Hello,

I'm currently having problems getting my 4mth + to sleep during the day.
I used to rock her to sleep. After a while, I then started rocking her to she's almost asleep before placing her in her cot. Now, I'm trying to just place her in her cot when she's tired and then patting her to sleep there. However, the last method is not working at the moment.

What happens is this...
I pat her in her cot and she will play with her little cow soft toy and with her musical mobile. I continue to pat her and say shh..shh - this goes on for 1/2 hour and she's still playing!! I then get quite tired (my back will be sore by then - I've tried kneeling by the cot too) I've tried leaving the room and let her play by herself hoping she'll evventually fall asleep. I've tried this a few times and 1 hour later she's still playing.

I guess I would like to find out if what I'm doing is correct. Should I leave her and let her play till she falls asleep regardless of how long it is? Or should I go in after say 1/2 hour, carry her and get her to sleep by rocking? This morning, she was awake at 5am, I tried putting her to bed at 6:30am (she was yawning and showing signs that she was tired) by patting her in her cot. She was playing for 1 hour when I finally gave in and picked her up and rocked her to sleep. It took me less than 5 minutes to rock her to sleep. The reason I gave up is because I've heard that babies at this age shouldn't be up for more than 2 hours at a time and I didn't want her to get overtired.

Please can someone advise me what I should do?

Thank you so much!

Mum of a sleep deprived baby