Hi everyone. I have been watching and participating in the discussions on baby sleep problems since this is such a common issue for all parents and babies. I have been through several sleep issued with my now 11-month old baby girl. However in general, I must say, she is not a bad sleeper once she falls asleep at night. She does wake up sometimes because she is a very "active" sleep, turning and moving all around, but usually she just goes back to sleep on her own. I have ALWAYS put her to sleep at night breastfeeding. So she has always had this help from me, which I know is wrong according to all the sleep training theories. She also wakes up crying sometimes and I go in to comfort her, either in the crib or by taking her out and rocking her. I believe that when she does that, though, that she is really disturbed by something, either pain or bad dream or something else that startles or scares her at night, because the nature of her crying. I have not and do not want to use cry it out method and really have not had need to.

However for the past 2 months or so she has been resisting sleep during the day, her naps, if we try to put her down in the crib. She gets up holding on to the rails and moves around or gets up on her hands and knees, really resisting being put down. Even when she is clearly sleepy, she resists sleep. She is able to fall asleep in her stroller when we take her out during the day, but not in her crib. Of course then she gets her exhausted that she passes out as soon as I start breastfeeding her for her next meal. So once again, she falls asleep on the breast.

I know I will have to give up nursing her to sleep at night soon and I am dreading it, afraid that she will not be able to go to sleep at night without being nursed or bottle-fed, but for now I really would love any suggestions on how to teach her to fall asleep in her crib for her daytime naps. She does not cry, she just gets up and does not want to lie down.

Thanks!

My daughter used to fall asleep with the bottle, so don't feel bad.  We did this until she was about 8-9 months old and quit because she pretty much just quit falling asleep with the bottle.  then we had to rock her completely to sleep and lay her down very gently so she didn't wake up.  Like your daughter she rarely wakes up at night, but when she does I feel it's a bad dream or something like that.  Eventually it got too hard to rock her to sleep because as long as she was out of her crib she would want to get down and play so we just started putting her in her crib at bed time.  We had some nights of crying it out and still do sometimes, but it's pretty rare now.  Now when she gets sleepy she doesn't even want me to rock her - she wants her crib because she associates that with sleep.  It is hard to hear them cry, but it's the only way they will learn to put themselves to sleep.  According to all the books we were late in teaching our daughter this, but she still figured it our and so can your daughter! 

I'm not sure what to tell you about the naps, but I can tell you what we did with my daughter...until she was about 9 months old I held her for her naps.  Awful I know - I knew she didn't need me to hold her because she napped by herself at the babysitter's all week, but if I tried to lay her down for a nap she would not do it!  As we taught her to put herself to sleep at night she got better with the naps - we did have some cry it out days though.  Also, as she got more active with the crawling she was more tired so that helped with nap time.  She still does cry sometimes at nap time, but we just let her cry it out.

I don't know if any of this helps or not, but don't worry too much - you'll get through it!  good luck with everything.

I think that kids just go through phases. While they are learning to explore their world and just their everday lives. Our babies don't want to miss anything they are having so much fun, so fighting sleep is normal in my eyes.

My daughter is 10 months old and can not sleep for more than an hour in a room by herself. For my sanity and hers (sleepy babies are not fun) I'm not forcing the issue right now. when she understand what I'm saying and why I'm doing it, we may try the "cry it out" in her crib, until then, we do what works for us. "co-sleeping"

Don't feel bad about your daughter falling asleep breastfeeding, Its normal and your daughter will grow out of it. Breastfeeding is a comforting and relaxing, safe thing for your daughter and it allows her to stop moving long enough to fall asleep.

I honestly would take her resistance to sleep during the day as a growing phase. Your doing such a good job letting her explore her world and interacting with her that she doesn't want to miss anything. It's a good thing in my opinion.

Hi Becki. I just wanted to say that I agree with you 100%. Words of wisdom. Thank you so much for support and kind words. Good luck with you little one as well.