I'm looking for some help for gentle parenting ways for dealing with my four and a half month old's deteriorating sleep patterns. I think i have been following gentle parenting techniques since she was born (without being aware of such a thing until i came to these forums and sleep books looking for help!). We always responded immediately to her cries, fed on demand (1-3 times per night usually) and put her down for a sleep when sleepy. Until a few weeks ago, she has always been a very settled baby, and a 'good' sleeper who (with the assistance of the dummy) could mostly self-settle in her cot. When she had trouble settling we would cuddle her until she was droopy eyed and she would go off to sleep on her own. Over the last few weeks she has been gradually needing more and more assistance to sleep and yet her sleep has been getting worse and worse. Starting with needing to be cuddled to sleep every night (with the rest of the night as normal), then only having catnaps during the day unless cuddled, then only catnaps even when being cuddled and now we have reached waking up every hour during the night and not going back to sleep even after a feed and spending hours crying during the night. We tried bringing her in with us after the first wake, but that didnt improve things. When we hit rock bottom I took away the dummy, but that hasnt made her any better or worse. I've read loads of sleep books but just end up more confused. We have a 'sleep school' here but i know they practice 'modified controlled comforting' ala the sleep right sleep tight method and I'm not sure thats for me. I cant stomach letting her cry, but we all need sleep. At the moment she is probaby getting only 2 hours sleep during the day and somewhere between 6 and 8 hours at night with hours and hours of crying. As a last resort I am trying to be consistent about settling her in her cot, with me in the room comforting her until she falls asleep. This can take anywhere between 15 minutes and an hour of crying (last night it was 2 hours). I have tried it for 2 nights but so far no improvement and I'm so worried about the effect all this crying is having on her. I can handle it during the night when i have the support of my husband but it is so hard during the day. Any suggestions from experienced mothers out there?