When will this phase finish?? I need more sleep....

[Arcadia]

Oh Shanti. Sounds like you're having a tough time.

I ditched self settling and cot sleeping about a month ago because she was cutting 4 teeth and couldn't be arsed to keep trying. Yes teething does suck!

Give yourself a break hun. You're doing a fabulous job. A 10 month old baby is VERY different from a 6 or 7 month old baby, so its little wonder things have changed.

The path of least resistance babe. That's all I can say. Why fight with them? Give yourself a little "holiday", and just try and tune into her. If she wants to have one day sleep or no day sleep then so be it. If she wants to crash out at 6pm, or 9pm, then just run with it. Give yourself a month or so and then reassess.

Its not worth the tears. You're a fabulous mummy!!!!!

[Janie]

We too always used to start out with the cot, but by about 14 months I was over that! So I just fed him to sleep on our bed, and he stayed there. He also had his day sleeps on our bed. He never really went back into his cot, it wasn't until he got a bed at 22 months that we stopped co sleeping permanently. And good thing about all that cosleeping was that the 'transition' to a big bed was easy peasy!

[Heaven]

Hey Ren!! As you know, DD is not the best sleeper, she has good patches and bad patches. Now is bad bc of teething again!

I have just learned to go with it, I just do whatever works at a particular time. DH and I were getting so stressed out about trying to 'fix' her and make her sleep like she 'should' and it wasn't working anyway. So now sometimes she sleeps in her cot all night, sometimes she cosleeps all night, sometimes she's in and out of our bed at different times of the night. Whatever is easiest!! She doesn't have a set bed time, she goes to bed when she's tired and it's much easier. Now we are all getting more sleep even if she wakes up 100 times a night, lol. I'm usually so tired in the middle of the night I fall asleep feeding her and then find her still in bed with us at the next wakeup, lol.

DD does the same thing with the waking up a few times for the first 1-2hrs after she goes to bed, drives me crazy!!

One day she will sleep good and we will forget all about this and be crazy enough to do it all again, pmsl.

[Janie]

Do you know, I remember those days of evening wake ups sooooo well. I think it was part of the reason we were happy to wait until DS was ready for bed, because we knew that if we pushed it too early we would be up and down like yo yos for hours afterwards . I think it was almost 2 years before I sat down with my husband and did something like watch a movie in the evening!!! It was easier not to do it at all, than sit down, and then be interrupted (which was inevitable). Now, we can sit down and watch a movie whenever we want at night.......as long as DH isn't snowed under by work! It was worth the wait girls . Am I mad to be going back down that road again?

[Shanti]

Thanks girls! You've all made me feel MUCH better about things.... I think I needed reassurance that every other baby the same age is doing this too!!! (well most babies!)...
Mind you, I've ALWAYS let DD have her own routine and never forced her to sleep at a certain time or anything because I know you can't make a baby do something it just doesn't happen LOL! She has always fallen into her own routines as I feel thats so important and I guess thats why I was used to her sleeping at a decent time each night like 7pm. So when she started going to bed later and later i was like "hmmm when is this going to stop!!"

Yes you're right Anna.... a baby at 6mths is completely different to a baby at nearly 10mths of age I've found too!!! They change sooo much!

I've always been really good with 'going with the flow' and not getting too worked up with DD's sleep etc.... I've always been like that but this last week, with her teething really bad and we've just moved etc and sooo tired, it's all become a bit too much for poor old me!!!
But I think that's normal for us Mummies to feel a bit overwhelmed by it all at different times and stages..... it's all part of that rollercoaster ride of parenthood right?

Janie - that's a good point about the co sleeping. Easier to make transition to big bed later on.....
Heaven - your DD is just like mine. We have nights where she's in bed with us half the night, other nights all in her cot, other nights half and half, sometimes i fall asleep lying down feeding her (we always feed lying down at night) and she then is awake with us in the morning smiling at us hehe cute and i then realise i'd fallen asleep with her with us.... but that's sooo nice. Just depends on how DD is that night as to where she will sleep.

I think too, DD was sooo good at going to bed at the same time for about 3mths there at one stage, it was so easy, I KNEW she'd be in bed by 7pm and wouldn't wake again for hours... we had it REALLY good!! And then.... she changed.... LOL which we knew babies do that often but I think we got too comfortable with her sleep routine she was in herself iykwim?? lol like we had time to watch movies and have heaps of couple time etc back then!!!

She's just gone down for sleep #2 for the day.... we're having a great day today!!!
I'm off to lie down near her and be ready for those warm snuggles when she wakes.

[Shanti]

Well, that didn't last long... just as I lay down on the bed to have a sleep, she woke up about 5mins after..(she only slept 20mins).. it's the teething, she's in so much pain with them coming up.
So we're up again.... LOL!!! But she's now happy to play on the floor while I get some things done.... would have been nice to have that nap i was after but oh well maybe next time lol..... that's how it is huh.

It sure is much easier just going with the flow even if you feel like you're gonna drop like a fly doing so.... PMSL!
So there it is, I'm back to "going with the flow" haha maybe i might be lucky and get an extra hour sleep tonight instead haha