, she talked about having nightmares, and she said that when that happened, she would tell herself to redirect the dream to something positive, and this worked for her. Unfortunately, this has not worked for me, but I will keep trying.