Should I just accept that my 1yo wont sleep in her cot until she's ready?

[BoftheP]

13mo DD has probably slept through ( 8-5, 5.30if i'm lucky) in her cot 10 times. We started off co sleeping, that worked until I had to go back to work and needed to do stuff in the evenings. We've tried CC, that worked for a bit but then she woke up more and more often and now we're back to co sleeping but this time there's a lot more kicking and thrashing about in our bed which means no sleep for anyone.

Do i just shrug my sholders and accept it or

Take a week off work and get your dd sleeping in her cot.

It will mean leaving her to cry it out but the key is perserverence.

If you let this go on then dd may never be "ready" of her own accord.

Co-sleeping is fine if everyone is happy about it - you are clearly not.

Ooops! pressed the button too soon

.................OR do carry on with the sleep training even though it's clearly not working, we just seem to be going backwards. Another DC on the way in Feb, no room for all four in the bed!

To put the other side, I didn't do sleep training, but if you're going to go down this route it is often more of a long haul. DS (first child) was sleeping through in his own cot until about 5am by 18months, until 6-7am by 2yrs. DD has taken a bit longer, it took until she was between 2-2.5 yrs before she reliably slept in her cot (and she was such a wriggly co-sleeper that we did take some steps to encourage her back to her own bed).

• don't allow too many naps during the day or she won't be tired at night
• only give a milk feed at naptimes (if you're still milk feeding, I assume so)
• blackout curtains/blinds
• rock and sing to her whilst feeding, then perhaps put on some soft music
• does she have a dummy? Is she waking up looking for it? Perhaps have four or five dummies in the cot, so that she can find one easily.
• do not speak to her when she is crying after the 2nd or 3rd time
• ensure that she is not going to bed hungry, make sure she has enough food during the day - maybe increase her snacks so that she feels satisfied
• obviously clean nappy just before bedtime
• take turns with DH to do the getting up in the night - you one night and him the next night, even if he is working because you both need to get alternate nights sleep.

I did all of the above for my dd (albeit she's 10 months) but you wouldn't believe the change and last night for the first time in months she slept from 7pm to 7am this morning! (I actually went in during the night to see if she was still breathing )

Perhaps you've tried all of the above, but keep trying.