Loosing my mind, and baby loosing sleep

So.... ugh

Ok.

Here's the deal. For whatever reason I don't feel comfortable leaving Isabella alone to sleep in a room- whether that be in her crib, in her co sleeper or in our bed. Naptimes during the day are not a problem. Sometimes I'll lay her down on the couch and I'll still be in the living room doing stuff, or I'll be in the kitchen where I can still see her. Other times I'll lay down and nap with her.. but nighttime... ugh.

I just don't know what to do. Realistically she should be in bed by 7:30ish... and most of the time she's tired, rubbing her eyes and ready. But *I* am not ready to go to bed yet. So up until now I've just kept her downstairs with us and she'll sleep in my arms and then bring her to bed with me when I'm ready. The problem is she is starting to become SO interested in everything that being downstairs is keeping her up. Whether it be by the TV or noises from outside, whatever. So I know she needs to be put down somewhere so she can get proper sleep. I guess this evening I am at a breaking point. It's 10:30 and she's STILL wide awake blabbering away and blowing raspberries. I nursed her, I rocked her, I snuggled in our bed with her, I've done EVERYTHING. In a dark room, with a soft light, I've sung... everything.

So something needs to change. She needs her sleep and I need a few hours before I check myself into the funny farm.

So what can I do to get her to bed at a decent time? Where should I put her down? In our bed with pillows beside her? She HATES her co-sleeper... rarely tolerates her crib (and has yet to spend more then 5 minutes in it without screaming...) I've read the NCSS and I've tried implementing it... but, I'm just at my wits end here.

I am so frustrated that I am tempted to put her in her crib and walk away and just let her scream. I obviously never would because I am totally against CIO but... wow. I mean... What do I do?

Should I buy a monitor and just put her to bed in our bed and go about my evening? Or should I try and get her into her crib to sleep until we go to bed and then bring her in with us? Should I leave her to roll around and "talk" even if she is not sleeping? How long do I leave her like that? Until she falls asleep? Until she starts to cry? And then what?

[3boysforme]

I personally would put baby in my bed, and then use a monior. If you are concerned about her rolling out, you can get rails for the bed. I think she would sleep better there b/c that's her bed ykwim? A crib would foreign to her. But I am biased, I really don't like cribs lol.

[Firebird Rising]

I don't do bedtimes really until around 18 months or so. I help them go to sleep when they seem ready. Elijah sleeps in a beanbag and has since he was just a wee one (always in the same room b/c of suffocation issues) so that he feels like he's "held".

My brain isn't working so I don't have much else.

Jen D.

[Bonnie]

At that age, when they needed sleep before I did (or if I just needed hands-free time more than sleep ), I'd lay down with them on the bed and nurse them into oblivion, and then leave a monitor on. We have a king mattress and box spring on the floor, tight against the walls, so once they were more mobile I either used a good bed rail (the kind that cinches down onto the mattress, not along side it) or put a long pillow on the floor alongside the bed and hoped I'd hear the thud

[TuneMyHeart]

AK naps and sleeps in our bed (she naps in arms too, but if I need to put her down, it's in our bed). I put pillows around her and use a monitor. I don't like her on our bed unsupervised if she's awake since she's rolling and crawling.

I really don't worry about "bedtimes" right now. AK is very inconsistent, and it's too stressful to try to get her in bed "on time." I just nurse her when she wants and if she's tired, she'll sleep. She doesn't sleep well with any kind of noise, so I put her down if I need to do something. Even DH doing the dishes will wake her up. If she won't sleep, but isn't happy playing alone, we pop her in a sling and go about our business.

[Blue Aurora]

Before they get to the distraction age I let them sleep in my arms if I'm watching tv or something. After they start getting distracted I do what Bonnie does. Nurse them down in our king size bed with a guard rail and pillows and a monitor. An overtired baby is much harder to get to sleep.

[Emerald Orchid]

Originally Posted by 3boysforme

I personally would put baby in my bed, and then use a monior. If you are concerned about her rolling out, you can get rails for the bed. I think she would sleep better there b/c that's her bed ykwim? A crib would foreign to her. But I am biased, I really don't like cribs lol.

My thoughts too.

[ValiantJoy07]

That was the most intense age for us 5-8mos... Really to 10months but it got a bit better some time after 8 months.

We had the same problem, dd hated hated haaaated her crib, I didn't feel comfortable leaving her on our bed (and she'd wake up when I wasn't there near her) because we HAVE to have under bed storage and DD was a fairly early crawler and I was scared she'd go right of the edge of our pretty high bed. So at 6months I got a swing The "Graco love'n hug" holds babies up to 30lbs (dd still loves that swing!)...I'd lay a thick blanket in the seat and close the tray over her and she couldn't slide out our get out out when I wasn't in the room- I didn't worry about her getting hurt...I'd nurse her down in the dark room at bedtime and put her in the swing and the motion of it would buy me a couple of hourse (okay an hour before she woke to nurse again but she'd go right back down) to have an evening to myself. She needed the slight incline (it reclines almost to flat) and the motion to stay asleep- other wise she wanted to be in constant contact with me. It was the only place she'd nap for more than 30 mintues too. I also implemented some of the NCSS things aroudn that time but it took about 4-5 months to really see any thing come from all my persistance. It gets better. If it's any consolation dd started STTN fairly regularly at 13months and around 16months self-night weaned (though I am preggo so that might have played a big part..) It does get better, and I miss the contact with my baby- she's not as needy in that area any more

[Codi]

SOTFB - Im just like you. Im not comfortable leaving my little one alone in a room either. So I dont. And I didn't with ds until he was oh....18 months-ish?

Originally Posted by Green Orchid

My thoughts too.

This is me too. Im also biased though.

This is what I do. I understand if it doesn't work for everyone, but I am just sharing my experience in case something may work for you.

I know it is 7p.m. when dd gets fussy...and she is not happy till were in bed. She is like a clock. Her and I get ready for bed and she is out by 7:30 every night. While putting her to sleep, I watch a movie (lately it's been Transformers....I dunno why I like that movie so much ) and once she is out, I turn on the comp and lay in bed. At about 8:30, ds and dh come to bed. Once ds is asleep, dh and I usually watch a movie in bed together....or...well, ya know. And thats about as long as I get away from dd. I just hang out in bed reading, writing, on the comp, whatever. As they get older, you can start to be away from them for longer periods of time.

My lo is 8 months old, very active, and a very sensitive sleeper.

Since he is soooo active - we recently put our queen mattress on the floor and another futon mattress next to our queen. Our master bedroom is now a 'safe' area for our ds as there is nothing on the ground except a few toys and books and our mattresses. We even covered all the outlets. (Before ds and I were sleeping on the futon in his room.)

As for naps - whenever he shows signs of sleepiness - we go into the bedroom and turn on the white noise. If ds is with me - I will nurse him to sleep. If I'm not at home dh has his own way of putting ds to sleep. Now that the mattress is on the floor, I don't have to worry about him crawling or rolling off and that puts my mind to rest.

For the nighttime sleep, after dinner he gets a bath and when he hows signs of sleepiness its the same routine as the nap. For us a set bedtime is really hard because we have a teenager as well and she often needs to be picked up or shuttled to dance classes after dinner! When ds was a newborn we tried setting his bedtime at 7PM but now its getting progressively later. Also - the sun doesn't set until 10pm where we live so that doesn't help. We have blackout blinds in the bedroom and that helps a bit.