A diary of using Controlled Crying...

[Hulababy]

After some recent sleep problems we have had to resort to controlled crying with our 20mo DD. Having always been anti CC when she was little and favouring co-sleepin it is a difficult but, I feel, a necessary thing now. THought I'd keep a kind of diary or record of how it goes so others wanting to try it can see how it works (or not) for us. If nothing else I coan always print it out to show DD when she is a teenager

This first post may be rather long (sorry).

Background

DD was born in April 2002, 2 weeks late. Even in hospital she slept with me in bed and didn't like being in the hospital crib. When we got her home she had an instant dislike to the rocking crib and she spent the first 2 weeks sleeping in my bed. At 2 weeks she got a bedside cot and things were much btter from her point of view. At 6 weeks she started sleeping through in her cot from midnight to 6am, increasing this time till she was 16 weeks. We then broke her routine by going on holiday and from then on spent part of everynight sharing with me and DH. She would always settle herself to sleep on going to bed originally though but struggled when she woke later. At 15 months we moved house and DD had her own room for the first time. After a shaky couple of days she was able to go to sleep on her own again, but still came in with us during the early hours, after waking herself up hitting the cot bars.. At 18 months she went into a toddler bed. Again - same routine prevailed.

Recent Problems

This Christmas holidays she has had lots of breaks in any form of routine and then got a very heavy cold. Her cough was waking her up every hour or so and he really struggled for a few days. AS a result DH and I brought her in with us pretty much all of the night so we could at least get some rest and not be in and out of bed al night. Trouble is once she improved and we tried to put her back in her own bed problems have begun big style. She will not settles at night at all - getting out of bed, coming to the gate and crying and screaming. THis is happening whenever she wakes as well which can be 3 or 4 times a night.

6:52 - checked - fast asleep!
beer anyone?

She is doing really well. She goes to bed at about 7.15-7.30 after a bath with no problem at all and no waking in night. It is best decision I made for a while!

i can not believe it!!
i am really stunned at how well he has taken to this
he has always done well with 'routines'
but if you could have seen us on sunday night and the faff of getting him to sleep
this is a minor miracle
i was worse than sceptical before monday evening but i am now a convert - don't thikn I could do it much younger than ds is now however"

Final update as I think we have cracked it.
LAst night, ds was a little more restless...woke up crying at 6 but we ignored him. he went back off to sleep. i got up at 6:45 and knew he was a wake but just lying quietly in his cot....did make a noise until I went to get him at 7.
Tonight - bath, pyjamas and milk.
He was standing at the foot of the stairs shouting 'ba' (bed) and blowing kisses to dh and grabbing me.
Straight not, lay down, blew me a kiss and waved and said 'taaaaaa' (bye)
So i left him and not a peep
Asleep in 5 mintes
Thanks to all those of you who told me it could be done, but especially hulababy who started this thread and made me belive it was easy to do!!!!
D x

should be DINDT make a noise til i went and got him!

not sure what i meant by 'straight not' though!!!

Fantastic news; glas it worked well for you and your DS Popsycal.

O think we have cracked it with DD too. At bedtime now she chooses a book, collects her dummy from her bedside table and jumps into bed. She lays down and I read her story to her. Then she asks for a kiss and says Night Night mummy. Next we hear he is in the morning when I go and open the door to her room. Miracles obviously do happen!

last night - more restless - he had his grobag on(2.5 tog) rather than cot duvet (4 tog) as he kept kicking off his duvet the previous night
much more restless and vocal
dh went to see him once shouting to me what should he be doing with this conscious crying (yes i know bless him!!) and ds went straight back to sleep!
woke him again at 7 ish
what is the bet that he will wake loads tonight and be up at 6 in the morning?
went off to bed no bother again however

HELP!!
For the last 4 weeks, ds has been fab - sleeping immediately on getting itno bed on his own and settling himself to sleep during the nigth should he be restless.
Then last night he woke at 2:15 and i ignored him for a bit as he was just chuntering on then went in as he was bouncing in his cot
then he cried and cried
left him to cry but each time i left he screamed
cuddled him in case he had a pain
gave him a drink then he settled
but then he was wide awake!
at 3:30 i took him into our bed (yes i know) i was shattered and we both work full time
didnt wake up til my mum arrived at 7:15 to look after ds for the day!
Help - do I have to start all over again? He went to bed normally with no problems this evening!

Popsycal.

How was he last night? Maybe it was a one off and he was just over tired and it made him restless, or even a nightmare - DD has these sometimes now.

exactly the same again last night
after 1.5 hours though i tried some bonjela on his gums....though he hardly had any gums left....and he was alseep within 2 minutes!!!
so tonight, he is having calpol, nurofen and bonjela!!!
and again when i go to bed¬!!

How was he tonight? Do you reckon it is teething then? That is liekly to disturb his sleep. At least it should only be short term

he wouldnt go off to sleep on his own - really sobbign though knackered
smothered his gums in bonjela and gave him nurofen - still went off to lseep better than pre-CC though!
WIll give him calpol before we go to bed though and if he wakes put bonjela on straght away
he is full of cold too

the only gum space he has left though is right at the back...gums full right up to first pre-molars!
isnt he too young to get next lot of teeth>?

You never know - not impossible. Also the later ones can take ages to come through. They be simply shifting under the gums at the moment.

DD is the opposite with teeth and didn't get any at all until 14 months. Even now she only has 11, and 1 is completely missing anyway.

I really want to try something like this, or pu/pd, as DS is also 20 months. But I cringe at the thought of the neighbours listening to the crying. (And I know they can hear him). boo-hoo!

Without wishing to start a new thread, here's the situation with our 5 week old dd2 (formula fed):

8.45am - usually goes to sleep in cot in her room (blacked out, door shut) no bother. Often sleeps for an hour or more, sometimes less

11.45am - usually gets off to sleep with minimal fuss, but at least half the time she wakes within an hour. Sometimes she gets a top up and will re-settle. Once she resettled without this (the crying didn't seem too bad). Sometimes she sleeps through for 2+ hours, and sometimes she won;t settle even with a topup. She gets a topup if we think she's not taken full enough feeds (2) in the morning

4pm - usually crashes on the floor or is taken out in pram if this doesn't seem likely

7pm - mostly now she will cry for 20 mins, decreasing, and then sleep. Again, on days when we thought her milk intake was low and she wasn't going to settle, we'd intervene after 30 mins and she will usually take another ounce or two then be asleep when put back (bad I know - but at that stage I'm not about to wake her so she goes down awake and risk losing the whole evening)

10.30 we wake her and she has a sleepy and not very good feed

Anytime between 2 and 4 she wakes up for a feed. She's very awake for this one and normally takes 4oz. Then she is asleep usually until 7am, but sometimes has woken at 6.

It's usually a struggle to get the required amount of milk into her (2.5 oz per pound body weight) in a day since she seems to be unkeen on 4-5 oz feeds. We hope that this will get better as she grows. A lingering cold is probably affecting it.

Having dd1 around all day (non-nursery school days) is a real problem with interrupted lunchtime naps, because obviously she hears the crying on the monitor and knows it isn't a good thing. Also it's practically impossible to say "Just play by yourself whilst I go and feed the baby again", so she has to come up too

very interested to read this thread..DD3 is 20 months still in a cot was never the greatest sleeper at nightimes but never slept in our bed always went down easily at 7pm chatted to herself in her cot at naps etc and rarely needed settling in night. Suddenly (literally overnight) she freaked out at bedtime (it was very hot weather and she had an ear infection but now she is better). She screams standing up in her cot at bedtime and at night whenever she wakes. unless we are in the room or standing outside she wont settle. have tried everything changing room around, leaving water in bed, waiting at the door till she goes to sleep. bedtimes are ok as she is exhausted but nightimes she is often awake for 2 hours. i need advice on cc or anything that might help as she is now waking up DD1 and DS2. she is better with DH than me.