I have tried the CC path on a very few occasions to the insanity of myself and the distress of my son. He has always been a *velcro* baby who settles best with someone. I just had to figure that out the hard way for myself.

He is now one and we have gone from holding in a carrier and rocking / bouncing to sleep every night to placing him on the bed at the first real tired signs and lying down with him (started at 11 months). The first night he took 30 minutes to go to sleep (no crying - just didn't *get* the idea of sleeping that way) to 15 minutes for each day sleep to 5 minutes the next night. He was ready and is now learning how to go to sleep without the rocking and the holding. He has just gone down for an afternoon nap and it took 5 minutes of him stroking my hand as he fell asleep.

It takes time for them to learn to sleep and self settle. At 5 months there is no way my son would have settled any other way than in the carrier - and that is fine. It was also the quickest and least painful method for us all resulting in a calm and relaxed mummy / daddy and bubby. He has now moved on to the next stage and as he gets older he will learn to do it all on his own. Take a deep breath and know this too shall pass - and much quicker than you think