Just about to start CC. Know it's the right thing to do but dreading it.

[Madcat22]

Tomorrow we start CC with DD (7 months). For loads of reasons it is absolutely the right thing in our situation but still absolutely dreading having to listen to her scream and really worried it won't work or will go on for weeks and weeks. Any words of encouragement or things to help keep me sane and ensure it works over the next week or so would be fantastic

I think if it doesn't work after a few nights it's simply not the right time, so set yourself a limit of, say, 3 nights and stop if there's no improvement.

DD has just come through (fingers crossed) a huge sleep regression that lasted from 6-8.5 months and this is a really common time for sleep to be disrupted.

We've been on the cusp of cc a few times but everything I've read says that the issues we've been having are likely to resolve by 10/11 months.

You don't give your reasons but I assume you're having it tough!

(At some point someone is going to come along and tell you how cruel CC is and how you shouldn't expect a full night's sleep ever again once you have children. Feel free to ignore them )

Like Anything says, you're likely to be bombarded by people telling you that you've made a bad decision and that you're damaging your baby. So my advice would be to stay off mumsnet and get on with it! Good luck!

I agree with pp, set yourself a limit of a few days and if it doesn't work in that time have a re-think.
We did it with DS at 7ish months and it worked. Just make sure all potential upsets are resolved I.e. Not hungry, not too warm, not too cold, not in pain, nappy changed etc and assuming you'll be going in to comfort at timed intervals, try and take your mind off it for those few minutes. Do something downstairs, make a cup of tea.. I found this distracted me from the crying and I could tell DS was tired because he would run out of steam quite quickly. I don't think he cried for longer than 15 minutes on the first night then less on the second and third nights and now he sleeps through from 7pm to 6am unless he is poorly. Good luck, I hope it works for you!

We did a very gentle version of CC when DS was 6.5 months old. We started by going in after 1 minute and increased the intervals by only a minute at a time, to a maximum of 5 minutes. I wasn't prepared to let him cry any longer than that.

Turned out we never had to leave him for more than one 5 minute interval. He didn't cry much at all and at it's worst it was the sound of pure frustration at being awake. I know this because he'd do the same cry when being held and rocked.

Overall it was much less traumatic than I thought it might be. I would have stopped after a few nights if DS had seemed distressed by it.
Hope it goes well for you.

*its
As a grammar pedant I hang my head in shame at the needless apostrophe in the second paragraph :-)

Best of luck madcat. Ds is 8 months and I've done cc for naps. Before this we would have 20-30 mins of him crying while I tried to settle him in the cot by rocking/singing/shushing before I d give up and rock him in the buggy. I used to go in every 5 minutes (unless it sounded like he was starting to settle), and pick him up and rock him until he calmed down. At the moment it seems to have worked well, settled easily for both naps yesterday.
The crying was never that bad, and was no worse than when I was in the room trying to shush/pat/rock him.

Noisybrain What effect did doing CC have on night waking and his ability to self settle at night?

It's boiling hot today and DH got a cold so bound to be right stroppy so and so. Great. Not a good start - been psyching myself up for this for days now.

ellie it's hard to say regarding night wakings - at that age he was waking once in the night for a feed, which he definitely still needed. Whether he woke at other times and got himself back to sleep I don't know.

What CC did do for us was revolutionise bedtime and nap times. DS would settle without being rocked for ages and almost immediately stopped waking after one sleep cycle in the evening.

Well, thanks to the bloody weather we are having to postpone. It would be potentially dangerous for her to overheat in her room which is 28 degrees at the moment. As it is, we have had to decamp to a cooler part of the house with travel cot. Sigh. Best laid plans and all that.

OMG - just put her in her cot awake because she wouldn't settle in the new room and I needed the loo. Anyway, something made me stay away because she was just grumbling on the monitor and....... She fell asleep!!! All by herself and with no boob, mummy and in about five minutes!!! Am slightly overwhelmed with excitement TBH. Even if it was a one-off (trying to be cautious and not booking a baby sitter/drinking too much wine/propositioning DH just yet) ..... Surely this is progress???

How was she tonight?

Not bad at all thank you - put her down asleep because she fell asleep and didn't wake up like normal, although was prepared to leave it. She slept til 5 then settled herself back to sleep (me lying in bed not daring to breathe or move a muscle!!). Was scratching her little fingernails on the mesh of her travel cot bless her. Maybe we should use the travel cot forever more!! All very encouraging although I'm not going to get carried away just yet .... the thing I've learnt about babies with my two is that the only thing you can predict is that you can't predict anything!!!! X