Please help! I have a horrible suspicion I am doing everything wrong, really need either a bit or reassurance or some constructive criticism.
Typical routine ?
9month-old DD, wakes at 7am on weekdays (had to be woken sometimes, as we need to handover to childminder and go to work - hate doing this).
She?s with a childminder 4 days a week, who has recently informed me she is doing controlled crying at naptime. Feel concerned about this. Have (probably irrational) visions of my poor DD wailing away lonely and distressed without me (working mum?s guilt, no doubt).
We collect her about 6.30, she has a snack about 7pm (having had dinner about 5pm with childminder), then rampages around the living room trashing the place playing
8.30 ? bath
8.45-9ish bottle
Then falls asleep during the bottle, meaning we can rarely manage to brush her teeth, so we try and give her a drink of water post-bottle
9.30 transfer sleeping baby to cot
3am ? DD wakes up with a cry, gets whisked up and put in our bed to co-sleep rest of the night. It?s a very wide bed, she sleeps between us flat on the bed in a gap between our pillows of about 2 foot.
She used to sleep through, between the ages of about 2 months and 5 months, but now always wakes.
At the weekends, we all sleep in a bit later, until about 8. When she is with us, we cuddle her to sleep if she is tired in the day (two naps one about lunch time and one late afternoon, no set times).
I know she is probably going to bed too late, but any earlier she is full of beans, plus we can?t get out of work any earlier.
I?m just worried that: 1 - she isn?t getting enough sleep and 2 - that we?re storing up massive problems for ourselves in the future with the co-sleeping. But it just seems like the most natural thing in the world to bring her in with us if she is upset.
You can tell she?s my first, can?t you? I am one of four, my mum thinks it is completely ridiculous she isn?t in a firm routine.
All opinions / advice much appreciated...