Is there even a tiny chance in hell this will work?

[SoYo]

Our 7mo DD is wonderful in many ways but a bloody awful sleeper! We'd just got down to 3 quick wakes a night which was great when it all changed after a virus. She's now waking up after an hour max & taking up to 2hrs to get down. She's never self settled despite a lot of effort in the early days and is fed or rocked to sleep but now even that is met with screams and she wakes the second she hits the cot. It's like having a newborn again! Last night after DH paced for an hour I just put her in her cot and shush patted until she fell asleep, it took 25mins of blood curdling screams but we got there.

Tonight I'm planning that once she's in the cot she stays there for at least 4hrs. When she's crying one of us will go and sit with her and shush/pat/sing etc until she sleeps.

I know this is like a halfway house to CC but I just can't leave her screaming yet and I'm hoping at least this might give her the idea that the cot is where she goes to sleep.

Am I deluded? I'm too sleep deprived to be able to tell!

Help, oh wise MNers. Thanks.

If she screams whatever you do (which is what i understand from your post) then she may as well do it in her cot with you there. I haven't tried your method myself but The no-cry sleep solution is my go to guide at the moment and even that says that if nothing else has worked then being with your baby while they cry is still very different to leaving them alone to cry. I hope it does produce results and that you finally get to have some sleep!

Thank you so much for replying. You're right, it's got to the point where the only way to stop her screaming overnight is co-sleeping and doing it for the whole night kills my back and isn't a long term solution for us for various reasons. I'll give it a go and hope for the best. It does feel different in my head to just leaving her crying but I couldn't tell if I'm just trying to justify it to myself.

Hi, this is what I did when my DS was about 7 months old (he's now 10.5 months old) - I would put him down sleepy in the cot but he'd always start crying so I would lean over the cot and cuddle him to show him I was still there but that he was staying in his cot. (I truly believed that he was crying because he wanted to be picked up and cuddled/rocked/fed to sleep)

It was hard and some nights he'd cry for up to 45 mins but I'm so glad we stuck at it as now he goes down awake in the cot and goes to sleep by himself.

Also now, this week (after dropping the night feeds and stopping taking him into bed with me at 4am) he has slept 8 - 5/6am for the first time ever!!! (hope I haven't jinxed myself by saying that!)

Good luck