Bad sleep habits for my 5 month old

[chickien]

Hi everyone,
First post here! I have been a lurker on this site since my little one was born in July and have picked up many a useful tip, but am hoping for some advice on the bad sleep habits I have created.
When my lo was 8 weeks I started her on a night time routine, and she was settling herself in her cot at around 7pm with no problems. She got taken very poorly at 10 weeks and due to over night stays in hospital and worrying about her all the time I have developed some very bad sleep habits for her, all that are my own fault.
Basically, I do have a night time routine for her (pyjamas on, story time, feeding, singing twinkle twinkle then sleep) but she falls asleep on me downstairs in the living room, then I tend to fall asleep for 1-4 hours on the sofa under the watchful eye of my husband (he's a night owl and doesn't mind sitting with us to keep an eye on us). When I wake about 12-2 am I take her upstairs change and feed her and put her in the cot. Some nights she'll wake every 2 hours for food and be put back in her cot asleep and sleep fine until her next feed waking at 7am for the day. Other times she'll wake constantly and take half an hour to an hour to get to sleep each time (by which time I'm exhausted). She also only naps on me in the day, but can nap well sometimes 1 hour then 2 hours then 1 hour.
I'm worried that the longer I leave her in this routine the harder it will become to get in to a new better routine for her.
The lazy and worried part of me thinks leave it like this as at least I'm getting some sleep at the beginning of the night, and the hospital are still not sure what's wrong with her (but they say it could take a very long time to find out) so I feel a little bad making her upset trying to get her to sleep in her cot upstairs at the beginning of the evening.
Basically I was just wondering if anybody had done the same thing or had any advice on the best way to go about correcting this? I definitely don't want to go down the CIO route. I have bought the no cry sleep solution book and tried it for 3 nights (it didn't go well and I was so tired I gave up, maybe I should try it again and stick with it).
If I try this again, should I be getting her to fall asleep in her cot in the day, or just hold her making sure she gets enough naps in the day and just concentrating on the night time to start.
Sorry for the long rambling post, I hope it'll all makes sense and thanks for reading :)
P.S; Just for info I'm currently breast feeding and she sleeps in our room at night!

The bad habits question is always tricky as you could argue these aren't bad habits at all - it is giving her a very positive association with sleep. And all babies are different so it's hard to know what the long term result will be - my friend's baby is put down awake and has all his naps in his cot but sleeps very badly, I think that he would be no matter what! Others are fed to sleep and sleep really well. So this is a probably not very helpful way of saying, do what works for you as a family rather than worrying too much about what may or may not happen. I think the really important thing is that you have a routine which makes her ready for sleep as this makes it much easier to change things in the future. I did find that book helpful when I was helping ds sleep better but it does take perseverance as the improvement is often very gradual, which is tricky when you are very tired.
In answer to your last point I think making sure she gets decent naps is more important than where she takes them as overtiredness can really mess up bedtime and night sleep. My ds has his naps in a sling as this is the only way to stop him catnapping but he then goes down no problem in his cot at bedtime.
Good luck and I hope that the hospital make progress on her illness soon.

Hi Littlebagoflaughter! Thank you so so much for taking the time to reply, it's very kind of you. It is very helpful to hear your opinion as I am happy letting her sleep on me in the day (get a bit of internet time lol) and to start her night time sleep off on me too. I think I was just getting hung up on hearing how I was making a rod for my own back in the future. I love this time with her and know it's going to be over very quickly, soon she'll be telling me to get off lol, so you've made me feel more reassured that I can carry on as I am, at least for a little while longer :) Thank you :)

My dd is the same age as yours. The best bit of advice I've been given is it's only a problem if it's a problem for you. Change what doesn't suit you and leave the rest.

It was nice to read your thread to hear how you are able to nurture your baby so sweetly. I wish I could afford the same level of care to my 6 month old, but I'm so tired out that any opportunity to put him down is taken gladly.

If your child isn't sick at special to be that close, but even more so if your child IS sick. You just can't under estimate the power and comfort of a -mummy cuddle.

The most important thing is that you're both safe - and from what you say it sounds like your husband's watchful eye is doing just that - and that you're both getting adequate sleep with the current arrangement.

I had the same sort of routine with both of my babies, one slept through at 6 months but the other is a sleeping nightmare! So bad habits doesn't always automatically mean bad sleeping. Conversely good sleeping arrangements doesn't always guarantee a good sleeper.

So I second the idea that if it ain't broken don't fix it!