Need advice from cosleeping mamas

[jwynne]

It's been 3-4 weeks of horrible sleep over here 5-7 wake ups a nite.  Started with teething then sickness, vacation and sickness again.  In the middle of this I started having panic attacks and anxiety at night from not sleeping or being able to fall asleep b4 DDs next wake up.  There were nights where I only slept for 45 min total. The panic attacks subsided when I started using delta wave sleep music and headphones at night to help me fall asleep (highly recommend).  The problem is I still wake up a lot.  I hear and feel everything I used to only wake up when she cried out but now I wake up when she turns or grunts and that's with a sound soother in the room and with headphones on.  Also lately she keeps wanting to sleep close to me which she never did before.  I cannot sleep when she is right next to me kicking me - impossible. I tried going to a different bed and it does help but occasionally I still wake up after 45 min even there. I feel like my body is out of whack.  Now I do want to continue to try to sleep separately in hopes of getting some better sleep but here is my dilemma.  We have a queen mattress on the floor in her room and that's where we have been sleeping and I am able to leave her there after breastfeeding but now she is starting to crawl and I am kind of afraid to leave her.  I would love for her to be in the crib but she wakes up when I try to transfer only works if I breastfeed in chair not bed but she caught on to that and doesn't want to breastfeed in chair anymore. BTW she is 8 months old.  Do any of you mamas left your baby that young alone on a mattress in their room?  Do you lock the door of the room? put a gate up?  Childproof the room?  like getting rid of rocking chair and bookcase?  I am so tired and confused and can't think straight don't know what to do.  Is is just a phase?  anyone go through this?  Any advice? words of wisdom? or anything please? Am I even making any sense?  I keep rereading my post........

[skycheattraffic]

8 months is tough. The beauty of a mattress on the floor is that even crawling around , she can't hurt herself by falling. I would feel absolutely comfortable leaving her on the mattress. I would babyproof the room and maybe set up a monitor then close the door and go to sleep. I'm hoping to transition DD from the crib to a mattress on the floor soon. We still nurse in a recliner and then I cross my fingers and try to transfer her. I am expecting and we need to make the shift so I can attend DD and leave more easily once baby comes. She has always slept better in her own space and currently is down to 1 or 2 wakeups if I get her in the crib. She's 20 months old and I wish I'd switched earlier. On nights when she sleeps on me, we are up 4 to 6 times typically.