help! I'm still holding my baby every time she sleeps and she's one now!

[waiting4bambino]

I feel like a horrible mother, but i think i'm gonna have to try controlled crying, which i'm really not happy about. Since my baby was born, she hasnt been a settled sleeper, and we co-sleep and have done for a long time.

Anyway, the issue is, I don't get anything done during the day!! I hold her while she sleeps! If i put her down, she will sleep for maybe 10 mins, and if i hold her, she sleeps for an hour or more! But I can't keep doing it forever.

Is it possible for me to use controlled crying during the day, and still co sleep? I love the bond that i feel with sleeping together.

Help me get my housework done!!

my baby is much younger than yours but mine too needs holding/rocking etc to sleep. I now have a dream machine that rocks the pram to allow me to get housework done. Ive been using it for a month and now she will settle herself if placed in her bed awake. I read about the machine on here and got it off ebay. Only suggest it as it sounds like you want a solution for the daytime as I did!

you need accessories. bouncy chair! sling! swing even (it made ds sick)

I definitely think it's possible for your baby to distinguish between daytime sleep and nighttime sleep, and do the two things differently.

What have you tried already to help her nap alone?

You need a sling. Baby feels like she is being held by you, but you get to get on with life.

... and worst case scenario, you've only got about another year before she drops her naps altogether, so it's not really a long-term problem...

waiting, 'm still doing this and ds3 is 2 next week! He has never slept during the day unless he bf to sleep. If I move /try to put him down he wakes immediately!

our dd was 14 months, when we resorted to controlled crying. Was the best thing we could have done for our family,we did it for night time and then naps (which she gave up at 18 months) it was hell for 3 nights but well worth it.
I do know mums who sling though, and managed to get stuff done even when the baby is sleeping.You need to work out whats best for your family. Good luck

Is there not some middle ground between holding her every time she sleeps and controlled crying?

I think the middle ground between controlled crying and holding her might be the pick up/put down method from the baby whisperer book - a friend used this recently on her 10 month old and it took a the best part of the week but he was never left to 'cry it out' and now will sleep in cot. Maybe try that??

I think you should not look at it as controlled crying but as getting stuff done. I hated the idea but eventually would finish what I was doing before going in to DS (unloading dishwasher etc) rather than dropping everything when he cried (not literally obviously). Gradually I would finish longer tasks and after a while he just went to sleep.

Incidentally, DS always needed to scream before he went to sleep - it took me months of patting and picking up and putting down before I realised he just needed me to leave him the hell alone!

I think it is nice to sleep with them if you can. Hell, I wish I could have a nice long nap with my 8mth old now - but dd who is 3 doesn't nap so no chance... Just enjoy it!!

(or if not, then I would agree with fruitstick. It does get easier as they get older because there comes a time when they understand more, and you can reason more and explain more.)

I always held my dd to go to sleep, but after several months realised that I had to put her down within 5 minutes of her falling asleep or she'd wake up. one thing that helped the transition from holding her to putting her down asleeep was if I wrapped her in a blanket before the cuddle,then put her down with it. I was still cuddling to sleep but without the blanket until a month ago. When I took my dd(19mo) upstairs one day she just pointed at the cot and said,"me in there" She hasn't wanted a cuddle since