If you did controlled crying what did you about early morning wakings?

[reddaisy]

I started CC with 7 month old DS last night and for the first time since he was born he went four whole hours without a feed which is amazing.

But what should I do when he wakea up at 5am? I bfed him and then left hoping he would settle back to sleep but he didn't and he ended up crying on and off again until it was time for us to get up anyway. He doesn't normally get up for the day until at least 615am.

Advice needed please.

I must admit I've never had to do CC so I can't offer any specific advice about that. Sounds like emmyloo has some good advice.

Hello

I just wanted to share my experience with controlled crying in the morning for early morning waking. In short - it worked beautifully with us.

Our daughter was waking up between 0430 to 0515 every morning without fail. We were exhausted and sleep deprived. I read this post, a few months back, and was disheartened to read that for most parents it didn't work in the morning.

With this in mind, we tried it half-heartedly - and it didn't work. Then, a couple of months later... when I was at my wits end, I re-read this link, and came across one particular post at the end saying it worked for her.

So... with renewed enthusiasm we gave it ago again... and voila! It has solved our early morning riser! She now wakes - very briefly - at about 5.30-5.45... and then goes back to sleep until about 6.15. It feels as though it has transformed our lives. I feel human again.

So it can work. Maybe not for every baby/toddler - but for us it did. If you have the energy (I know it's tough at that time in the morning) and commitment, and better still someone to help out on alternate mornings - then give it a go for a week. It MAY make a different.

We now have a very happy riser, whereas before she was very grumpy and not very happy to be awake that early in the morning.

Good luck!

Zoe

One mistake - it wasn't this post, but another post, on exactly the same subject that I was reading a few months back. First time posting on Mumsnet, hence the little blunder. Anyway, best of luck.

I've done CC, it sorted out the rock to sleep habits and multiple night wakings beautifully (though there's been a little bit of regression since but nothing like as bad as before) but then we hit early waking.

The thing is, DD doesn't cry when she wakes - she chats to herself pretty happily (but LOUDLY). Eventually after about 45 min of that, she might go back to sleep. Or she'll get bored and start yelling to get up. Either way we are well awake by this point, and DD hasn't had enough sleep.

So basically...controlled crying doesn't work for early morning waking with us, because DD doesn't cry!

Making sure she isn't overtired does seem to help a bit - there seems to be a very fine line though between too much day sleep and too little!