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CC - advice about what to do about night wakings

15 replies

karaj · 16/02/2005 15:26

I have a DS, now nearly 8 months old. 5 nights ago, I finally got the courage to start a moderate version of cc. After only two nights when he cried on and off for 16 minutes (I checked on him every 5 minutes), on the 3rd night he fell asleep without a whimper. Last night (night 4) he cried and moaned around 5 minutes, but again fell asleep on his own. A miracle ! We used to have to spend anything from 1 - 2.5 hours every night helping him to sleep. Now he sleeps on his own approx. 20 - 30 minutes after we leave his room.

However, the night wakings continue, on a bad night it is 4-5 times, on a good night it is twice. If I breastfeed him, he goes right back to sleep. But if DH picks him up (he doesn't feed him anything - he tried water once and DS started to scream) he has to rock him a good 30 minutes of so before he goes back to sleep again. But the rocking works as well as the feeding, which leads me to the conclusion that he is not waking up due to hunger. He is on solids 3 times a day, plus several sessions of breastfeeding throughout the day. So why is he still waking up in the middle of the night and screaming ?

Sorry, for the long background story, but I just wondered if anyone has also used this modified version of cc (i.e. where you have allowed your baby to cry to fall asleep, but have attended to him/her when he wakes up in the middle of the night)?

I have been very reluctant to let him cry up to 5 different times during the night. Is it true, in your experience that once they learn to fall asleep on their own through cc, the night wakings also vanish after a few weeks ? (this has been suggested by Jodi Mindell, whose book I have been following). I just wanted to know if this is backed up by your personal exprience ?

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karaj · 17/02/2005 12:41

Any one ?

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hercules · 17/02/2005 12:46

I'm not in cc personally but I believe it is very confusing if you change the rules. If you are going to do it you have to be consistent otherwise it doesnt seem fair.

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Gwenick · 17/02/2005 12:51

I'm afraid the only really 'good' way of doing CC is to continue it during the night too - otherwise they just get mixed signals and don't really 'catch on' .You'll probably find if you repeat the process during the night he'll very quickly learn to go to sleep (or fall back asleep on his own) and you won't be doing it 5 times a night.

We did the 'full' version of CC with DS1 when he was 6 months old, up to that point he'd been sleeping in our bed, waking up every hour for a 1hr breastfeed. 1st night cried for 2hrs 52 minutes (once we'd 'extended' the time length we were checking him every 20 minutes). Woke up once, but fell back asleep in 5 minutes. The 2nd night was 45 minutes didn't wake up at all. 3rd night was about 15 minutes again didn't wake up.

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karaj · 17/02/2005 15:24

Thanks to everyone so far.

Gwenik - did your DS then sleep through consistently once you had done cc every time he woke up ?

I am just curious to know whether it really works ? If so, I am willing to give it a try. Hopefully now that he sleeps on his own at 7:00 pm every night without our help, he will not cry too long if I leave him in the middle of the night.

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Gwenick · 17/02/2005 15:30

yes Karaj - he did - he's now 4yrs old and rarely wakes up in the night - if he does it's usually because he's not well.

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sanchpanch · 17/02/2005 15:33

i feel for you, my daughter is 18 months and constantly wakes up, but will go to sleep on her own in her cot, but then wakes during the night, i can easily leave her to cry in the evening, but the middle of the night it seems so quiet, and with neighbours either side, and a 7 year old in a bed next to her, its to daunting even though i know we need to to allow us to regain some sainity!! i will watch this thread with interest

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karaj · 17/02/2005 15:42

Thanks Gwenick - I think it's definitely worth a shot then.

The crying at the beginnig of the night (for the first 3 nights) has not effected him psychologically (which is what I have always been hung up about) as he is still his own happy, laughing, lovely self during the day.

Then there were the horror stories about babies throwing up and being trembley and afraid the next day. Thank goodness none of that has happened. I guess my DS is ready for being left alone to sleep - and so are we

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Gwenick · 17/02/2005 15:43

karaj - as I mentioned below DS1 cried for nearly 3hrs the first night before he FIRST fell asleep - felt awful (although the bottle of wine helped) but although he was knackered the next day (understandable really) it didn't affect him at all once he was sleeping properly - in fact he was even HAPPIER as he was getting a decent nights sleep.

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karaj · 17/02/2005 15:50

Gwenick - did YOU have the bottle of wine or did you give it to DS to help him sleep ? LOL !

My DH and I joked about giving DS some whiskey in his water to help him sleep...it's amasing the thoughts that come to one's head when desparately tired

Sanchpanch - I feel bad for you too. It's a horrible situation to be in. I still get very, very upset when friends tell me their babies have being sleeping through since they were 7 days old, bla, bla...bla...I wish they wouldn't tell me such things. It's so upsetting when your own children don't sleep.

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Gwenick · 17/02/2005 19:39

LOL karaj - no I had the bottle of wine, HV at the time (she was SUCH A darling wish I could have taken her with me when we moved) recommened the following

2 minutes - stand outside the door panicking fuirously

5 minutes - go put the kettle on and make a coffee

10 minutes - go and drink the coffee

20 minutes - open the wine and get started on it

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kbaby · 17/02/2005 21:16

My dd used to fall asleep on her own at bedtime since 5 months old but still wakes at night. If we take her out of the cot and give her milk or give her toys to play with shell play for a bit and then go to sleep on her own. I suppose what im trying to say is just because they sleep on their own at bedtime doesnt mean they wont still wake.
DD 9 months

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kbaby · 17/02/2005 21:19

Forgot to add we did try CC for the night time wakings but she cried for 2 hours each time she woke for 5 days. It was on day 5 after no improvement that we gave up. Im just hoping she will grow out of it

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TracyK · 18/02/2005 09:28

Depends on how they are crying - is it frantic or pathetic crying. Make sure they're not teething as I did a bit of cc when ds was teething (I didn't realise) and a bit of calpol with dream feed at 10.30 sees him through.

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sacha3taylor · 18/02/2005 17:16

Just wanted to let you know that i have found CC to work! My DS is 9 months and i stopped breastfeeding in the day about 2 months ago! I still fed at night as this was the only way to get him to sleep and sometimes he would wake up 5 or 6 times! Last thursday i had to stop as it was so painful feeding him he made me cry [biting] My husband and i decided he would have to go cold turkey and try CC. I couldn't believe how well it worked, we had tried twice before unccesfully and did not hold out much hope this time either, however- only a week on he is sleeping all night [7-7] and only the first two night woke up atall and went back to sleep within 10 minutes!!! He was definetly waking for comfort and very quickly got out of this habbit. I really hope all your attempts are as succesful as mine.

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karaj · 19/02/2005 08:32

sacha3taylor - many thanks for your post. I am pleased it has worked for you and I am hoping it will work for us and everyone else too. DS is still going to sleep on his own a week on after trying cc first thing at night.

Also the past 2 nights he has only woken up once (at around 1am) and I breastfed him and left him in his cot when he was still awake. He gave out a quick squeel as he saw me leave the room, but didn't cry at all and went back to sleep on his own until 5:30 am. This is a real improvement.

I think he is definetly waking up from habit and if he continues to only wake once a night, we don't have a problem with that. If he goes back to waking 4 or 5 times, I think we will have to do cc during the night as well. He is definetly not hungry, which is why I feel less guilt doing cc now then before 6 months (when he was not on solids yet) when he may genuinely have been hungry.

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