Need your help - 16 month old sleep

[Doesthisexist]

Hello everyone,

Basically I have got myself into a bit of a situation and really need your advice as to how to get out of it. My baby (16 months) will only go down to sleep on me (when breastfeeding) or my husband and then will only stay asleep on us. We can’t moves she often just feeds to sleep in the carrier during the day when we’re on the go. The exception is she will sleep in the car. At night she sleeps in our bed. So basically I go to bed early and sometimes work or watch with the laptop on my knees and baby in my arms or lying on me. It’s super lovely but also super limiting.

I am due to go back to work and my mother will be taking care of her from June onwards. What do I do? Do I need to just get a cot and let her cry? I would do that if I knew at the end it would work. But will it? Please give me your wisdom, I’m really worried both for the baby and granny that it’s going to be awful!

Do you both work night shifts or are you just worried about your mum getting baby to nap? If it’s the latter then ask your mum obviously but I would be surprised if she had any strong objections to sitting on the sofa for a couple of hours whilst your toddler naps on her. Get her a travel mug for her tea/coffee and make sure you have a Netflix subscription!

If you’re done with going to bed early, want your own space back etc then that’s something else entirely though. It’s ok to sleep train if you’re over it. It’s also fine to carry on exactly as you are if you and DH are happy with the current sleeping arrangements. But if this just about getting baby to nap for your mum then I wouldn’t worry at all.

Thank you! Yes you’re right I suppose. I think she would sleep on her if she was tired.

My other worry though is that in the holidays my mum will have baby plus older cousins to look after, so won’t be able to just lie on the sofa with Netflix…

Can you point me in the direction of gentle but effective sleep training? I don’t know where to start.