baby too heavy for pupd - should i try cc?

[vic891]

ds will be 6 months next week and wakes like an alarm clock at 4am - all bright eyed and bushy tailed. he doesn't get a feed til at least 5am (he's gone til 6am in the past) but is so alert that pupd takes ages (this morning it took over an hour) to get him back to sleep.

he's well over 18lbs and so pupd is not practical any more. anyone know what the baby whisperer suggests once it's not poss?

am seriously thinking of cc - happy to cope with a few nights of hell for the greater good - but not sure of the 'rules'.

sorry - must be loads of posts on this but can't find exactly what i'm looking for...

Pick up, put down.

after an hour of jiggling and pupd (where you do more picking up than putting down!)... yes!!! i promise it results in crampy wrists.

Have you started weaning yet? Sorry, stupid question?

not a stupid question - assume you're wondering about hunger? yes, started 3 or 4 weeks go. he has 2 meals a day plus still has 5 milk feeds, so i'm fairly confident he isn't waking due to hunger.

The "rules" of controlled crying are given here . If they seem to harsh to you, there's nothing stopping you from deciding for yourself how long you want to leave it before you go back in to him.

if your lo is too heavy to lift the BW suggests just laying them down rather than doing the whole pick up thing.

The alternative would be to try 'wake to sleep' - where you disturb your lo's sleep about 1 hour before their usual wake up time (ie in your case it would be 3am). You then let them go back to sleep - it helps re-jig their sleep pattern and gets them past the habit waking. When I did it I changed dd's nappy while she was still in the cot (a bit tricky!) - she moaned and rolled over but didnt wake fully.

Its recommended to try it for 3 nights.

thanks ladies. seona - what do you mean by "laying him down"?

i forgot to mention - one extra complication is that once he's woken at 4am he never really settles well again. e.g. this morning he was awake from 4am til 5am, then woke again at 5.30 when i fed him. he then didn't sleep again til 7:30 (another short nap) (

Have a look on the baby whisperer website - there is lots of discussion about it. I found that PUPD seemed to wind my 4 month old up too much so ended up just putting my hand on his chest. Not sure if it helped him but it slowly improved. It was hard work - LOTS of crying but I was consistent and stuck at it longer than I could have done CC. Seemed kinder but not sure if it actually is!!

we had the same situation, our ds is also 6 months. He was waking up babbling away around 4/5 am and it was taking up to an hour and half to get him off again. Just wondering about the times of your feeds. We started a dream feed at 10.30pm and since then its really improved. if he does wake i know its not hunger and hes asleep within half hr max. He then has next feed with breakfast at 8.30am. think hes beginning to realise theres no point waking up.

I used a sort of gradual withdraw method. PUPD seems to encourage them IME. I would start with a firm pat and then just a still hand on him until totally settled again. Accompanied by ten green bottles in a very droll voice getting slower and quieter as i withdrew. My DS started at 11lb 7oz so no way would you want to sushie allnight.

sorry, vic891 - the laying down is more for an older baby that has started to pull themselves up on the cot bars and they would only need laying back down again rather than being picked up first as they will already be standing up.

Are you sure he's not hungry? - have you tried feeding when he wakes as there is a growth spurt at this age.

Also if your lo isn't crying what happens when you leave him for a while to see if he goes back over to sleep again? There's no point doing pick up/put down unless your lo is actually crying.

well, don't want to tempt fate, but things are much improved. started cc (wait 5 mins, go in for 2, repeat) on friday night. both friday and saturday nights i had to do this for about half an hour between 4:30 and 5:00, but last night there were whimpers and a few cries at 5:30, but he then went back to sleep til we woke him at 7:00 this morning - yay!

never thought cc would be for me, but have to say it wasn't nearly as horrible as i'd thought.

i think cc also works quicker at younger age (like 6 mo.)rather than 16 mo.

Glad cc is working. It has a bad press - hardly an attractive name for a parenting technique - but has saved our bacon with both of our girls. Wish I did it with DD1 sooner.
We did the pupd thing at first and seemed to encourage restlessness as she was waking and getting exactly what she wanted, calling the shots and not learning to fall asleep independantly of us. Very gentle use of cc over a couple of weeks changed our lives.(We didn?t have nights of hell either - gradual and gentle at the child?s own speed and all will be fine)