Or is parenting advice quite polarised?

[poshsinglemum]

On one hand you have GF and strict routine devotees who declare that you are buggered if you don't follow a routine and on the other hand there are attachment parenting devotees who declare that you are buggered if you follow GF techniques and taht routines are rubbish.

I am still bf and cosleeping my 19 month old but I am fed up with it. I have tried a bit of cc but kepe caving in as I don't want to mess up my child (as attachment parents would have me believe)

I am thoroughly confused about what I want now and what to do for the best. I keep taking dd in and out of her cot as I alternate between stern resolve and mummy soppyness.

I want me time in the evening but at the same time I don't want to leave dd crying in her cot. I hope things will get easier once I convert it into a toddler bed.

My eyelids are drooping through weary evenings.

Bedtimes are my least favourite thing atm.

I do have a routine btw now but it has evolved rather than being imposed but the getting dd to sleep bit has yet to develop.

I recon parents have managed to have babies for centuries without interference from the 'experts'. It's your baby, you do what you think is right. It's the best that you can do. Get rid of the books, as long as they eat/sleep/poop/are washed/clothed and you entertain them then they don't need anything else. Take each day as it comes, they are all different so don't compare and have fun with them.

Can you put baby to sleep in your bed then creep away for the evening?

She dosn't want to sleep atm and needs booboo for about five hours (in between dicking around ) To drop off.

I think she's teething atm.

I hear you OP. I nearly drowned in the advice of these books with first dc and the differing advice nearly did my poor aleep addled brain in. With DC2 I chucked the books in the bin and tried to just do what I felt was right. I didn't have a baby that slept through for a while but I felt so much better.

I remember what seemed like months of lying on my bed, waiting for DD to drop off properly, before I put her in her cot! Most of the time, I'd end up falling asleep with her! She was around the same age as your DD. She just wouldn't settle. Then if she woke up in the night, she'd scream until I got her out and put her in with us. I didn't really care whether it was right or wrong according to the books and other judgey people, fact was, I was knackered and I needed my sleep. I was confident that she wouldn't want to be sleeping in my bed when she was 10!

We bought her a bed, shortly before her 2 birthday and from the very first night, she got in and slept! Occasionally, she still got in with us, but hey, what's having a baby all about, if not to snuggle in the dead of night!

She's 14 now btw, and when DH was away recently I told her she could get in with me if she liked. She looked at me like and said, 'nah, you're alright!'

read 'your child, your way' (I think that's the title?) by Tanya Byron. It'll make you feel a whole lot better.