A few sleep questions!

[Elizabeth Long]

Hello.  My baby is 5.5 months.  Her name is Eloise.  She is only breastfed, and I nurse her down to sleep at night, at around 6 ish.  About 2-3 hours after her last nap, when she's showing signs of being tired. 

At about 2 months she started sleeping 10 hours at night (crazy!) but we went with it.  She slept in a bassinet by our bed, then in the same bassinet in her room, bc we were concerned we'd wake her,  and she was rising to nurse.

The holidays then happened, and we co slept while traveling, as she was having difficulties sleeping in a new place, which is understandable.

Once we got home, we stayed with the same bedtime routine and time, but transitioned her to her crib, as she is getting close to the weight limit on the bassinet. 

It has been taking me 1.5 to 3 hours to get her to sleep in the crib.  It used to take 1/2 hr of nursing, and laying her in her bassinet.  I figured it was a transition, but it's still happening.  She's also waking more frequently through the night, but that could be a growth spurt, so no big deal.

How do I get her to go to sleep initially at night again?  Is this common? I just need some insight rather then being told to let her CIO, which isn't an option here:)

Also, her naps (2-3 a day) are all brought on by me nursing her down, and are in the sling, or on me.  Again, if I put her down, she wakes.  I am ok with this now, but not forever.

Thank you soo much for any advice!!

[Redmom]

With our little guy, when he was around 4.5 - 5 months, his sleep behaviour did change.  It was as though he was "waking up" - and this was when he starting waking every couple of hours - and this really has continued through to now (he's 14 months) with some slight improvement.

I don't mean to scare you, but just wanted to say it's totally totally normal for babies to have a sleep regression at around 4-5 months of age.  Some of them go back to sleeping the way they did before, others, like ours just turn into sleepers that wake frequently.

We always used a pre bedtime routine (bath, get into Pjs and sleep sack, book, songs, nurse then rock etc) to give consistency. 

I made a point not to nurse him to sleep, rather I nurse him as part of his bedtime routine, then unlatch him when he's done feeding, then switched to rocking him - this has been helpful because it means I can share the "putting him to bed" with my husband.

When he was about 11 months, we found we were able to rock him until he was calm, then lay him on the bed and lie down next to him, singing, until he fell asleep.

With naps - I also found that he could only nap in motion or latched onto the breast until he was about 6 months old, when I was able to rock him until he was asleep then transfer him to the crib.

All babies are different and the things you are describing are totally normal.  There are other options to CIO, and I think a big part of it is being realistic that nap/nightime parenting is a substantial part of the parenting experience.  I would definitely recommend finding ways to share the nighttime parenting with your partner, such as getting baby used to being rocked to sleep, so that you can have a break when you need one.

Sorry this is a bit of a ramble.

Also you might want to check out "The No Cry Sleep Solution" by Elizabeth Pantley which has lots of ideas for sleeping that do not involve CIO.