Controlled crying - Waking after 10 mins

[Sassles]

Hi,

I am trying CC with my 8 month old in preparation for going back to work and leaving him with a carer. At the moment he wakes up at night at 11pm and 2.30am ish and is AWAKE for an hour and a half to 2 hrs. If you put him in his cot or leave the room he screams, but if you hold him, he bounces about and wants to play. Milk is offered, but he is not hungry.

During the day he needs to be fed to sleep and will sometimes wake up after 5 or 10 mins.

I started cc last night when he woke at 11.30pm. It took till 1am and he cried for 30 mins and then everytime I left the room for a minute or so, till he eventually fell asleep till 6.30am.

I put him down for his morning nap at 9am and he fell asleep fine, but woke after 15 mins. Do I just get him up or do I do the going in every 5 mins extending the wait time until he falls back asleep? This will be his main nap of the day and 15 mins is not enough to see him through to a later nap.

Help and advice will be much appreciated.

p.s. it has been 45 min since he woke from his 15 min nap and he is still screaming.

Sounds like he's overtired. Was he in a good sleep routine before you tried CC? I assume not, or you wouldn't be trying it. What's his daytime nap routine like? How did you get him to settle before you tried CC? Does he use a dummy/bedtime teddy etc, and what is his bedtime routine?

I think he is overtired too. Day sleep has been pretty non-existant since birth. He would never sleep for hours during the day, just cat nap. He seems to need more naps now than he has done so far, possibly cause he is up so much in the night now when he wasn't before.

He used to wake at 3.30am for a feed then back to sleep. Going to sleep routine is same time every night with a bath every second night, wind down in living room getting ready for bed and a book, then to his room for feed. He always fell asleep from feeding. he would never latch off, but be feeding right up till he was suddenly out for the count.

I find during the day now that he is distracted by every little thing, but day naps are up to nursery, feed to sleep and putting him in cot, but can be a 10 min nap.

Today, he went to sleepp for a further 40 mins after an hour of cc.

What time does he go to sleep? My DD's sleep got better when we started with an earlier bedtime: 6.30pm - 7pm. I found that timing daytime naps was a bit hit and miss if I tried to spot her tired signs so I decided to follow Dr Weissbluth's advice (have you read 'healthy sleep habits, happy child'? ) and I put her down for a nap at around 9am and 1pm (she wakes in the morning at 7am, so I adjust nap times if she wakes earlier or later than usual). This worked very well. I started this routine when she was about 8 months and the timing just happened to be right for it to work. Might be worth a try?

I'm not a big fan of CC, but I know it works well for some babies. It didn't work for mine. I had to soothe her with cuddles and a dummy and put her down virtually asleep until she was about 8 months when she decidd she could do it for herself and wouldn't go to sleep on me anymore.

What time does he usually go to bed? And as
Often babies who have their main nap in the morning, go to sleep very heavily when they eventually go to sleep at night- as its been such a long time since the nap, and then susequently wake up early as they have slept soo deeply in the early sleep hours their body clock thinks it's 'Done' for the night.

If you are doing CC, this needs to be done at day time naps too- and so YES, if after 15 mins, he wakes, try to get him back off again by going in, for an initial reassurance, then leave and continue CC until he is aleep.
As Bobby suggested,he should really have 2 naps, to avoid getting over tired, and although SOME babies sleep well with early morning naps, in general most babies who struggle with sleep, don't sleep as long at this time, as it's too close to when they woke up from night.

Also CC will only really work if he falls asleep without a sleep asscociation ( ie you) Because when he rouses into a light sleep and you aren't there, he will wake fully and need you there to get him back off, and now he is able to fight his sleep, he would rather have a play, than go to sleep. So for babies who wake after being asleep for reasons other than hunger, are usually in need of thier sleep association ( mummy, rocking, dummy, boob, bottle etc)

TRY~
7 am wake
8am breakfast
9am Short nap ( no more than hour, but 15 mins ok, in pushchair, out and about, whever you are )
12pm lunch
1-3pm nap ( in his cot, if possible, so that he is used to falling alseep there. if wakes up before 1 hour, proceed with CC, but WAKE regardless of nap length at 3pm)
5pm
dinner
7pm bed.
Some babies really NEED a solid structure for their body clocks to kick into something more reasonable, and so until he has changed his night wakings, stick to a set routine, so his body clock is adjusted, then you can relax it a bit more when he starts to sleep through.
I imagine he will behave totally differenty for his child-carer. If they want him to nap at a time convenient to them, they will soon get him into a routine- i have looked after countless babies who "don't nap, wont eat ,don't like baths etc" who hardly protest when they are with me, and slot into my routines very easily.

Thanks bobby and containher.

I think I'm not great at reading tired signs in the day and probably he is overtired when I get him to sleep. I was thinking 3 hrs after he got up for first nap, but I've noticed over the last 2 days and as you say in your posts it is more like 2 hrs.

He is asleep by 7.30pm each night, but going to bring that forward by half an hour. He went to bed at 7.30pm last night and feel asleep at 8.15pm. He woke up at 2am and I gave calpol (teething) and he was back asleep by 2.30am, but not really crying at all, more mumping.

containher You hit the nail on the head. He is used to us shushing, rocking, feeding him to sleep, so when he woke up, he needed us to fall back asleep. That's also why the sleep method where you stay in the room hasn't really worked for us as if we are there he won't stop crying and wants to be picked up, but when we leave, he falls asleep on his own. I only went through once last night for the calpol and he slept till 6am.

So this morn was

6am awake and had wee play in cot for 20 mins to see if he would fall back asleep for another hour, but then fed him. He then played and had breakfast.

8am DH put him down for nap. Cried for 4 mins and asleep within 8. Slept till 9.30.

9.30 - 11.30 - Milk. Play and snack

11.30-12.15 Lunch

12.15 - Milk feed in room, but put in cot awake. Cried for 4 mins and again asleep within 8 (12.3) and still asleep at mo. An hour so far.