First night of PUPD

[LittleOne76]

DH is in there with DS right now trying to PUPD back to sleep after his initial waking. I've not heard him cry like this before. It is so hard... We ideally didn't want to go down this route but have reached the point where we all need to get more sleep (better for DS, I go back to work very soon etc etc). Just wanted to get that out as I sit downstairs listening to them on te baby monitor. Hope everyone else is having an okay night...! DS is 10mo and has been waking between 2-6 times per night... On solids and breastfed and has always been fed back to sleep. It's a big change for him.

Night one update- DS woke twice. First time was just before midnight and took about 50min to get back to sleep. Again at 445 and took just over 5 min to resettle. Up at 7am. Very relieved ..., I was expecting potentially spending most of the night having to resettle. I hope we continue to improve tonight.

I have only one piece of advice - don't sit listening on the monitor!!!! You'll only feel crappy and if he's crying you don't need the monitor to amplify it anyway.
Glad it went ok in the end, it will be better for him as well as for you and that is what you will need to remind yourself of when you hear him crying

Good luck, sounds like you're going about it the right way I.e. DH doing it, being consistent every time he wakes. Fingers crossed tonight is better.

Thank you. It feels better having got the first night out of the way and we are feeling really positive about tonight.

Second night - down around 730pm. Up once at 10pm and took 40 min to resettle and up again at 445am and took 10 min to resettle. Up for the day at 730am.

Third night - down at 745pm. Cried out just after 6am so we fed then and up for the day. He slept/ self settled all night and we didn't have to go in once and resettle. I can't believe it. Hope the pattern continues tonight.

That's brilliant. I believe it does work if you do it by the book. Hurrah for you!

Very best of luck LittleOne and do keep us updated. I'll be following this thread with interest. You've motivated me to give it a try (and to post my very first MN post too!).

My situation is similar to yours. My DS is almost 9 months and is usually bf to sleep. He wakes at least 3 times a night and sometimes as many as 6. I'm lucky if he does a 3 hour stint. Sometimes I can settle him by just giving him a dummy but usually I pick him up and pace around the room or feed him. He's about 10kg now so walking around with him is giving me a bad back! Occasionally he'll settle himself back to sleep during the night so I know he can do it. He's still in a cot in my room, although I'm thinking of moving him soon.

Tonight he went to sleep (after a feed) at about 8 and then woke again at 9 (due to overtiredness). I tried the PUPD method and it took 26 times before he was settled enough that I just rubbed his back for a minute or so before he calmed down. Took about 10 minutes in total. I'm sure it won't be so easy every time.

Looking forward to reading your next post.

Hi shakeshakethemuffin. It sounds like our little ones are similar. DS is also over 10kg now at 10mo and is a solid little thing and it does get tiring carrying him around and/ or trying to hold onto him when he is wriggling/ back arching/ just wanting to flip over.

He went down tonight at about 745pm and hasn't stirred yet so we're coming up to three hours.

He used to always always cry out exactly 30min after he initially fell asleep. Sometimes he would cry out again 45 or so min after the second waking.. So most nights it would feel like it would take a good two hours to just send him off to sleep for the "first" time. I think I rationalised this by saying he was just tanking up and kind of cluster feeding. I do think he was overtired though. For months he would only nap 30min max per nap during the day and fight napping generally. I felt like my days were spent trying to get him to nap in the first place and then try and keep him napping through the 30min mark. It never used I wrk and most days he would sleep 1 hour in total.

When he hit about 9 months the napping started to get a bit better as he'd have an hour in the morning and about 45 min in the afternoon.. So he was pushing through the 30 min mark. He still stirs at 30min as I can hear him stir. The better napping also coincided with him not waking after 30 min at bedtime too (say 2-3 nights per week do not every night).

I'll post an update in the morning. Jotting it down here is useful for me to keep a log..!

Night 4- up at 1045pm and took less than five min to resettle and up at 445am and took about 15min to resettle. Woke for the day at 630 am and fed then. When he does wake there's less crying... It's more yelling out for a bit and then quiet and then a bit of babbling and quiet etc.

Dads still going in doing the resettling and I think I will give it a go soonish do he's not dependent on just one of us. Not sure if the smell of boob might set him off... Hopefully after the past few nights he knows not to expect it now.

Glad it's going well for you.

I found it quite hard but last night was the first night I didn't feed him overnight.

After settling at 9 he woke at 11:15 and it took 35 mins to settle him again.
He slept until 3 :) took 40 mins to settle....
but then he slept (I think) for 20 mins and took an hour to settle again. :(
Another two and a half hours and he was up (just before 8).

All in all a tiring night but not too much more than usual.

I'm guessing now I shouldn't feed him to sleep for his nap? I did feed him to almost asleep at the start of last night. I think I'll feed him upstairs but make sure he's awake when I put him down.

We still have that issue for the bedtime feed and the feed just before the first nap around 930am. He just gets drowsy feeding but what I've been trying to do is keep it a little bit bright in the room and keep him a bit awake and burp him and then put him I the cot awake (half asleep!) so he knows he's In there. We've had a few grizzled and then he usually turns on his side and falls asleep. Think I need to have more of a gap between feed and zzzzzz. And for the morning nap I need to really get him to sleep without the feed beforehand and do it earlier. He has an early am feed around 630-7ish when he gets up and then breakfast around 8ish and then more milk just before his nap..

I think that first night is the hardest and it was a relief to get it done.

It's so strange not feeding through the night... Can't believe we've had four nights in a row after 10 months! Just watch the engorgement.. I think I'm just starting to settle down.. It got fairly painful after the first night or two....

I wasn't too bad this morning, felt a bit full but certainly not engorged. He soon sorted that out! :) So you're saying it'll get worse over the next night or two?

I really don't have a feeding schedule I just feed him when I think he needs it (which is pretty often). I always feed directly before a nap and he's just gone down for his second one. Just like this morning's nap I fed and then put him down still awake but relaxed and he didn't object at all! He slept for just over an hour this morning hoping he'll have an hour now too.

It was 3am last night that was the real killer. Lots of crying, but I've been amazed at the naps today. :)

Can't believe it! :o

Although it took him a while to settle (didn't sleep until about 9pm after taking him up about 8).. he slept until almost 4am! Almost 7 hours straight!! Must take him up earlier tonight.

So he woke at 4ish and I got him back to sleep at 4:30, then he slept until 7:15.

(oh and yesterday his second nap was 2 hours) :)

Then the little bugger cherub bit my nipple this morning.

I should add that it's me (not DH) who's been doing it so I don't think there's too much of an issue with him smelling milk.

That's excellent! We had a good night too. DS woke at 1130pm and took about 10min to get back to sleep and again at 4ish and it only took a minute or so. dH said he just pat his back and he rolled on his side and went back to sleep.

I think he's been eating better during the day and the naps are much better. We've never had a 2 hour nap though...!

Night 5: went to bed around 745 and we didn't need to go in to him until 6ish this morning. Got him up for the day and a feed. I am still in shock.... After 10 months..!

That's brilliant!
I'm up to night 3:
We had a pretty good night, very similar to previous.
Didn't settle until 9 then slept until 3.
Did take me 90 mins to get him back to sleep though. He was pretty calm the whole time just awake, so at least no screaming!
Slept until just after 7.
Hoping he'll settle quicker soon.

night 4 - little bit of a regression but I read that's normal.
Settled quickly at 8.
Woke 8:30 DH settled in 5 mins
Woke 11:00 settled in 5 mins
Woke at 02:30 took an hour to settle
Woke at 6:50 for the day.
A week ago I would have been pretty happy with that!

Similar for us last night. Up at 930ish and took about a minute to resettle and then up again around 4am and took 40ish minutes to get back to sleep. Wanted to get up and play..!

Think it might be a bit up and down but you're right... Nights like this would have been super nights only a week or so ago..!

Night 5 - didn't take laptop upstairs to log times but I think he only woke once at 1am. :)
He disturbed me a bit more often but I only remember settling him once.
Other than that he slept from 8:50 to 6:50...
I really must go to bed before 11 though!

That's a really good night..! Yeah, it's hard making the most of it and catching up on sleep...!

DS has picked up a cold and is all snotty and out of sorts. Still, only needed to be resettled twice last night and think it only took a few min each time. He did cry our a bit when he stirred a few times though and put himself back to sleep... Must have been waking with a blocked nose and feeling yuk.

He seems to be a bit better today ... Think we're going to stay close to home in this crap weather....!