Can anyone help me with naps and helping baby to sleep in cot?

[WestYorkshireGirl]

I've been reading threads on here for the last 8 months as my DD has been rubbish at sleeping from the beginning. She now does sleep in her cot at night, but I have to rock her in a rocking chair until nearly asleep and then transfer her. She might let out a little protest cry, but then usually goes off; however, tends to wake again anything from 10 mins to a few hours and will wake at least 2/3 time per night. I've tried feeding her/not feeding (she's EBF) and it seems to make no difference. I have read and tried to implement the 'No Cry Sleep Solution' but had no real success apart from the not feeding her to sleep bit. I have never been able to put her asleep in her cot whilst awake without her getting really upset and ramping up into hysterics very quickly. I don't want to do CC - does anyone know of anything else I could try? I also find daytime naps in the cot virtually impossible - I do the same as the evening when I see an eye rub or yawn and if I can get her to nod off, she's awake within 10-15 mins. Going in and sitting by the cot makes no difference to her - she still screams. I don't know what to do and last night had about 3 hrs sleep and don't get any in the day due to lack of naps so any help would be really appreciated. PS She will fall asleep sometimes in the bouncy chair in the morning or if I push her for about and hour and a half in the buggy, but I don't these are really sustainable. Thanks.

my DS1 never slept in his cot for naps - he alway slept in his buggy and mainly outside - used to push him back and forward until he was nearly off - eventually he didn't need much pushing

You say she ramps into hysterics but have you tried it a few days in a row and stuck it out? I thought we'd have hours of screaming but the first night 12 mins, and 20 in the middle of the night, second night 7 mins, then barely any since (we started about 3 weeks ago) apart from last night where I had 20min screamfest but it was over quickly as it started. Doesn't always work in the night but she does now self-settle much of the time and I'm feeding her once or twice as opposed to 3 or 4 times again.

Sorry to hear you're having a tough time with the sleep, I've been there and I hugely sympathise.

I did do a bit of - ahem - "leaving DD to settle herself" at about the age your DD is now because I had exactly the same problem as you. Basically, she wouldn't let me unlatch her to put her down in her cot. I concentrated on bedtime and basically stood outside the door poised to go back in if DD's protesting sounded like it was heading for meltdown. It never did. Instead, after two nights of on-off complaining for about 25mins or so at bedtime, DD let me put her down and got herself off to sleep without making a sound and has been pretty good at that ever since. I won't pretend I found the process easy, but it was mercifully quick in getting results and it cut the overnight wakings down instantly from 5-6 to 2-3.
I might add that I was dead against CC (and I'm still not keen on it for younger babies) but I was lucky in that my DD responded very quickly and not too hysterically when I finally reached the point when nothing else had worked and sleep deprivation was getting the better of me.

My attempts to get DD to nap in her cot were spectacularly unsuccessful, so I gave up and to save me and DH tramping the streets for a couple of hours each every day, got one of these - bloody brilliant thing!!!
Eventually she stopped needing to be rocked in the buggy and now sleeps in it parked in her bedroom - or anywhere else. I've discovered the brilliant thing about having a child that takes naps in the buggy is it means you are not confined to the house at nap time. I now bless the fact that DD prefers to kip in her buggy, it's made her wonderfully portable!!