will temporary co-sleeping become a habit? 9MO not settling in cot

[multicolourcat]

9MO dd has never been a great sleeper, but thought we had semi cracked it as she was sleeping 7.30/8 - 6.30/7 with just one wake up when i would feed her and she'd easily fall back to sleep.

This last week things have gone tits up regressed and she is now waking anywhere between 2 - 4 hours after her inital bedtime and i will feed her, she sleeps,i put her down and she wakes crying her eyes out within 15 mins. She just doesn't seem to want to go back into her cot after her initial sleep. I don't understand what is going on, and the only way I have found to calm her and settle her is to feed her and then cosleep, and then she will sleep for the rest of the night.

I really don't want to cosleep. I don't hate it, it is kind of lovely, but it is not for me long term, and I am really concerned that at this age she could get into a habit of expecting to come into our bed.

Is it a better idea to persist in putting her into her cot? Though I am not convinced she will settle at all if I do this, and maybe she will start hating her cot if i inisist that she goes in there when she clearly doesn't want to.

I am very soft, my dh reminds me of that, but i hate her crying and she is such a sweet baby :) but this morning when she looked up at me in bed, all sweet and innocent i felt so cross towards her . i really need a plan.

any ideas?

bump

yes she will get used to it/love it

why sleep alone if you have a toasty warm mummy you can cuddle up to with milk on tap?

I feel your pain

mine has co-slept from birth - i made a rod for my own back

sibling co-slept til four

what we learn from history...[ftwink]

bah! have tinky winky/twinkle twinkle on my sleep-deprived brain...

thanks! Thats what i needed to hear to give me the perserverance to get her back into her cot in the middle of the night. Damn, this means no sleep for me tonight..or the next..., it's going to be a battle!!

I am in exactly the same situation. Is it some sort of developmental thing?

DS 9 months, started having him in our bed for same reasons. He goes to sleep in the evening in his cot fine. Then wakes up a few times and sometimes goes back to his cot but around 4am screams when near in.

I also kind of like it but its not a long term solution.

To summarise, I feel your pain

We had exactly the same and I was very worried about having DS in our bed until he is 7. He would sleep very soundly though and we found it was the fastest way to be able to go back to sleep. So we went with it. After a while we tried settling him in his cot again. Often he would go down and then stop waking at that particular time.
I feel a lot more relaxed about it now and when he is unwell/ waking or sometimes for day naps we will have him in our bed and enjoy the cuddles.
He really loves it and snuggles into us.
If it gives you more sleep and makes your baby stop cry, I think it is worth going with the flow for a few weeks?