the no-cry sleep solution

[iris66]

has anyone tried it? (book by Elizabeth Pantley) I'm on day 2 & looking for a bit of support as I know it's going to take time. I'm dying through sleep depravation with 8mth DS who bfs to sleep but is very very tricky to move so have been cosleeping whilst he fidgets & kicks all night(and power naps during the day)
Think this is the last chance saloon before ear plugs & leaving him to get hysterical (even though I know that won't happen - i just couldn't, he really does do the whole temper, then sad then hysteria/shaking/terror/I've been abandoned thing - even if DH goes to him - such a mummy's boy)
Anyway, please post if you've been successful with this [hopeful emoticon]

bikebug yay sounds great!have a great evening out!im being naughty and escaping for whole girlie weekend!shopping and drinking,i wont know what to do with 2 hands free!dh wont know what to do with 3 children!i really like the idea of using cot in day!ive got travel cot still so will try that!

Morning all another horrendous night here, she just cannot go more than 3 hours without waking, put her down at 7.30pm as per usual and she was up every hour until 11pm, got fed up and went to bed at 10 last night.

Daytime naps are difficult for me as I can't be there if she start to stir to plug her back in for a quick suck because of DD1. Yesterday she only had 50 mins all day

Have finished my 3 day log and am about to draw up "the plan" hope I can stay strong at 3am in the morning!

moljam - hope you have a lovely weekend

iris - daytime naps sound like they are going well, great progress on night sleeping too

Lisa/Rach - thanks for the support

BTW - hope you have a better night tonight I feel the same it's boob or nothing espcially in the wee small hours.

Difers - sounds like you have made some real progress too

Keep the success stories coming ladies

moljam - I keep meaning to say it, have a fab weekend .

well things seem to have started to come together last night and today. fed dd huge bf from 6pm til i put her into her cot just sleepy at 7pm. she grumbled and chattered to herself for about half an hour, no crying, just moaning and babbling. dh and i were listening in on the monitor, tense as usual. then all of a sudden. nothing but quiet snoring!! neither of us dared speak for fear of jinxing it. she then woke up again at 10pm, babbled, groaned, went back to sleep without me going to see her. midnight she woke more fully. decided she'd gone 5 hours so gave her a quick feed. back to sleep again til 5am. quick feed, back to sleep til she was up for the day at 8am!! i am still in shock. then today she had a proper nap in her cot at midday for a full hour. other naps were in pram and car. so feeling very pleased. i think it's the pull off technique that's done it. now i hope i haven't jinxed things for tonight...

Hello all,

Bikebug - DS worst nights were on Capol so hopefully it's the NCSS that's working.
Sweetkitty - Sorry you had a bad night, hope tonight's better.
Moljam - Have a Molita for me!

whats a molita?am i being thick?

Bikebug - Also going for hour long walks - and it does get rid of babyflab - I've lost 3 inches off my waist in the last couple of weeks - it's not my imagination as I have an Ikea paper tape measure which has a pre baby dated mark on it. How sad am I?

not sad clever!good thinking!

Moljam - Molita - It's a yummy refreshing cocktail made with limes and something like rum although not sure as memory of such things has been wiped since arrival of bundle of joy .... but a mere wine or even some draught scrumpy would surely be just as inviting!

I'm really pleased that things are working out better for some of you - gives me hope!

However, yet another bad night here. Put it this way, when I read that someone's baby wakes after just three hours I think, "Ooh, lucky you.".

Moljam - have one for me!

Danceswithbaby - have hope, we used to be just the same and it is changing for us. It did go to three hourly overnight a while back (waking at roughly 11-12/2-3/5-6), but sometimes it was hourly after the 2-3am waking and in the evenings it was every 30-45 minutes for ages - we'd bath at 7, feed then put him down by 8, he'd take until 9 before he would drop off, with constant cuddles and feeds, it would be 9.30 or 10.00 before I could leave him without him waking instantly, he'd wake again 2 or 3 times before we went to bed at 11, and I didn't even used to count those ones - if we weren't in bed I didn't think of it as 'night waking' - it just sounded so bad to say he woke 7 times last night!

hi all fellow sleep deprivers

Last night was odd first one of the "pull offs" went to bed at 7.30pm shattered, up 40 mins later but went back with a back rub. Up at 11ish had a feed then I pulled her off, she doesn't whinge or reroot but turns completely away from me and falls asleep! Then she got up at 3.10am and that was her until 4.05am, she did have a poo bum as well but she was up and had 2 BFs before she finally fell asleep, back up at 6am then up for the day at 7.30am. I suppose this could be seen as progress.

Tonight she went down at 7.30pm and haven't heard a peep yet .

Am a bit about this pull-off technique so you keep pulling them off so eventually they learn to settle themselves without the boob? Surely they will only learn so far as to want the boob for a few minutes, I don't know has anyone else tried it with any success???

Anyway good sleep to us all tonight.

Hi Sweetkitty, I think with pull off it's to do with them not falling asleep on the boob rather than not wanting the boob at all before sleep. It's similar to a lot of baby whisperer stuff about trying to arrange things so you are not actually holding / feeding at the moment of sleep, so the association isn't as strong. Think ds has gone overboard on this, as he wouldn't even allow a back rub when he woke at 8.15 , just wanted to know I was there and have a bit of a cry at me before falling back to sleep. Here's hoping for quite nights for all.

Hi

Just here to offer support to SK and Iris.

Sorry havent had time to read and catch up but just to say hang in there.

Im still up most nights with Tara but I can see improvment. A lot recently have been due to teething poor little tootliee .

ANyway hope it gets better for you. Also hope to read more and catch up with you a bit more.

Did read the book with DS and found it good so hope it helps.

TTFN

MF

Hi

Just here to offer support to SK and Iris.

Sorry havent had time to read and catch up but just to say hang in there.

Im still up most nights with Tara but I can see improvment. A lot recently have been due to teething poor little tootliee .

ANyway hope it gets better for you. Also hope to read more and catch up with you a bit more.

Did read the book with DS and found it good so hope it helps.

TTFN

MF

good evening all, sounds much more positive reading thru today.we had a freakish great night last night, bed at 8.30pm and awoke at 4.30am, fed her and had masses of milk because she hadnt woken customary millions of times, she woke right up so took her to bed and fed her other boob......massive puke, me, DH and DD all soaked.changed her so very awake then had some more boob and went to sleep, was now 5.45am so knew DHs alarmwas about to go off so SHUT HER DOOR!she blimin well slept until 8.45am!!!!!had to keep checking she was breathing by pressing sensitive button on monitor, managed first shower before 10.30am (normal nap time).has renewed my will to leave but fully expecting hideous night tonight.

funniest thing is onlynew thing did y'day was go to baby signing!!

danceswithwolves - am sorry to post another full of hope one when you sound so tired, sending sleepy vibes to your child

sweetkitty- i think it's the pull of technique that's working for us because dd now pulls herself off, turns her head away from me and falls asleep. she just takes maybe 3 quick sucks, then off she goes. next step is no sucks! sometimes she can do it without any sucks, i can hear her flipping her head side to side trying to get herself back to sleep. if i think she's tried and tried enough i worry she'll wake herself up too much, so i go in and she has those 3 sucks and off she goes again.

Hi Guys,

Don't give up....
I think this solution is slowly working as although DS woke once last night for 1hr 10mins he did have 2 - 5 and a half hour stretches of sleep and that's 11 hours in total which is amazing.

Am struggling with naps but have improved bedtime routine. He's started crawling and wanting to stand so I'm letting him be as physical as he wants to be. Also I've laid off the tea as I am wondering whether caffine is playing a part in night waking. I was in a Need more Tea to keep awake cycle and drinking about 7 cups per day -it's now down to two!!!!

How's everyone's else doing this weekend?????

Guess what? Yes, another crap night. Longest stretch of sleep over the last week = 2hours 10 minutes. Number of wakings over the last three nights were 8, 10 and 8. The only thing the sleep log seems good for is so I can recite figures like this.

Don't feel bad about posting good news Bottomburp, it's the only thing which keeps me going.

It helps to know that your DS improved from a similar pattern Bikebug. And Difers, I'm not going to give up. This way at least I feel I'm taking positive steps towards making things better instead of crossing fingers and hoping for the best.

Oh, I forgot. Actually there was a tiny breakthrough last night, which offers a glimmer of hope. At about waking number 6 or 7 dd allowed me to cuddle her back to sleep instead of bf. Poor babe was probably so stuffed full by then she'd have puked with any more milk inside her.

The jinx of the boastful poster has come and got me! Yesterday evening was good - down at 7, woke at about 8 (just as dinner was ready...), but back down 15 mins later with a back rub and a bit of a cry. But the night was not so great, up at 12.15 (bf back to sleep 30 mins later), then 3.30 (bf back to sleep, took another 30 mins), then up at 6.30 full of beans for the day to come. Hmmm, baby steps I think. Serves me right for having 2 glasses of wine, it's no fun when you have to be alert in the nightime is it?

We will get there. Difers - 5 hours of sleep in one go is just fabulous! And Danceswithbaby, hugs to you and very many sleep vibes to baby.

Dear DanceswithBaby - I do hope tonight is better, you must be doohlally from lack of sleep. Have you read from page 207 - " I've tried everything, Nothing Works, Help!" ?
I know that when I started this thing, that actually I was too tired to really try any solution so I sort of started with her "Take a Break" suggestion first until I felt that I could actually cope with any change.

Iris -Where are you??

hiya huns - (must have heard you Difers - just logged on) I did a huge post on Friday but it obviously didn't work

Naps are going great guns now & he's having about 2.5 hrs a day (fab!) but they seem to have slipped - about 1.5 hrs late morning (in his cot no less!) then 1/2 hour late afternoon which is pushing his bedtime to around 8ish (no great shakes but it took me a couple of nights of aaages getting him to go down to realise this!) last night was good. 8-1 then co-sleeping until 6.30 with only a couple of wakings.

Have necked about a pint of coke tonight (on top of gallons of tea today to keep moving)and now worried about the caffiene - bugger, didn't think - will let you know if a pants night results (spoke too soon he's now awake again.....................)

well - a quick bf later & he's zonked (hopefully for more than 1/2 hour this time!! god I do hope it's not the caffeine!!!)

Bikebug - sounds like you're really getting there!! long may it continue eh

Sweetkitty - I'm with you on the pull off. It doesn't seem to be having any effect here at all (wonder if I'm doing something wrong?) I've been offering water at night first too - which he does seem to glug but then I still end up with him only going back to sleep after he's had a couple of bf sucks too.

bottomburp - ROLF at your overfeed/puke/deep sleep story Isn't it always the way though that when they do sleep longer - you bloody can't!!!!

danceswithbaby - cuddled back to sleep?!! I'd call that a MAJOR result!!!!!!!! (I'm only very )

Anyway - I'm off now to reacquaint myself with "the book". Sleepy vibes to all tonight.x

Sorry to be boring - we hit an all time low last night with the longest stretch of sleep being 1hour 40 minutes.

I've taken your advice Difers and looked at the chapter you suggested. Thanks for that. I didn't realise quite what a mess I am in until I read that. I seem to be in tears at the slightest little thing. Whilst I seem to have endless patience with DD, I am absoulutely vicious to everyone else. Isn't sleep deprivation used as a form of torture?

Tonight I'm going to kick poor DH into the spare room, so at least his movements aren't waking her up as well as mine. We'll see how that goes. Meantime I'll try to re-read some chapters.

You are right Iris! That actually was quite a breakthrough wasn't it? Also, she is napping alone in bed (AND NOT ON ME!!) for at least an hour each day, (even if I do still have to feed her down after the first 30 mins).

It's hard to feel positive about these things when night times seem to be getting progressively worse and worse....

Thanks so much for your support everyone - I hope you all had a much better night than me!

I had a worse night last night, Ds was awake for 2 hours at one stage and woke every 3 hours. [Sad] He is teething though so I'll plough on. Has anyone logged onto Pantley website? I might do that now.
Danceswithbaby - I never ever ever sleep with DH, we both agree that it means less sleep for both of us - hopefully tonight will be better. Wishing you all a good night.