For those of you whose kids only sleep ON you....

[rhiOrion]

A while back I posted about the fact that my DD will only sleep ON me at night. I have gotten to where I can put her in the nap nanny for a couple hours occasionally, but otherwise she still sleeps with her head and upper back on my chest/stomach. I actually don't mind it so much now that she's a bit bigger and less fragile seeming.

But, for those of you in similar situations- what is bed time like? Our issue is that DD can't sleep unless she's on one of us (like, she'll sleep for an hour or so in the carrier on DH's chest while he bounces on an exercise ball). But since she'll only stay asleep for *maybe* an hour in the carrier, and DH's back starts to hurt from bouncing her for so long, she ends up not going to bed until about 9pm. Because I simply can't go to bed but so early! So DH starts bouncing her between 9-9:30 while I get ready for bed, and then I go to bed between 9:30-10:00, and he lets me sleep without her for 15-45 minutes, and then brings her in to me.

Once I get her she has to nurse, or she'll wake up. I tend to fall asleep while she's nursing. I have never had any luck getting her into the crib or nap nanny at this point, if I don't let her stay latched on until she pops off on her own, and then for a while after that, she wakes up as soon as I put her down.

So... to sum up- I can't go to bed at 7:30 with her, but I have to wake her up at 7:15 to get ready for day care and to leave the house. So, at 5 months her night time sleep is only from 9:30 - 7:15.

Anybody BTDT? Figure out anything that works?

My only thought is to go get in bed with her at 7:30 and stay in bed until she falls deeply enough asleep, but that could take a very long time, and is iffy even then.

[rhiOrion]

Okay, we're trying something new tonight. Will respond to myself if we have any success.

[Curlyfry7]

Hey Rhi! I just clicked on this to see what people were saying and saw it was you posting!

BTDT....the only thing that helped for us was age, unfortunately. T had to sleep in direct contact with me until she was 18 months old (I'm not helping, am I?!) This was for naps, night-time, etc. The only exception was if we were in the car. She napped either on my back or on my lap every day. She is STILL very sensitive to my presence, or lack thereof and prefers to be all tucked up under my chin with feet shoved between my legs.

She mostly stayed up until I went to bed at 10-10:30, or would fall asleep on my lap and I would carry her up when I went to bed and then nurse her back down.

I hope you get some good advice. It sucked never having an evening to my(our)self for 18 months.

[rhiOrion]

Well, our plan wasn't a total success or a total failure.

DH bounced her to sleep at about 8:00 and after she was nice and knocked out (maybe 8:30) we transferred her to the swing. Our plan was that she'd sleep in the swing for a bit and then he'd take her to me in bed sometime after 9:30. But, as soon as her butt touched the swing she screamed. But sometimes she does that for a second and then passes out, so we waited. She quieted down quickly, but remained awake. Then she started to do a sleepy little whine. When that turned into more full-blown crying I got her and nursed her, and DH started to bounce her again at 9:15.

So basically we did the bed time routine twice last night. But maybe if we stick with it we can get her to sleep that first 1-2 hours in the swing. That would be awesome.

Someone in my DDC suggested moving the swing to our bedroom, but there's no room. So I might put it in her room for the night and see if she sleeps better when she's farther away from us talking/the tv/etc. Though that might backfire if she realizes we're not nearby. But it's worth a shot.

It's a good thing Tessa and L are so stinkin' adorably cute :-P