Controlled crying - can anyone who has successfully done this please advise - having variable success, not sure what to do.

[peggotty]

We've been doing cc with ds for 5 days - 1st night it took over an hour with several visits from me and dh, then he slept from 11 til 7am (unheard of before!), the next night he woke 3 separate times but took less time to settle, 3rd night he woke at 1.30 and settled after 15 mins and slept til 7am. I thought we were cracking it at this point but last night he was up for nearly 2 hours, and awake at 2 other times and I resorted to feeding him. He wasn't particularily hungry as he didn't take much of a feed so it obviously wasn't that keeping him awake. The trouble is he is a bad teether - it goes on for weeks and weeks. We seem to only get about 1 week out of 6 that he is not having teething problems. His sleeping has improved to the point that he seems to go longer from first going to bed to waking up, and will settle himself really well for naps and at bedtime since we started cc. Should I accept that I feed him once a night or will that just encourage him to wake up the numerous extra times that he was before we started cc. Or can you take a break from cc and try again at a later date without a complete regression?

I know that cc is not everyone's cup of tea, particularily on MN, and we didn't come to the decision to do it lightly. Any advice? SOrry for incoherence of post, hope it makes some sense!

[Collision]

how old is he?

[peggotty]

6 months

[Collision]

No need for a hard hat here! I am all for cc!

I think that once they are fed and clean and changed and no obvious problems then they should be sleeping through the night.

If you offer food then he will just wake up for it.

You could get your DH to offer him water as it is less tasty and he wont be able to smell you and the milk.

You are probably cc earlier than I did but no problem. Keep doing what you are doing and do not give in!

Is he weaned yet?

[peggotty]

Phew, thanks collision! He's only just started on a few solids. Bf. Had been fed to sleep for all sleeping since birth. I'm just concerned that the bad nights he's had since i've started cc is because of his teeth, so he is waking because of pain. Teething seems to make him feed less during the day, so I am also concerned he's not getting enough milk and waking through hunger (although last night seemed to suggest it wasn't hunger). I want to stop bfing him at night particularly to encourage more daytime feeding as it was getting to the point that he seemed to get nearly all of his milk by snacking most of the night.

[Collision]

If he is teething at night then I would get your DH to put more bonjela on him, soothe him and go back to bed.

Once he smells you and the milk he will want you.

Teething sachet things are supposed to be good too.

It does get better!