About to start Pick Up Put Down - have questions and need support!

[nm123]

DD is nearly 7 months and unless she's in the pram or car seat she'll only nap or go down at bedtime by feeding/sucking to sleep (she's bf). Lovely though the cuddles are I think it's time she learns to self-settle.

I don't feel I've ever really got the hang of naps, bedtime (when I refuse to clamber over her cot to give her a boob) can take up to 2 hours.

She's also waking at about 1:30-2am then hourly from 5am. I tend to bring her in with me (her cot still next to our bed) at about 6am and she'll sleep soundly until around 9am.

I'm tired.

I can't do CC or CIO so am thinking pu/pd might suit us and I have a few questions....

DD usually falls asleep at her bedtime feed. When I put her in her cot she wakes and then usually cries. Should I keep her awake before putting her in the cot? (I hate to be disturbed when dozing off so thinking it makes sense for her to be awake still when put down?)

She doesn't always cry straight away, she'll play with her hands and scratch her face (teething rash) for a bit. Should I just finish my song then kiss her goodnight and go? (this is what I usually do)

When she cries quite often she'll stop when she sees me... Sometimes she stops when i put my hands round her to lift her, sometimes when I lift her etc etc but it's v rare for her to still be crying by the time she's on my shoulder..... How do I use pu/pd in this case? I thought I should be putting her down immediately when she stops crying?

Quite often as soon as I lower her into the cot she starts up as she knows... Would I just take her straight back up to my shoulder or put her all the way down?

Should I tackle bedtime, naps and night wakings all in one go? Or pick one to focus on? Just concerned that if I'm still feeding to sleep at nap time she'll expect it at bedtime too...

Sorry for the detailed questions but I'm determined to get this right. I really feel I should have a grip on this by now and feeling like I'm failing DD by having all these sleep battles.

Thanks in advance if you made it this far down and can offer any words of wisdom!

No advice but marking place as DD is 6 months and am happy with how she sleeps at night and feeding to sleep, but would love to get her to nap for as long in her cot as she will do on me :)

I am toying with the idea of using this for my six month old. He needs to be fed or cuddled to sleep and wont sleep unless swaddled - currently trying to wean this with no success so far.

I bought the baby whisperer book and in there it says to put down the minute they stop crying. But under the adaptions for 6 - 9 month olds it says that as they are more physically capable it says to pick them up but put them down straight away if they are arching their back or are not calm within a couple of mins.

I'm unsure as to how well this will work for us as our LO tends to just get completely hysterical and will only calm if distracted by toys or something. Cuddling doesn't really work to calm him.

Would be really interested in hearing how you get on and i'll post if i'm brave enough to give it a go.

Wow it advises you put them down even if they're not calm? Isn't that just like CC or CIO? Never read a baby book apart from a BLW one so all new to me.

Yep that's why I'm a bit reluctant to give a go to be honest as I think my ds will just cry the whole time which then makes it just like CC. I was also thinking of doing the whole reassuring in cot thing but again he will just cry the whole time through that as patting or stroking him just won't calm him.

I just feel rubbish as I haven't got him to self settle yet and although it isn't too mush of a problem at the moment I am going back to work in a couple of months and can't cope with being woken every 2 -3 hours most nights then and feel like I should really do something now. Also desperate to get rid of the swaddle but without it he wakes every 30 mins so think him being able to settle himself unswaddled would help this

I'm too lazy to read any of those books but if someone makes a suggestion which sounds reasonable to me I'll give it a go. No real urgency for me though as although I'm back to work in 6wks, it's mostly weekend hours with longest shift at 3hrs as I'm part time so doesn't seem so bad.

loube my 6 month old dd is still swaddled. She just wakes herself up by rubbing & rubbing at her eyes & pulling the dummy out which she then can't get back in! I'm desperate to get rid of swaddle partly because the wraps we use are getting too small & I can't find one any bigger. I'm thinking about doing pupd as well but not sure whether to get rid of swaddle first, at same time or after? What are you doing? Also how are you going to wean off swaddle? I was thinking about trying 1 arm out for a while and see how she goes.

Zambooloo So glad to hear I'm not the only one still swaddling my six month old. My ds was a really bad sleeper at the start and when we started swaddling at 10 weeks he went literally from waking every 30 mins - 1 hr at night to sleeping 3-4 hr stretches which to me at the time was amazing.

I have tried numerous times putting him down in a sleeping bag from about 3 months as I thought once he got over the startle reflex he would be able to sleep without it but we have a similar problem in that when he isn't swaddled he pulls his dummy out which wakes him up when he's put down asleep.

Have tried swaddling with one arm out but he still wakes himself up.

We have swaddled him in the miracle blanket which keeps his arms straight down by his sides so he has next to no arm movement, so I have just this week bought a woombie (they do a 6-9 month size) which is a stretchy zip up type thing which allows a certain amount of arm movement as I thought this might be a more gradual transition. Have used this for naps and so far has not been too bad - morning nap still 1.5 hrs so will try it for night sleep soon. I then think I will graduate to something like the peke moe or zipadeezip which are like sleeping bags that cover the arms as well.

I think if I did pu/pd I would take him out of the swaddle and prob get rid of the dummy at the same time as wouldn't want to put him through that more than once. But am going to see if I can get any success with the woombie, etc first.

Hope you have some luck with the swaddle weaning.

also meant to say the people on baby whisperer forum have some great advice on pu/pd and swaddle weaning, etc.

I bought a woobie and it was a disaster - she somehow managed to get her hands upto her face and take dummy out even with her hands still inside the swaddle! I sent it back but maybe I should have kept it and persevered! The swaddle age has keeps her arms by her side - I'm kind of wondering whether to co sleep for a bit so I can sort of hold her arms down for her until she gets used to a sleeping bag... That is a completely desperate thought though, just don't know what else to do really!

Good luck with the woobie!