What to Do When Co-Sleeping Is Leaving You and Your Child Exhausted

Blogger and mother Leanne Sexton of Mothers Groupie discusses how co-sleeping with her son was leaving them both exhausted and the method she used in order to train him to sleep on his own.

Over two weeks ago I started to gently teach my youngest son Charlie how to sleep on his own. I was quite 'Earth Mother' with Charlie and he either co-slept or slept next to me in the bassinet since birth. His brother Ted was chronically ill so this was much easier for me to have Charlie close whilst getting up multiple times a night for Teddy. It also felt very natural and I know that it's wonderful for their emotional well being. For some this means you get more sleep however in our situation Charlie was waking every single hour (no joke) for over 7 1/2 months. I was a walking zombie, he was often irritable and it was starting to effect various elements of our life. I was hoping that as he got a little older or started solids things would change but essentially he did not know how to put himself to sleep and that is what was causing all the issues. After exhausting the earth mother approaches for months I knew it was time to step it up a notch and put him in his own room and start the Baby Bliss settling technique by Jo Ryan.

I put a mattress down outside his bedroom so that I could easily tend to him during the night and transition both of us out of sleeping so closely since birth. My heart did ache for him and I questioned whether it was natural but I knew it was time — 8 months without sleeping more than an hour at a time had broken me. I was starting to snap at the silliest things and looked like a panda with thick dark circles. Yes there was a little protesting but I was there with him the whole time in the beginning. There was a LOT of patting and loud shushing and within a week he would reach out for the cot to be put down to put himself to sleep unassisted. It's as though he was relieved to be doing it himself. After two weeks of camping out, he is now sleeping until 1am with a quick wake up for a sip of water, I give him a bottle at 5:45 a.m. and he sleeps until 7:30 a.m. This to me is unbelievable and completely life changing for all of us. He is SO happy when he is awake and it has also fixed the cat napping during the day. I feel half normal again. For us this was definitely the right call.