Starting CC alone tonight - support me please!!

[SkilpadsMom]

My DS1 is 8mo next week, and an absolute delight during the day - very smiley. happy, engaging, and has just started crawling a few weeks ago.
He has always been an awful sleeper, with most nights having 3 wake ups, or even more? and not at the same time either - some nights he will wake at 11, 2, 4, 5.30, another he might go through to 2, then wake on the hour etc. No rhyme or reason as the days are like clockwork.
During the day he puts himself to sleep in his cot, and he consistently has 2 1.5hour sleeps at 10 and 2.

He has a very solid bedtime routine and is alseep by 6.30/6.45 every night in his cot, putting himself to sleep.
he uses a dummy.

He eats 3 solid meals a day and was EBF until 6 months, when I started mix feeding him - Formula during the day and BF at night. I have just stopped BF completely, and he is having formula at night now, and in doing this, I have seen that he isn't waking for the food (duh... you might say!!!) as he has a sip from the bottle and thats it. But finding it difficult to settle.

When I was BF at night he would be very settled by the cuddle and feed and would not neccessarily be asleep but would go to sleep once put down drowsy.

Now that i don't have the magic bullet of BF him to sleep, the wheels have come off a bit, and he is finding it difficult to settle without me there - so planning on CC tonight.
Any advice.???

Yes.make sure you know what you're doing before you start CC.i.e what intervals you'll be going in.
I did 5minutes,then 10 and then every 15 until he dropped off. I would go in and say 'shh X time to go to sleep'. Be warned that when you walk out the room they go mental as you're not picking them up.
I have done CC with my DD and a couple of weeks ago with DS who is 9 months. He has slept tbrough the night since.
Good luck.make sure you write down when you go in as it's hard to remember in the morning!
Are you planning to ditch the dummy or is that not really a problem?

Thanks for the advice - I had thought to do the same as you had mentioned, with a 5, 10 and then 15 minute interval, and then to go in every 15 mins thereafter. I will write down the times though as that makes sense, and I am so sleep deprived anyway that I will invariably forget what happened in the night...

Not sure about the dummy, as he will fall asleep without it in the day, but I do leave it in the cot as DS finds it himself and puts it in if he wants it.
Should I go cold turkey on the whole lot do you think?

Tricky one!We got rid of the dummy at 5 months as I was sick of doing the 'dummy run' every 5 minutes.probably better to do all in one go as he will have to learn to settle without it if you're doing controlled crying.or if it's too much to worry about then just take it away for the day sleeps?

Its not easy, and I think what a lot of people get confused with CC is that it is just 'leaving them to cry'. :(

It's not, its about going in, resettling and reassuring them so they can go off to sleep by themselves.

The greatest compliment my sister (childless) ever paid me was ' My god - I totally hand it to you - you've got those kids in a great night-time routine' :o

Well, last night wasn't as hideous as I thought it might be....

6.45 sleep with no fuss

11.30 wake up, did the shhshhshh and reposition in the cot, and walking out, and once up to 15 mins, went in every 15 mins. Lasted 1 hour, exactly, then he was asleep, without the dummy.

4am wake - started from scratch again, with 5, 10 mins, but only cried for 25 mins, then asleep!

and finally 5.15am - woke up, gave a 5 minute moan, and just as I am dragging myself up, there was silence!!!
ASLEEP!!! ALONE!!!

Hooray!

Waiting for tonight with bated breath!

He put himself to sleep this morning at 9.45, with no probs either, and still smiley and happy this morning, so all good!

A good start!I think you'll have quick results. Think my book says day 3 can seem like a regression but keep at it.

Thanks mumcah
I hope so, but will just keep at it regardless, I think, as we need to crack this before I start work in April!

thank you so much for the support - doing it alone is harder than I thought!!!

Night 2:
Sleep at 6.45
wake for the first time 6.15am!!!

All night!!!
So far so good....

Well done your DS!
That is spooky as both mine slept through on day 2.I was surprised that my DS did it,what a coincidence!

Watching this with interest and am very impressed with your success! :)

Can I just ask - do you wait 5 minutes before you go in at all (in case they resettle themselves), or do you go in straight away, soothe them, and then walk out, waiting 5 minutes before you go in again? Thanks

Hi IntheZenGarden
I waited 5 minutes first, and then went in, and didn;t hang about in there either - just in, put him back down, cover over with the blankets, shhshhshh all the time, no eye contact, and then out. Not my normal loving self either, I'm afraid, just businesslike calm.
I must admit, that I'm surprised that it went so well, and it wasn't as awful as I thought, once I had put my mind to it... still no picnic!!

Let us know how you get on if you are giving it a bash...
I am a bit of a convert now... [squirms slightly]

I will try, but not yet. :)

DS is only just 6 months. He has been an awful sleeper from the start, but is gradually getting better - in the last week he has started doing a 5 hour stretch, and then a 4 hour one.... a couple of months ago, he was waking every hour.

He guzzles a bottle at 12ish (and screams blue murder when he wakes for it), but then doesn't need it at 4 (he's much calmer when he wakes then), I can usually resettle him with dummy. But despite not having fed since midnight, he isn't interested in milk at 7am, which makes me think he doesn't really need the midnight feed, iyswim. I would much rather he slept through and had a good feed at 7am!!

I'll wait til weaning is more established, see if that makes a difference on its own. If not, at least I'll feel confident that he shouldn't be hungry.

Thanks for your help :)

Well done skilpadsMom - you are officially my inspiration - this was just the thread I needed!

DD is nearly 9 months and I am officially exhausted, she doesn't need feeding at night so we're going to start CC tomorrow eve .

Hope you have another good night!

Well moomiemoo

Last night was quietly down at 6.45, and awake at 6am!
Slept all night again!

I feel like a new woman, and my DS is so full of smiles that he is giggling!

I am a complete convert and I wish that I had tried it sooner...
Good luck tonight with it! i'm sure you'll get there.
I have to admit, once I had decided that I was going to do it, I felt so much better, as I was doing something about the situation, not just waiting for the next wake up with a lurch in my tummy at the first peep. So much so that I actually was looking forward to hearing that first wake up as it meant I was on the road to getting my nights back.

Please let us know how you get on... good luck!

Yay!

out of interest, what's happening with the dummy? DS can go down without one at night, as he is so tired, but when he wakes during the night, he needs it to resettle. Am really really hopeful that if he manages to sleep through, he won't need it anymore. The alternative is that he will wake through the night wanting it :(

I think he'll still need it for daytime naps tho

to be honest Zen I'm quite lucky in that DS is able to find a dummy in the cot if he needs one - there are 4 in there at the moment. I didn't put one in when I went in in the night, and I noticed that when I put him down today for his nap, he rolled onto his side and picked one up, put it in, and had put himself to sleep before I was out the room, so in answer, I'm not actively giving him the dummy, but I have left them in the cot for him to find if he wants one.

Hope this helps? Not sure what to say if your LO is too young to find and put own dummy in? I suppose I would go cold turkey on the dummy etc when i did the cc thing?

That's great skilpadsMom and just the encouragement I need.

We did CC with DD1 and it worked a treat and she's been an amazing sleeper ever since (she's nearly 5), didn't need to with DD2 and since DD3 is my last baby I've been reluctant but tonight's the night!

Hope all goes well tonight then...

Nice one Skilpadsmum. I too have said 'why didn't I do it earlier'!
Good luck everyone else.

So plans totally scuppered by a noisy neighbour party which kept DH and I up most of the night anyway! Will try again tomorrow (and if there's more noise from next door am considering putting DDs cot right up next to their wall!

Hope everyone else had a good night.

Hi moo
Had another good sleep through, 6.45pm til 6am
(), but we weren't bothered by noisy neighbours! What a pain, sorry, and I do hope you get a bit of peace tonight!

Glad it worked for you. It's not for everyone but it certainly changed our lives.

Great news skilpadsMom
Will give it another go tonight and see how we get on!

moomiemoo, did you try it? How did it go?

Well, I am giving it a go tomorrow night. DH is away for 2 nights, I would feel bad trying it when he is at home as he would get woken and then be knackered at work, so we have 2 nights to see if it works. If it doesn't, I will accept that DS isn't ready yet, and will leave it a while

:)

25 minutes of very loud, cross crying, DH went in 3 times in that time but she didn't have a feed or wake up for the day until half 6 which is a total result! Will try again tonight and see how we get on.

So, it went pretty well for us Zen - good luck to you for tomorrow night. I think the fact that they're not bothered about milk first thing is a pretty sure sign they don't need that middle of the night/early morning feed. My DD obviously doesn't!

Hope everyone's having better nights now!