how do you do CC with more than 1 DC?

[pinata]

6 months DS, 3yo DD. Ever since birth, I have done my best to make sure DS doesn't cry at night and disturb DD. BF. Fine.

But I am going back to work in the not too distant future and want to try and reduce his night wakings, or I will be sleeping under my desk. With DD, we did CC quite early on and it worked a treat. But I don't see how it can be done with another child in the house without the whole thing descending into chaos, yet I keep reading on here that people do it

So, please tell me how and how do other DC cope with it? Do you ship them out to grandparents for a few nights?

Pinata I am in same situation (except not going back to work) with a bf 6 mth old still waking at night & a 3yr old that I'm trying desperately not to disturb at night. I am hoping others can shed some light on how the cc worked for them, as I am desperate to try anything to get ds to sleep through.

I have no idea how to do any kind of sleep training when there's another child in the house. Zeeky CC did work for DD, but obviously now even a few minutes of DS crying would wake her and having them both awake would be worse than just his night waking

I'm not even particularly set on CC, but all sleep training involves noise and some crying, even if it's just while you get up to offer water or whatever

Any tips from anyone who has done this much appreciated. Sleep deprivation is making me look like Makka Pakka at the moment...

Good question.

I think a large part of the reason why we have had (and are still having) such a lot of sleep issues with DD2 is because we didn't let her cry for fear of disturbing DD1. DD2 is now 2.6 and still waking regularly (5 nights a week on average) more than once a night. She makes a lot of noise as she seems to know that means an instant reaction from us. They share a room now and I'm at a loss how to deal with it. None of the books I've looked at seem to advise on the issue of more than 1 child.

Will watch here with interest for solutions.

When DD2 was younger we did let her cry but only because we had a 3rd room on a different floor to DD1 and so she didn't disturb her. No longer an option

It is definitely the reason DS still wakes frequently. I have just bunged him a boob every time he wakes up since birth. DD's room is at the side of our room, and noise really carries

She slept a lot better before he was born. Now it's all night terrors and needing the toilet.

Thankfully she rarely wakes him, but when he cries it usually wakes her

What has really brought this to a head for me is that for the past 3 weeks I've been sharing a room with the 2 of them at parents/in laws while we have some building work done. It's made me realise that something has got to change.

I plan to start when we're back home, but have no idea how to tackle it. I often read on here about people doing crying or PUPD etc. with a younger child, but nobody ever mentions the effect on the older one.

I worried about this while pregnant with DS, then he slept brilliantly for the first few months so I thought we'd be fine. And then it all turned pear shaped...

Yes Pinata, DD2 lulled us into false sense of security for first 4 months too and has hardly slept through since then

Have no idea but there must be a way. Expecting DC3 in May so really need to sort things out before then. Or at least get DD2 to accept DH at night rather than screaming for "mummmmmmyyyyyy" every time

hello there

I'm not sure I can help your situations - all I can do is share my experiences.

I have 3 kids - 4, 2 and 4 months. I did cc with my elder two and plan it for my youngest if I need to. My middle child was 6 mths and the eldest was 2.5 when I did cc. Their rooms were not next door but close to each others. I am lucky that when my eldest is out - he is out! However, he did wake in the early hours as the cc coincided with him climbing out of his cot and having to sleep in a bed and so wondering out. We had to end up with a stair gate in front of his door and endure him yelling out from 4.30am onwards! However, the cc on the younger one worked after a few days so we were only left with his early waking which took about 3 wks to crack. I dont think it was related to the cc.

I think kids are actually quite unaffected by other sibs crying once they get used to it and you can actually explain things to a 3 yr old in advance. I plan to do just this if I have to do it again with my third and also ensure a good reward system for not getting out of bed when the youngest is crying.

An alternative would be to ship them put but that is not an option for us.

Another alternative would be to look at any of the no cty sleep training methods but the down side is they require considerable effort and take a lot longer. Time and effort are in short supply when you are due to go back to work ( I am too in jan)