Our positive controlled crying diary !

[Littlefrenchmummy]

I thought I would give an update and diary of our CC as it seems to be a success !

I decided to start it last friday after 8.5 months of my baby waking up every couple of hours for warm milk.
I have tried EVERYTHING other than CC to soothe him, tried every medicine for his teeth, nothing would stop him crying apart form warm milk.
He eats 3 massive home cooked meals a day, drinks plenty of water and is very well and happy.
After another exhausting night and a desperate post on mumsnet I decided to do CC.

I was a bit dubious about the whole thing, and so worried about having to let him cry as I just can't stand it when he is upset but today day4 I thought I would share my experience and maybe help other mothers out there.

He goes to bed at 8pm. Has one big 2 hour nap during the day around lunch time or 2 naps of 1 hour each depending on what we are doing. He eats 3 meals a day, drinks plenty of water, has a bottle of milk in the morning and a bottle in the evening.

Night 1.
He woke up at midnight and it started.. I let him cry for 5 minutes then went to stroke his head, 10/ 15/20 mins. And repeated. Sometimes offering water (I was worried he might be thirsty). He cried for 1h30 and cried himself to exhaustion. It was horrible and I really wasn't sure about what I was doing. He didn't wake up for the rest of the night which was already a massive achievement.

Night 2.

He woke up at 2am and cried for 1h45 minutes. Each time I stroked his head and tried comforting him he screamed even louder. Really tough night. I sat beside him in the dark and waited for him to calm down. Offering water a couple of times, making sure his dummy was within his reach. Cried himself to exhaustion. Was still really unsure about what I was doing but determined to give it a proper go. I limited my touching him as it seemed to upset him more but I stayed near him.

Night 3.

He woke up at 1am and cried for 20 minutes. He then woke up at 430 and cried for 10 minutes. The second time I didn't go to him I just waited and he fell back to sleep on his own.

Night 4.

Bed at 730/8pm. Woke up at 9pm and cried for 40 minutes...and slept through until 8am.

Really pleased. He seems really rested today.

He is been exactly the same during the day since we have done CC. He eats as well, laughs, plays etc.

Hope this helps some other desperately exhausted mothers out there !

X

Hi George!

I dont know if its the right time for a nap or right length of time but it works for us :) I give him a bottle around 11am and he sleeps until 1pm. Sometimes its a bit more sometimes a bit less ( if its less he is tired the rest of the day though) and then has lunch. Then he goes to bed around 8 and wakes up around 730/8.

I read about so many little ones who wake up really early, I wouldn't know what to suggest its so tough..I hope this helps!

Oh Limes Im sorry its been so tough. I really dont know if Im the best to answer this but this is how we did it:

Yes only cc at night as his napping was fine (as in he would nap without waking up for a length of time sufficient to rest him).
You say the day time naps are more of an issue, so how does she sleep at night?

Re the crying to the point of sweating and vomiting. Its so hard isn't it? My boys never threw up but they have gotten themselves into silly states. When I was doing cc with my 9 month old the longest i left him crying (whilst being sat behind the door and coming in every 20 minutes to try and soothe) was 1h45 I think? (it was so hard) I think I caved once or twice because he was too distressed (this sounds so barbarian )and in that case I held him and cuddled him and soothed him and then started again.

The point for me was to teach him to self soothe. he has a dummy that helped and I knew he was fed, clean, not thirsty, tired etc so I knew this was the thing to do. Do you feel its the right thing?

It's not her waking in middle of day naps but the problem I have is actually getting her to go to sleep for them. At bed time I know she will eventually go off but in the day she will cry endlessly so much so we get nothing done.

I end up using buggy or car and just dint know if I should be persevering with cc at these times too or just do bed and night initially?

Once she goes to sleep in day she is ok.

Sorry I was away all weekend!

What happens if she misses her nap? if you just dont put her down for a nap I mean? How old is she?

I would like to do CC with my 8 month old who is still waking 3 times in the night for milk but his room is next to 2.11 year old DD's and I'm scared he will wake her.

In fact I'm pretty sure he wakes as frequently as he does because I rush to him to stop him getting too loud.

I might just have to accept the risk DD wakes though as I'm exhausted and something has to change.

I'm going to give this another go soon as I am beyond tired. My dd has a cough and cold at the moment though so I will wait until she's feeling better. Dd is my only dc so don't have to worry about waking older siblings, that must be quite difficult. I worry about what the neighbours will think if they hear her crying in the night. I don't care about waking them up though they're always keeping me awake with their all night parties!