Suggestions for helping a 10 month sleep

Hi -
First of all thanks to everybody whgo responded to my earlier question.
Here I am asking your advice on another issue.
We need to spend about 45 mins daily at night to get my daughter sleep.
This included giving her a bottle\, reading her stories (both of them
together take
about 15 mins) and then I will need to rock her for about 30-45 mins
before she can sleep.
I feel she is sleepy but cannot settle down to sleep. We give her a
pacifier but that doesnot work. She likes to play with something as a
sleeping aid but not always we can get something of her choice ..she
mightnot like it and just throw that away.
I have tried maintaining a sleep pattern but that doesnot help either.
She does sleep always but I will need to rock her for half an hour at
least.

I donot want to let her cry out. My parents stay with us and she is
used to having four people in the evenings(when we are back from work
too) and two people(my parents) to attend to her always. Whenever she
cries or wants something - we are always there for her. We hold her and
soothe her.
If I suddenly allow her to cry at night - she will really be very very
unhappy. It will be a drastic change.
Please advise.

New Mommy wrote:
Hi -
First of all thanks to everybody whgo responded to my earlier question.
Here I am asking your advice on another issue.
We need to spend about 45 mins daily at night to get my daughter sleep.
This included giving her a bottle\, reading her stories (both of them
together take
about 15 mins) and then I will need to rock her for about 30-45 mins
before she can sleep.
I feel she is sleepy but cannot settle down to sleep. We give her a
pacifier but that doesnot work. She likes to play with something as a
sleeping aid but not always we can get something of her choice ..she
mightnot like it and just throw that away.
I have tried maintaining a sleep pattern but that doesnot help either.
She does sleep always but I will need to rock her for half an hour at
least.

I donot want to let her cry out. My parents stay with us and she is
used to having four people in the evenings(when we are back from work
too) and two people(my parents) to attend to her always. Whenever she
cries or wants something - we are always there for her. We hold her and
soothe her.
If I suddenly allow her to cry at night - she will really be very very
unhappy. It will be a drastic change.
Please advise.


I can tell you what I did, but one reason it worked well for me was that
I like to go to bed *early*. If the kids are in bed, I want to be in
bed, too.

When mine were this age, they'd fall asleep next to me in bed while I
read a book. Then I'd move them to the crib. Occasionally, I'd fall
asleep first, but that wasn't a problem - we'd just sleep together.
If you want to be able to get her to sleep more quickly, and then go off
and do something else, this might not be a good method.

Clisby

Hi
I was hoping someone here would come up with some brilliant suggestions
that would work for your situation.

My daughter was like this. It got harder and harder for me to get her
to sleep and then keep her that way. I also would not let her cry it
out. This is when I started co sleeping. For my family it worked well.
We all got much more sleep. I have coslept from day one with my two
subsequent children.

Cosleeping does not work for everyone and you may not want to go down
that road. If you do try cosleeping you should make sure it is safe for
your baby. Ideally use a bed rail, and make sure their is no adult
bedding near her. I used to swaddle, wrap my babies till they were
about 8 months old and put them on top of our bedding, with no pillows
nearby. Our bed has no head board or foot board to worry about. I am
sorry I do not have any better suggestions.

Larissa

Larissa

I don't know if I have any good advice for you. My daughter is 15
months old and our situation is similar to yours. We take a bath at 8,
play quietly until 8:30, read in bed until 8:45...then I nurse her
until she falls asleep. All of these times are give or take and it
often takes up to 40 minutes of nursing until she falls asleep. We also
co-sleep, and she nurses 3-4 times/night.
I've been feeling really frustrated by this lately. I've been wishing
that I could just put her in the crib, kiss her goodnight, and then not
hear from her for 10-12 hours. When I start to feel really resentful
about the whole thing, I think about what those other parents had to go
through to get to the point that a child will sleep on his/her own -
often it involves a lot of crying and I'm not willing to do that, and
it sounds like you aren't either. Keep up with the routine, maybe your
baby will starte anticipating that it is bedtime (as my dd does now)
and give you an easier time. Other than that, try to enjoy those
moments at night, rocking your child to sleep. What a wonderful way to
fall asleep at night, right? It sounds like you are a really loving,
nurturing mother. I'll keep an eye on this topic to see if I can get
any good ideas, too! Good luck!

Karen, Amelia's mama (07/04)