@lucieinthesky I did CC. But it was in 2002 so was a bit different to now and my post will probably get lots of criticism from more recent mums, but this worked for us and I'm talking about my 17 year old son who passed his driving test today (yay!) and is doing his A Levels.
When I had decided to do it, it was quite early, about 16 weeks, which corresponded with weaning in those days. (4 months).
The first night I did bath time at 6pm, gave a bottle, cuddled on the sofa, not much talking, dim lights, maybe a few little softly sung songs. Then put him in his Grobag, laid down. Stroking the forehead from hairline to nose which is a miracle move to get babies to close their eyes btw. Then I said Night night and lef t. Dark room, door shut. My son cried on and off for 35 mins. I only went in twice and just touched him on his forehead again, did not pick up. He was fine although crying. He fell asleep at 40 mins. It was stressful but ok. My friend told me. "No baby ever died of crying". I kept thinking about that. It wasn't nice, but he had a Dream Feed at 1am and then slept though till 7am.
Day 2, I did all the same and the crying was for 15 minutes.
Day 3, I did all the sane and the crying was for 3 minutes.
Day 4 and forever more there was no crying. Just happiness and contentment at going to sleep with kisses and cuddles. Asleep with no noise within 30 seconds or so. I checked throughout the ebbing though, quietly creeping in and looking. Sleeping through the night 7-7 very soon after.
I did this for both my sons I had normally and also my step son who I've had since he was just 3 and who was a terrible sleeper till then. At that older age he didn't cry, just the routine of bath, milk, story was enough and sharing it with his step brother and watching him go to sleep too.
I hope anyone reading this haS the courage to do it IF THEY WANT TO. Not everyone wants to and that's fine, we are all different parents. But if you're struggling with a baby that can't self settle and won't go down or wakes cryjng all night then 3 days will sort it out. BUT, you have to decide to do it and stick to it, you can't do this half heartedly and then give up mid way, as then you're putting your baby though something for nothing with no positive outcome. If you stick out the 3 days you'll be rewarded by a content baby who is almost grateful to go down each night in a peaceful, loved way.
This is v controversial and I WILL get slagged off by people who will tell me all about the mental harm I've caused my perfectly normal, high achieving teens, so I won't be looking at the post anymore as I CBAed with conflict. But please do PM me if you would like support to perhaps do the same.