fighting sleep all the time

[ally m]

hi everyone
I am new to this site and im looking for advice on sleeping.I have a six month old girl who is a terrible sleeper and always has been.I am at my wits end as what to do with her. I have never had a full nights sleep and i think im really going to crack. I have tried everything  She will take about  an hour to get to sleep,me patting and rubbing her back.Then she will walk up after an hour,then theres more patting and rubbing for half an hour,then she sleeps for ten mins wakes up crying and even when i go in she will not stop.She kicks her legs and really cracks up.She will continue this while i am rubbing her back for an hour .Then again falls asleep for ten minutes and the whole process lasts all night.I cant take much more of this Please can someone help me as i am falling deeper into depression with this

[Jaime]

hi,

have you read the latest BW (Solves all your problems) book?  it has tons of detailed information on sleep training.  you can probably find it at the library if you don't want to buy it.  it sounds like your lo is dependent on you to go to sleep & then stay asleep, and that's why she keeps waking at the end of each sleep cycle. 

likely pu/pd will be a good bet for you; we have a whole forum devoted to that.  also, here is a link to an interview with tracy.  it's really long, but there is tons of specific info in there that can help you form a plan.

the big thing to remember is that once you form a plan you need to stick to it.  your baby will cry that you're changing her routine, but you need to stay with her and stick to it; if you cave, it'll take that much longer to change her behavior. 

good luck.   

[sarah brown]

Hi Linda

You must be exhausted, My son has never had a problem as bad as this although we are going throught a stage of night wakings at the moment but I used to have a terrible time getting down for naps and bedtime.  It could go on for and hour just trying to nurse him which when tiny he used to love but by 4 month grew to hate.  We bought Traceys book and read it twice then went for it and it was tough in the first couple of weeks but the longest he cried with pu/pd was 30 mins which was less than when we nursed him.  We are on week 4 and still having ups and downs and day four was probably our worst just as we thought we were making progess.

I just wanted to say I had my doubts about pu/pd before I did it but was desperate enough to try anything and I am so glad I did, And before you start if possible do you have a willing relative who could have your little one over night to help you get your energy levels back up??

Good luck Sarah