DD is 8 months old, is fully breastfed and is, at last, starting to eat solids a bit more substantially that before.

She has only slept for longer than 3 hours a handful of times in her life, which I can totally cope with. The problem is that her sleeping is getting worse because she is obviously becoming more alert and mobile. At the moment, she hardly even gets through a single sleep cycle during the day (40 minutes) and rarely goes longer than 2 hours at a stretch at night.

She has absolutely no idea how to sleep on her own. She either feeds to sleep, I walk her to sleep (she is getting heavy and it is hard to do with a toddler running around shouting!) or she sleeps in the car. On occasion when I have tried to leave her for 10 or 15 minutes in her cot to see if she will go to sleep, she just sits in her cot and cries. It breaks my heart and makes me realise that I have done this to her. I am why she cannot sleep and now, 8 months on

She sleeps with me for at least half of the night because I just can't stay awake long enough to feed her, resettle her and then take myself back to bed!

I am so concerned that her not getting much deep / proper sleep can be doing harm - I sure know it isn't doing me any favours!

I suppose what I really want to know is how many of you have had such attached relationships with your baby and have they EVER learned how to go to sleep on their own or did you have to do this for several years? I have back problems and honestly don't know how I can keep walking her the heavier she gets. I read in The No-cry Sleep Solution that babies don't just suddenly learn to sleep and this worried me

I am totally OK with waking up every 3 hours to tend to her, but am absolutely falling apart, having to tend to her every hour or hour-and-a-half.

So does anyone have an tips for me? I am getting desperate