[tick]

My DD1 went from waking 2-3 hourly and co-sleeping to sleeping alone and through the night without self settling.... In fact she still doesn't really self settle at 3.5 years. It can be done!

For us it was a case of relocating the co-sleeping to DD1's own bed, a double in her room. We did this at 15 months. It was a lot easier to remove myself from her bed gradually than it was to remove her from mine iykwim. We also night weaned at about 18 months using a bit of a dr jay Gordon approach with done daddy co-sleeping as well. She continued to wake overnight for a long time, but a lot less frequently after that. I always co-slept in her bed after her first waking but it got later and later until it stopped all together at about 2.5.

[greenthumbs]

No idea OP. Will be watching with baited breath for the magic solution.

We set the cot up as a co-sleeper and it's much better for all of us. We took the side off the cot and so DS has his own space but can come over to us if he needs to.

We have this set up. It doesn't really work for us anymore, DS (16mths) always ends up in between us. The cot is only support for my butt when I have to shift over to make more room for DS . Was great in the earlier days, but I suspect DS is waking because of us most of the time and I'm the handy 'soother' so get woken multiple times a night as well.

I'm actually planning on changing his cot tomorrow and putting the 4th side back on and separate from our bed as I'm not enjoying the co-sleeping anymore. I need better sleep and importantly DP and I need time and space for one another, it's becoming a problem. Invariably one of us is always at our wits end with DS and it's not fun. He is only just going to bed now at 10.45 (screaming in DP's arms) and this is the same most nights unless I go to bed earlier (then having absolutely zero time to myself all day).

I assume it's going to be very very tough to do, but hopefully we'll stick with it as it's beginning to make me question my parenting skills or lack of them and causing quite a lot of grumpiness and frustration in our house.

Sorry to hijack OP, hopefully someone can suggest something. I'm going to find my copy of No Cry Sleep Solution tomorrow and attempt to get a plan together.

Try your library for the book (author is Elizabeth Pantley) and a big Good Luck to you! Hoping for better sleep for you asap!

[sarkazm76]

Our DS was very hard to put to sleep for a long time. He's massively attached to his bedtime routine so that's the most important thing - that it's maintained.... and right now all he wants is me so I'm doing nearly all the putting to bed. If DH does it then he has to take a book with him and they read a story before lights out and that seems to keep him happy - if DH just tries to take him to bed when I finish giving him his bottle then DS gets VERY upset... it's not worth it - having him get so stressed out when we want him to be calming down for nigh nighs
We also have music playing or I will sing (badly) to him - 4 songs then the night light goes off. The time he needs to relax and drift off varies each night but mostly we just lay there and he talks to himself and sings and stuff. it can feel like a lot of work, that's for sure. We plan on keeping it this way as long as it works.... but also plan to move bubs number 2 (due in May) into the cot when he/ she is too big for the bassinet. At that time we plan to get DS a toddler bed and alos have it in our room... we just don't want to push him out before he's ready and especailly not because of a new addition.
He has nights where he stirs quite a bit and others where he barely wakes all night.... and now I'm pregnant I'm up 2 times to pee as well. Exhausting - we usually get Wednesdays off if he stays at my mums place thank god.

I digress... you can alos "like" Pink McKay on Facebook - she often posts messages from mums looking for advice so you might get more tips there too.
DS settles for us with making sure he has his dummy and some "sssshhh mummy is here" and patting.

[MummaBirdy]

This was our family until we went to sleep school at 11.5 months. It was truly life changing, and, while it was a tough few days for us, a year of great sleep later we are a much happier family for it.

We co-slept out of necessity but I now truly feel it did more harm than good for DD's sleeping. I don't think there is much you can or should do in the first 6 months, but once your baby can understand what is going on, and by 14 months she will be able to, I think sleep training done in the right way can be very effective.

Leaving a baby crying in distress is never the right thing, but the approach at sleep school was about reassuring without rewarding, and in essence boring your baby back to sleep by being very consistent with the settling technique, for hours and hours if necessary the first few nights.

We needed professional help to get there but it's one of the most positive things we have ever done.

Wishing you all the best whatever approach you take. Sleep is golden.

[Miss Anthropist]

Thankyou so much everyone. I will re-read your replies when I have a bit more time.