Question about CC and early rising

[ShushBaby]

We have just (this morning) started trying some controlled crying in the mornings for our dd who wakes any time from 4.30-5.30am. Up until now, I have been feeding her- she hardly takes any milk though- then putting her back in her cot to play with the lights on. Nothing else will settle her. Sometimes she will go back to sleep for a bit, often not. Either way it makes for a messy morning and a rather odd routine.

She is 11 months old and is also not a long napper so we're really keen for her to get more sleep, as I worry about her not getting enough. Also to not have to get out of bed before dawn ourselves, of course! So that's why we are trying cc. We go in to her every few minutes to soothe her.

It actually didn't work this morning. She woke at 5.30am and grizzled/cried til 6.30am, which is our "morning time". At this point we got up, switched lights on and I fed her- and she had a proper feed for once. The idea is that we are drawing a clear line between night and day. I hope tomorrow will bring some progress.

I have a couple of questions:

• Has anyone else tried cc for early rising and did it work? (please note: the answer is "yes". Right?)
• Do we need to use cc for all settling? For naps, bedtime and night-time wake ups, when she doesn't self settle we use PU/PD or stroking her back. It's just the mornings when this won't settle her. Are we being inconsistent if we still use these techniques for all but the early rising?

Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

I had an early riser but never tried cc as she went to bed so early at 6 pm, she was waking at 5 having had enough sleep. She eventually started waking at 6 am on her own at 17 months when she started walking and therefore must have needed moors sleep. We have managed to pus bed time back till 7 and she sleeps till 6 or 6.30.

However, in answer to the other questioning your post I would say yes, you do have to be consistent and use the same technique for naps etc. Otherwise it could potential be v confusing for your dd.
Good luck x

i think your being inconsistent,

we did CC from 12 weeks, from my experience this is how we did it..

*We got her into the routine of having a bath at 7pm on the dot every night, straight in PJ's and then a feed in a low lighting room (on our bed usually)

*Then we would put her straight down to sleep.

*We brought a musical thingy (over cot dangly thing?) and we played this when we put her down. this creating a sign for bedtime.

*If she cried for 10 minutes we would go in and turn the music on again, however would only half wind the musical box up.

*If she still cried for 15 minutes we would go in and do the music a little bit. 9/10 times this was all she needed and she would be asleep.

*If she woke up in the night and say cried for 10 - 15 minutes and seemed to be awake we would again go and do the music and so on.

My DD is now 10 months and when she goes to bed we do the music once and she goes to sleep. The thing is consistency and also routine. You cannot do one method for mornings and then another for the evenings as she will get confused as to what sleep time is.

For example, my LO associates sleep time with her music box, she also knows when she goes in the bath that this is winding down time. she has recently stopped napping in the day unless we are in the car going somewhere she will cat nap.

She has also started with standing up in her cot and trying to play, if its bed time we simply go in lay her down and do the music, its very rare we get a bad night but when we do she will just be awake all night no matter how hard i try to get her to sleep.

I hope this helps you a little bit.

Thanks for the feedback. DD has always had a bedtime routine which has worked well.

Fortunately since I wrote the op she has gone back to consistently self settling for bedtime and naps, and sleeping through, so we've not had to be inconsistent! We've only used cc in the morning. It was a great success and after a few mornings she started waking early, self-settling and going back to sleep until 6.30am or so. Bliss.

Then this morning she woke at 5am and would not settle til "morning" time came around. Hellacious. She woke the neighbours up and we're losing our nerve now...

We go in every 3-4 minutes. I wouldn't want to leave her for any longer than that tbh.

Not sure what to do now!

How strange my LO has got me up at 5am a few times recently thinking that its play time!

i was nervous about leaving her for longer but it really did work