Cry it out....?

We have an eleven month old that has been in our bed with us since birth. My wife has been nursing her all year, so it's been easier to have her in bed with us. The problem, OF COURSE, is that she won't go anywhere near the crib. She starts crying immediately if we put her in the crib and won't sleep in there even if we rock her to bed first.

What have others done? We're told we need to put her in the crib and let her cry it out, but haven't had the heart...

Same thing happened to us. We didn't have the heart. She's still in our bed at 3. But I noticed with most things they kinda of just work out in the end. Like for breastfeeding it naturally came to in end without too much struggle. Her starting preschool at age 3 wasn't much too bad either.  I assume that our dd will eventually not want to sleep in our bed. But we figure they are only young for so long.

If you're not up for crying it out, then you could just start sleeping with her in her room.  Then you can always sneak out and feel like you've reclaimed your bedroom for the adults. 

Try creating some new sleep associations and then moving her and those items to the crib.  We turn on "Shelly" (http://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-Ocean-Wonders-Soothe-Seahorse/dp/B0028QKPMW/) and give her the usual blanket and she associates that with 'time to sleep'.  It took a while to change her association to that from what we did before: rocking her in our arms to sleep and then repeating several times throughout the night.  That quickly turned us into zombies.  We also went through a bit of crying it out and at 11 months it will be tough but still easier than trying it when she is older.  Our baby go to bed in her crib at night but naps during the day are still a challenge.  Good luck!