My son and I shared a room until he was about 10 months old. I am a super light sleeper so when ever he would fuss in the middle of the night, I would instantly pick him up and bring him back in bed with me. It seemed to make him sleep longer and as a result, I got more sleep. After about 3-4 months, he started sleeping through the night, the bassinet got moved out of the room and he had himself a permanent spot in my bed. Luckily since I was a light sleeper, I was always aware of if he felt like he was slipping if he was on top of me, or how close he was if he was next to me so I wasn’t worried about any of those dangers. I knew it was a bad habit I was creating and even though at first it was kind of uncomfortable, after awhile, I loved it. I had me a cuddle buddy every night. I loved taking naps with him in my arms throughout the day as well.

Even though I had a queen sized bed, the older he got, the wilder he became. I had to get a bed rail and would always find myself on the edge of the bed! I couldn’t wait until we moved and not only would he get his own bed, but his own room. Things didn’t go so well at first. For one, he had never slept in his own bed before and two, we had just moved so he was unaware/scared of the new environment. People kept telling me to try “tough love” and to let him cry it out, or else I would never break the habit. Well, call me a punk but I just couldn’t do it. I don’t believe in letting my baby HOLLER for me like that, knowing he is scared and calling out to me and just ignoring him. Plus like you said, who could sleep or just stand to listen to that for long? Jaedyn would not give in either. You’d think after so long the kid would just freaking fall asleep, but nope…not this kid.

I’d rock him to sleep every night and keep him in my arms until he got his lil grown man snore going on, and would attempt to lay him in his crib as gently as I could, but he would pop right back up, stand up and clinch on to me. I tried playing baby cd’s, standing in there, rubbing and comforting him, singing to him, even tried sleeping on his floor thinking if he at least saw me there it would bring him some comfort, NOPE! After hours of this, I’d eventually bring him back in my room and in bed with me. After…idk, a couple of weeks, a friend of mine gave me this rainforest thing that attached to the crib. I would turn it on, rock him to sleep and it took a few nights but he finally stayed in his crib, but not all night. He would sleep in his crib until maybe 5-6am then still end up in bed with me. Over time, he eventually started sleeping through the night. Before, he wouldn’t go to bed until 1-2 o’clock in the morning. Now he is in bed no later than 9:30 and it’s heavenly because I can finally get some me time in. It sucks because I’m usually up late and he wakes up earlier than I would like, but it’s so nice to have a normal schedule.

There is hope though. I didn’t ever think he would sleep in his own crib after 10 months of being up under me. Now it’s RARE that the rascal will fall asleep to even take a nap with me in my bed. I used to have to rock him to sleep first, then put him in his crib, but now he’d rather me just put him in his crib. He knows how to turn the rainforest thing on & off on his own now. I think that helped a lot. It takes a lot of patience though…and of course a lot of sleep deprivation if you want it to work, but it will eventually pay off. It’s possible because we were in the same boat. I was totally against the cry it out thing too. Hope this helped some and good luck!