Challenges with implementing No Cry Sleep Solution

[Liachi]

I started implementing the NCSS suggestions 5 weeks ago with my breast fed co-sleeping 7 month old son. While I have seen much progress in his napping and overall sleep duration, I am still challenged by his night time sleep pattern. 2 issues - 1. He goes down easily between 7:30 and 8 pm but he often still wakes 5 or 6 times a night and I am unable to discern when he is hungry and needs milk and when he does not and "should" be able to self sooth himself back to sleep. How do you know?

1. He wakes between 4:30 and 5:00 am and often takes up to an hour to settle back to sleep to sleep. He usually wakes at 7 for the day.

Any suggestions would be most welcome! Much thanks :)

Hmm, I am about to start this myself. Glad to see you have seem some improvements, if not solving everything.

With the "is he hungry" question, when he wakes, how long does he feed for? If you are finding the first wake is 2 to 5 minutes, and that he is mostly dropping off pretty quick without feeding much, try settling him some other way. Then you can test with the second feed and so on, to see which ones he really needs milk for.

Alternatively, you can always go straight to another settling method (get DH to try?) and see if he can - if he can then your LO was not that hungry. I am not sure if there is any other way to tell really.

With the early waking, are you feeding to sleep for a full hour? Have you seen any effect using a key word or music? A lovey? Do you think he is an early riser who wants to start the day then? Could you try the resettle before he truly wakes method for a few mornings (would require you waking before he does) as per the advice on extending naps?

When I was trying to reduce the number of feeds at night I read a book that advised that you take the 'best' night your baby does and assume from this that they can go between these hours without feeding. From then on you try and settle them without feeding between theses hours to try and break their habit of waking when not actually hungry. So for example, my DS goes to bed at 7 and was able to go through until 2am occassionally but was often waking anytime between 10pm and 1am. Through trial and eror I found that he was able to be settled without feeding if he woke before 12 but that it was not worth fighting the battle after this time. After several weeks of settling him with 'shushing' he started to self settle if he woke earlier in the night. He then went several weeks where I needed to feed him once around 2am and then again around 4am. After this he started to sleep through until waking for just one feed around 4am. He has been doing this for a couple of weeks now. He still sometimes wakes and self settles or needs settling earlier in the night or needs an extra feed around 2am. This whole process has taken about 8 weeks so far. He is now 21 weeks old. It seems to have helped him develop his sleeping skills but has taken far longer than the books proclaim it will

Good luck with it all

What are the methods for lengthening day tie naps?? My DS will only sleep for 30/40 minutes in his cot during the day. He can sleep for long than this if constantly on the move in his pushchair or in the car! I'd love to get him sleeping longer for his lunch time nap at home to give me a little bit more 'me houseowrk time'

Funny you should ask about nap times as I thought I had them well established only to find that for the afternoon nap today he slept for 30 minutes and then was unable to be put back to sleep! That said 2 hours later he showed signs of tiredness and I was able to put him down for another nap.

As Elizabeth Pantley calls it - it is indeed a dance.

I am using a baby hammock and in general have found great success with it. Once he is asleep, he needs to be rocked occasionally and will usually sleep in it for 2 hours in the afternoon.

If the pushchair works you could try getting him to sleep in the pushchair and then "rocking" him in the pushchair indoors, gradually seeing if he can stay asleep without any movement.

Good luck to you too!