[hilarybop]

My daughter is almost 6 months. Up until a few weeks ago she would fall asleep at bedtime when I laid down to nurse her. That no longer works and now we wear her in a front carrier until she falls asleep and then put her in the bed. That is starting to not work anymore either. If it does, she wakes every half hour or so and I go lay down with her until she falls asleep again.

She is most able to sleep when I am sleeping next to her, but I don't want to go to bed at 7 p.m. How do others manage this? Also, where do you put the baby before you get into bed with her? We place her in our bed, but as she gets more mobile I am not sure this will be safe for her.

Thanks for any suggestions and support!

 

[Mal85]

DD is only 7 weeks old, so this may not be of much help. I feed her and rock her to sleep (or walk her to sleep, whichever works). Once she's asleep, I lay her down in the bassinet next to our bed. She sleeps there until I'm ready to go to bed. Then, I move her to bed with me, feed her again, and we both go to sleep.

 

[Chloe'sMama]

I have to nurse and lay with my 10 month old dd for quite some time until she is really sleepy and then I can sneak out. She often wakes up in 1/2 hour to 1 hour, and either my husband or myself will lay back down with her until she falls asleep. It is not a relaxing way to spend the evening, but it is better than not having any time together and just going to sleep when she does....

 

[bettyjones]

Hey we have the same issue.

The evening is rough. I either BF to sleep laying down in our bed or put her in the sling facing me and sing, rock, walk her to sleep. Maybe a walk outside in the sling will work for you. SOme babies love fresh air. Unfortunately we live in a busy city so it's too noisy to work for us at night.

If we lay w/ DD she wakes after 40 min. to nurse if we don't lay w/ her she wakes between 5-40 min.

It's rough but it can't last forever right?

 

[aquamam]

I lay beside mine and read with a camping headlamp. I've read lots of great novels (and parenting books)!

 

[Twwly]

My DS would not sleep without me until he was almost 2. I just stayed in bed and read and got some sleep.

My DD sleeps like a dream, I can get out of bed once she's down, no problem.

They're all different, you just go with it and know it will pass.

 

[jitterBug mom]

I found some of the tips in the No Cry Sleep Solution helpful. It seemed like creating a cozy sleep environment and holding to a tight bedtime routine worked well - our DS would go to sleep nursing at 7:30 or so and stay asleep until maybe midnight or 1, when he'd want us to be sleeping by him. We'd respond to him fast if he did start to really wake before that time, which I think made him feel more confident that we were close by. I don't know - maybe we were just lucky that he would start sleep without us, because I know this doesn't work for everyone.

Oh, and at that age we did actually put him down to bed in a crib after he fell asleep, and move him into our bed with us at his first waking. He'd spend the rest of the night in our bed after that. I think Dr. Sears calls this partial co-sleeping or something.

 

[BeantownBaby9]

@ 6mo is when I started NCSS and into the crib for the first phase (7-10pm) so that DH and I could have some time together before we all get into the family bed. Its worked well for us.

 

[wetcement101]

Geesh, what is it about 6mos? I remember DD really fighting it then. I often got frustrated and threw her on my back in a carrier while I did housework at that stage. I just didn't want to stay in bed for an hour at 7pm, only for her to wake up when I tried to sneak out. Then she started the evening in a crib, and we grabbed her a few hours later when she woke. I can say that for us it's a lot better now!

 

[francesruben]

Both of my babies have done this waking every half hour or so around six months and both times I really struggled with it. But it did seem to pass quite quickly, although I still don't get a DS to sleep more than a couple of hours at night without needing me. Settling him in a bouncer in front of the couch has helped. When he stirred I would just bounce him a bit more. That way at least I could eat, read, knit whatever. He did often wake up if I tried to move from the couch though. He has a radar out on me!