Hi Emma

I know exactly how you feel and I send you sympathetic thoughts . . . there were days when I felt like my brain and body were going to burst open with the frustration and despair. Kai is 14mths old now, and only slept through last week for the first time, so I share your pain. I remember that he was especially bad at around 6 months - waking every hour and HAD to have boobie to go back to sleep and HAD to be in my bed. As other wise women before me have said, remember "this too shall pass". Grit your teeth, you are doing the right thing for your little girl and you WILL survive! And when you've come through the other side, you will be so pleased with yourself that you didn't resort to anything you didn't really want to do. And that will strengthen you for your future challenges.

Don't listen to your mothers' group . . . by choosing gentle methods, we are choosing the harder road. But in the long run it will be the more rewarding path. I bet almost every mum whose baby is sleeping well has done CC in some form or another - out of 13 mums in our group only 2 of us have never done CC in any shape - and our 2 bubs are the worst sleepers! CC is popular because it is makes parents' lives easier - but it's not about us, is it?

Reading gentle parenting books and coming on to this site made me feel more 'normal' - that I wasn't a freak for not wanting to CC!! And that Kai wasn't the only non-sleeping baby in the world! Once I accepted that he was never going to sleep for more than 20mins during the day, I found it so much easier - I just let it go and stopped fretting about it and trying things to get him to sleep more. He still doesn't sleep much during the day.

In terms of practical advice, I found my evenings improved out of sight once I started bfing to sleep (admitedly when he was much younger) and then laying him down in his bassinet, next to our bed (if your DD isn't rolling yet, you could put her on your bed, where your smell might comfort her), I knew I'd be back again in an hour to do it again, but it gave me a gap to eat, and he slowly improved.

One last thing - I get really irritated with people who tell you that your baby has you wrapped around their little finger . . . of COURSE you are - that's EXACTLY where you SHOULD be!! We're designed that way . . . and nature knows best.

This has also been a long post, and probably not very useful, but I hope I've added to the other voices telling you you're not doing anything wrong, you're doing it all RIGHT, it's hard but you're doing well and keep it up.

Regards