P.U.P.D. advice greatly appreciated

[Floopy21]

Hi,

I'm starting the P.U.P.D. method tonight (scared!) with my 6.5 month old DD. Does anyone know if I can just use this technique at night, or do I need to implement it during the day too? I usually feed her at night (& hope she falls asleep), then rock her until asleep & gingerly place her in her cot - then repeat x 15 until she finally settles for the night!...I know, I know, we've hardly created good sleep patterns, but all that will hopefully change soon!

During the day, we lay together on my bed & I feed her lying down, then extract myself & she usually sleeps for an hour or so with no intervention from the nipple. I'd really miss this (I know it's not supposed to be about me!) & it's easy...can I cop out & keep during this during the day?

Thanks for any advice x

We did this with ds2 when he was 6 months old and we were getting rid of the dummy. You need to decide who is going to do it and stick with that person how ever many nights it takes. We only did it at night and it took 4 nights.

I would greatly appreciate it if you would keep us informed of your progress. I've considered using this technique with my DD also 6.5 months but am coward.

So will be awaiting eagerly to hear of your progress. Good luck :D

I did this with DD when she was about 6 mths old. I picked her up when she was upset, calmed her, then put her down repeatedly until she fell asleep. I found in the end that sitting by her cot with a hand on her chest/tummy helped her realise I wasn't going anywhere. After 2/3 night of PUPD, progressed to the hand thing, then 2/3 days later I could sit there without my hand on her, then progressed to sitting further away from her until I was out of her door.
I found it a lovely and gentle way to get her learn to sleep and also learn that I'd always be there.

Hi I have been using pupd for my dd who is 23 weeks for the last few weeks. I mainly needed it for day naps and have used it for that and also bedtimes. For night wakings I either feed her to sleep and she passes out or if she is waking a lot (which she is at the moment) I tend to just rock her back to sleep as I am knackered!

So basically (I think) if you aren't doing it 100% of the time you might find it will take longer to get to the point where you are putting her down with no pick ups. I have been doing it for a few weeks and now I can put her down with a few (sometimes just one) pick ups. Usually takes less than 5 minutes. This suits me fine as she is still young (not 6 months yet) and she will get it soon enough.

I would play it by ear and adapt it to suit you. I have also found that putting her on her side really helps. I don't think I would have had as much success with it if I hadn't done that. I always keep my hand on her back until she is asleep too.

Good luck! Hope this helps :o

An update folks...

First time was last night, it took an hour and a half of picking up & her crying in her cot with me stroking her tummy & shhhing & talking to her. She woke a couple of times & was easily settled with just a hand & a quick reassurance. Nap time this morning, she went to sleep in 15 mins without being picked up, just using 'the technique' but only slept for 20 mins & I couldn't get her back to sleep (I probably gave up a bit early). We were out for the rest of the day, so she just got a snatched 30 mins in the car.

Tonight she cried much more forcefully, sounded pretty upset, & she didn't want to be held, so all I could do was shhhh & rest my hand on her tummy. Within just half an hour she was asleep. Sound asleep!!! Usually she wakes up five or six times in the next two hours, with me rocking, feeding, cajoling, etc. I feel on a bit of a high, but it felt horrid at the time. No idea what the rest of the night will hold though. I can't believe it could of worked already. Cbell , will keep you posted. I too was feeling chicken for a long time.

Thanks for all your advice, hope to one day get to BoL's stage!

Glad it's working for you, keep it up!

Not that I'm complaining, but why does it work? Why does crying to sleep work better than being fed/rocked? No change of scene?

I always felt that the point of it was to get DD used to sleeping in her own bed (although she never really minded that) and self soothing without a dummy. I wanted her to know that I was there for her and would always be around if she was upset. I knew CC was not for me! I did want her to learn that sleep time meant sleep, and not time to be rocked, carried around or distracted with other things. We had a dark room and just me and her. She got used to it very quickly. She has never been a bad sleeper, but that is probably just her rather than the method we used.
Personally I find CC very hard on a very young baby, and since my DD didn't used to cry much anyway it didn't seem reasonable.