What was the "straw that broke the camel's back" for all those that have done CC, I think I'm almost there!

[SleepDeprivedGrumpyBum]

The problem is i'm not convinced it will work. DS is 8 months old and his sleep has been steadily getting worse since about 5 months. The most pressing issues are

. Refusing to settle for DP at all in the night, including at bedtime (I have to go back to work in 2 weeks and work evenings).

. When i put him to bed he wakes 30 minutes later and then if i'm lucky it will be every hour after that. Getting him to fall asleep in his cot makes no difference

. Sitting up as soon as he stirs and then standing in his cot, he is incapable of staying still.

Last night we tried DP doing bedtime, DS was still crying over an hour later with DP holding him. In the end DP lost his temper, we had an argument and i had a hysterical DS to try and soothe. I'm close to breaking point to be honest, I've not had more than 2 hours solid sleep in about 3 months, despite co-sleeping from about midnight onwards.

The ideas from the NCSS haven't made any difference/improvement.

What about doing something like thee technique in this article before CC.

www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/features/article729117.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1

I did CC with DS when he was 6 months old, when I knew that he wasn't hungry, wasn't ill, wasn't teething, wasn't in pain at all, was tired, but couldn't settle on his own.

And looking at it logically, that was hardly surprising, as I had cuddled him to sleep his whole life. For us, CC was very quick. One night was pretty much all it took, so was worth it. I'm not saying he sleeps through like a dream - he has a dummy, which he often loses, and then he got to the stage where he wriggled himself into the corner of his cot and couldn't get out. And now he rolls over and can't get himself back. But when he does wake now, I just go in, move him back, pop dummy in, and he's gone. Which is a damn sight better than it was before!

good luck :)

ITZG I think one of the problems for DS is that since about 5.5 - 6 months everything has kind of come at once for him. He got his bottom teeth, started solids, started crawling, started pulling himself up onto his feet all within about 4 weeks. He's now just cut one top tooth and i think a second one is on its way.

SB that article was in interesting thank you. I've tried putting him down and sitting by the cot, but he just kept screaming and pulling himself up on the bars to get to me. Even now that we've lowered the cot base to its lowest point he's still tall enough to pull himself up.

I wish we could afford to hire a night nanny!!

i did it when ds1 was 7months. he had been terrible overnight for a month and a half, only napped for 1/2hr, i had to sit with him for at least 1/2hr to get him to sleep or co-sleep, when he woke at night i had to sit for over an hour next to him till he was fast asleep enough for me to sneak out.

i went to the health visitor and said 'i'm at my wits end!' so that was that. she did a home visit, drew up a plan for me and came back to see how things were going after 2 weeks (almost perfect) then 4 weeks. i had read and tried every other technique i could read about by then and nothing made any difference. everything just made him more hysterical - i either sat/slept with him or i didn't and as i wasn't prepared to sit with him while he fell asleep for over 3hrs out of each 24hrs i drew the line. it took 4 weeks to say it had properly worked (after he got over the injustice of it all and tried his luck a couple more times) and he's been a great sleeper ever since.

even now at 3yrs if me or dh sit with him just a little too long after saying goodnight then he expects us to sit there till he's fast asleep so we have to get out the room pretty quick!

The final straw for us was as you describe, holding / trying to sooth DS for over an hour, me and DP having an argument with each other over what to do, DS getting more hysterical.....

I hated the idea, but tbh as he was crying anyway whether we were there or not it didn't seem so bad - if he had been going to sleep peacefully with us there I think I would have been much more reluctant.

To my amazement and relief it did work, but then we went on hol and he had teeth coming etc etc... anyway, to cut a long story short, I think we are going to have to do it again.... gah!!

Hi Beela, I remember you from another thread. That's another thing I'm unsure of with CC, having to do it more than once would be very tough; but it was something that my HV did warn me about when she was telling me about CC.

Had a little bit of success with sort of PU'PD last night. I've changed DS' routine so he's fed before his bath not before bed. After a bit of rocking and a few songs i put him in his cot and every time he got up i just lay him back down, no eye contact, no speaking. It was working but then DP offered to take over and DS got hysterical. Anyway it worked pretty well for most of his wake ups until i got too knackered and took him into bed with me. I think i'll keep trying with this method properly for a couple of weeks before moving onto CC.

I guess the fact I am still hanging around here on the sleep board proves that CC is not a miracle solution for everyone!

Hope your method continues to work and you get some sleep before having to go back to work (eek!). We started again last night, DP has now gone to work and I am slightly dreading nap time as I have resolved not to feed to sleep....