Hey Sacha,

Pinky McKay read your post and wanted to tell you this:

Babies Cry- that is how they communicate. All crying isn't bad so please dont beat up on yourself that you are creating harmful stress WHENEVER your baby cries. As long as you respond to cries and are there to support your baby to manage her frustrations/ soothe her most of the time, she will develop trust and be just fine.

At this age she will cry because she has learnt that you will help her- this isnt bad but a sign of her trust. Also, please dont beat up on yourself that you have done anything wrong to increase her 'demands'. Try and see what else is happening - ie teething/ separation anxiety ( going to sleep is temporarily leaving you so she will cling at this age regardless of how you have previously settled her - go with it for now and it will pass naturally)/ new mobility skills - that could be waking her - try to see her crying/ waking as an expression of a need, not a 'bad habit' that you have created.

Relax, you are doinga fabulous job -trust yourself - you know YOUR baby best - you will know the difference between a wind down grizzle and a red alert and you DO know how to respond appropriately for YOUR baby. I think that what Margot Sunderland is referring to is deliberately leaving babies to cry and not responding, rather than stopping ALL crying - in fact even when we cuddle and hold, some babies simply need to release pent up stress by crying - as long as we arent stressing them by leaving them alone to cry it out, I understand we arent creating extra stress.

Perhaps it would help to read 100 Ways to Calm the Crying or Sleeping Like a Baby?

Pinky