Sleep help...please!!

[imbatman]

I may ramble, sorry...I'm going on 4 nights of not sleeping well.
My daughter is 5 1/2 months old. Up until 4 1/2 months, she slept through the night, 8-10 hours. I thought I hit the jackpot. We'd had her in our room in the rock n play. She started to stir herself awake around 4 1/2 months and eventually started sitting straight up so we had to transition her. We put her in the pack n play in our room and she would sleep a couple hours, wake up, sleep a couple hours, wake up... Well, we moved this past Saturday. I thought since we were moving anyway I would go ahead and move her to the crib. She slept in it about an hour the first night and I gave in (because I'm lazy) and brought her back to our room in the pack n play. She didn't sleep. Every single time I laid her down, she screamed and cried. This has been going on every night since. She will only sleep on me, and I have given up and let her. Last night we tried the crib again and thought maybe we'd let her CIO, and after 30 minutes she still hadn't calmed herself, so mommy to the rescue again and another night of sleeping on me. I fully admit, I have NO idea what I'm doing. I know her surroundings have changed and maybe that's what the biggest issue is, but I'm dying. I have to get some sleep. Can anyone help?
I'm at work, so it's a bit of a post and run, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

[ktw]

First of all, hugs! Sleep deprivation is no joke. If you're ready to do CIO, I'd pick up a copy of Ferber's book, and read what he has to say about it. You don't have to read the whole book right now, just enough to get you started. Go into it with a plan, and then stick to it! If you're not ready to do CIO (in other words, if you're not ready to listen to her cry until she falls asleep, even if it takes more than 30 minutes), then don't do it. Don't do the 30 minutes of crying then go and rescue her routine. That just teaches her that if she cries long enough you will come save her, which is not good for her or for you.

From what you've described, it sounds like she doesn't know how to put herself to sleep, at the beginning of the night, or in the MOTN. STing will teach her that, and it will work with most kids, but it's not for everybody. If you can't face the crying, I know there are some more gentle methods you can try. If you're ok with her sleeping in your bed (just maybe not on top of you), you could look into the safe ways to cosleep.