CC - for nearly six-month-old. Hard decision..

[CookieTramp]

Hi all. Our DS2 is now nearly 6 months old and is still waking hourly. Sometimes half-hourly. Most of the time he is pretty much awake from about 2-3am onwards. He doesn't take much milk in the night, so it's not hunger. He just wakes, talks loudly to himself for up to an hour, at which point he wants his dummy so that he can go back to sleep for a quick catnap, before it starts all over again.

DH and I take turns sleeping in his room on the floor next to his cot, but even with turn-taking, we can't take much more. Daytime naps never last longer than 1 hour, but usually about 20 minutes, so you can't even catch sleep during the day.

Please advise how to CC in this situation. I hate to do it but things are dire and I just started meds for PND. DS1 was ok by this age, and we did a loose GF routine. DS2 is impossible to routine because of his 20-minute naps.

Please advise a desperate family :-/

Hi cookie we had a similar scenario with our DS2 at the same age. He was waking every 1.5 hours in the night wanting a feed but just sucking a little bite then going back to sleep. He didn't need food, just wanted to suck for a while. No sleep in the day unless on me with my nipple in his mouth! We had to do something as nights were getting silly and my DS1 (3.6) was getting understandably frustrated with mummy having a sleeping baby on her for 2 hours in the afternoon. So we did a version of CC. basically, we put baby down in cot at night after bath, feed, story, cuddle (in that order, so feed wasn't right before sleep). Had a chair next to his cot and sat by him, allowed him to cry for 2 minutes while we chatted to him (sleepy time, night night, it's ok, we are here etc) then stroked, patted (not picked up) for 1 min, then allowed him to cry again for 2 mins, comfort for 1 and so on until he was asleep. Then wait 10 mins until you leave the room (so as not to wake him). In the night we waited for 10 mins of crying before we went into the room and did the same routine. We did this for 3 days of night time sleep and naps. The first night he cried for 30 mins before sleeping and woke once in the night when he cried for 1 hour (that was tough). That night was the only one that we had to go in to him. After 3 days, move the chair away and let him cry for 4 mins. After 3 more days, move the chair and 9 mins crying. After 9 days just leave the room. This worked for us - he moans or sings a bit before he sleeps but he drops off, doesn't wake in up the night and sleeps for 11 hours. He has done since about day 3 of the above. Key things were to do same for naps and night time sleep;daddy did it at first to break the association of boobs and sleep; not to feed to sleep. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be and he is a much happier chap as he sleeps well in the daytime too.

Hi and thanks for your advice. We are pretty set on doing this but I am having a hard time seeing how his dummy fits into it. I'm assuming you didn't have one for your DS? Ours sort of needs the dummy to settle but of course it falls out when he is deeply asleep and he sometimes knocks it out while flailing around and awake.

Have you got any words of wisdom for where the dummy fits in?

He loves the dummy so much that I am loath to dispense either it now, just when he is close to being able to replace it himself.

Hi - no, we didn't have a dummy. Afraid I've no wisdom on that one apart from that if you're after him to settle himself I guess it's best without any 'prop' at all...? Maybe just hang on for a few more weeks if you think he'll be able to replace it soon - sorry, I'm no help there!