I'm having a truly horrible time of things today. And yesterday. And for the last however many days.
My DD is 6 months. EBF, won't take a dummy or bottle. Only naps after feeding and usually on my lap/in buggy/in a carrier. She doesn't really know how to get herself to sleep as I've always done it for her. I didn't set out to do this, it's just what happened. I didn't want her to cry and she fell asleep easily feeding, so it just seemed like the path of least resistance. When this began it was also a couple of times a night when she was very little so probably just hungry. Since 4 months though she wakes up every couple of hours and wants to feed back to sleep every time. If she doesn't she'll scream for a good while before exhausting herself.
She rejected dummys and though we persevered a bit, I decided not to push it too much as I thought it was one less thing to wean her off when she was older. Tried a bottle with expressed milk but I have this enzyme that makes it taste rancid and soapy after its expressed so she regurgitated/rejected it every time till we gave up.
A few weeks ago she was sick and waking up constantly so I started cosleeping with her so I could get more sleep whilst she fed back to sleep. I'm happy to do this if it works, but can't figure out what's best for the long term.
She's stopped napping easily a week or so ago. Whilst never a great napper she would fall asleep whilst out or if I sat down to feed her when she was sleepy. Recently though she fights every nap, cries all the time because she's tired, and is desperate for bed at 5pm. We pulled bedtime back in the hope it would allow her more sleep but she's often waking up at 3am and struggling to get back to sleep. She's also started howling and crying if she can't fall asleep easily as she's so wound up.
I know I've created some difficult habits- I had no idea that I was at the time but I now feel like an absolute failure. I just wanted to be there for her and hold her and do whatever I could but I feel like I've ruined everything.
My husband is great but busy with work. We moved across the country when I was pregnant so I don't have any family or old friends nearby. I've made some friends recently but don't want to appear needy or clingy by phoning all the time, so am trying to push through this by myself as best I can.
I just honestly don't know what to do. She was up for 6-7 hours today before eventually falling asleep on me. I've started feeling dizzy this last week or so... I'm just starting to lose it I think.
I'm hoping someone can offer me some advice or hold my hand, but am feeling lousy enough as is so please don't lay into me for my parenting choices.
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Parenting
On the edge - can anyone hold my hand?
CeeCee00 · 20/07/2016 12:50
You sound like you're doing a great job. It is hard at that age and I think the most important thing is to remember the rod for your own back stuff re cosleeping/feeding to sleep is pure nonsense. IME babies either learn how to settle alone with time or sleep training (when developmentally appropriate) sorts it out. So chuck the guilt and just carry on doing whatever works. It won't be forever!
Re daytime naps, I found the 2-3-4 method really helpful from 6 months for spacing naps and ensuring DC didn't get overtired. First nap 2 hrs after waking, second nap 3 hours after that and bedtime 4 hours later. So, wake at 730, nap around 930. Wake at 1030, nap at 130. Wake at 330, bedtime at 730. Obviously this is an example & it won't always happen but it's a good structure.
I'd go with whatever most reliably gets them to sleep - so sling & a walk or buggy/ walk for naps 1 & 3, and perhaps cot for nap2? But don't sweat the where. All that mattered for my two DC was that they had a sleep during their sleep Windows.
Agree with pp who mentioned weaning, introducing meals might help to give structure to the day and help to fill her up a little bit so you can space feeds out a bit more?
But mainly lots of solidarity, 
and hand holding. You're doing great and it will become a lot easier quite quickly. I remember 6 months as a time when I thought "I can't do this anymore" re the sleep deprivation, nap nightmares and general unpredictability, but there was a bit of calm round the corner soon after.
It is hard when you first start weaning as they still have as many milk feeds but you're also fitting in solids too so I remember if being a bit of a treadmill of feeding. But it's really not long until it improves. Bf gets easier as they start to reduce feeds a bit and you'll soon find you can satisfy them with a snack. Sleep also got better for both of mine once they started moving which happened at 6-7 months for both. Keep going - when it got too much for me, I'd put the baby in the pram and just walk, normally with something g nice for me to eat 
Please don't give yourself a hard time, you've trusted your instincts and done what has felt right to you, FWIW, I think I'm a similar 'cave woman' type - baby cries, I cuddle, offer feed, keep them close (so the wolf won't get them 
it's primitive I reckon!)
I was also going to suggest the 2-3-4 as pp says. At around 6-8 months I used it with dc3, (although I think a lot of people find you might need to add an additional cat nap in initially if your baby doesn't take long naps yet). I needed the structure to work with, as up to that point, ds2 happily slept in the school runs and with feeds, but when he started getting wriggly and interested in stuff it didn't work so well. For me, I needed the flexibility of knowing he'd sleep out and about when needed, so I set aside a week to go out for a walk with him in the pram twice a day, roughly the same time, then after that I started putting him in the pram in the kitchen-diner at the same times, and now at 20 months he still has his one nap in his pram in the kitchen if we're not out and about. Simple nap time routine, - nappy, rock-a-bye baby cd on, plus white noise app or washing machine (he often fell asleep to the wash in the morning when I had it on! Now it works quite well as a cue!) then push him 5 mins or so and he's off.
Can't really suggest anything for the evening, still working that one out dc3 @ 20 months and I still haven't learnt!
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