One night of cc, where now?

[lentilsoup21]

Ladies I need your help!
My little boy is almost 7 months old. and for the last 3 months has fed (boob) twice in the night (1am and 4am, after a feed around 10pm) plus more recently has been waking in between those times - some nights I'm up every single hour. I don't think he needs to feed, it's just habit. These extra wakings are killing me though and I feel like I can't take it any more! I'm so sleep deprived I can't function in the day and I just need to find a way to help him sleep for longer stretches. So, last night, when he was awake at 5am he grumbled and grumbled and eventually I just got back into bed and let him cry it out. I wasn't planning on doing controlled crying but last night something snapped and we just let him cry. Hardest thing I've ever done and I had to stop myself going in so many times. Somehow it felt like the right thing to do though after months of no sleep. So my question is, what do we do tonight?? Do I still feed him when he wakes at 1 and 4 or just let him cry it out then? Last night we let him cry during an 'extra' waking so do we try that again tonight? Having gone thru the pain of listening to him cry I don't want it to go to waste and would like to build on it of poss to see if we can break the cycle. Any advice would be gratefully received xxx

That sounds like quite a big leap for him, if you are going to go cold turkey on feeds overnight. My 11 month old is only now dropping her last night feed and she is eating 3x meals and 2x snacks during the day. She was still having 2 night feeds at that age.

Why do you think he is waking at other times? Could it be teething? Will he resettle with a cuddle?

If you really need to stop the feeds, and I know how exhausted you must be, could you focus on perhaps dropping one at a time and cuddling back to sleep? Or could your partner offer formula/water instead? It would be less of a leap for your baby, plus you would get less engorged.

I thought mine would never ever sleep through, but once she was eating lots and crawling around during the day, her sleep transformed almost overnight. It will get better.

Stick with it. DD is 9 months and we had tears for 50mins and a 20min wake up, night three was half this and now straight to sleep and no wke ups in less than a week. Horrid at the time but soooo worth it in the end. We did no night feeds but I was sure she didn't need the,. Could you do one and not the other and see how that goes and then drop the other in a bit if you are sure he isn't hungry.

Thanks both, you're right it might be a a little harsh to go completely cold turkey. I'll try and drop one feed first and see how that goes. Feel a bit sad today from the crying but know I need to have courage if we want to change things xx

Perhaps think about finding other ways to settle him rather than leaving him to cry it out. He is still very little and won't yet understand that you haven't gone away forever.

I think my DD dropped that 10pm feed first, by the way, and the 1ish one after that. It was fairly obvious when she wasn't hungry as she would resettle quickly(ish) with a cuddle/rock...and no chance if she was hungry.

Are you feeding to sleep at bedtime? I did for the first 5 months as that was what worked for us but I got fed up with it. At 5.5 months we did controlled crying by going in after 5/10/15/20 minutes - not picking him up or anything, just saying 'it's bedtime' or similar. We only did it at bedtime as he was ok after night feeds but since we started it he quite often sleeps through the night - it may be coincidence as he has also started more solids but I think he is now better at settling himself back to sleep if he wakes up. I still feed him if he wakes in the night but if he starts waking frequently then I think I will set a limit eg if he's slept for 4 hours I will offer milk, if not then just a cuddle and put back down.

Phalarope did your dd drop the 10pm feed (and later feeds) of her own accord I.e just not wake up for them? Or did you hold back offering a feed?

We've tried every trick in the book to settle him back down before resorting to the crying last night. He can be quite angry in the night when he wakes so often the gentler methods just do not work!! He goes from 0-60 in about 3 seconds and is sooooo loud.

No, I've not fed him to sleep at bedtime for a while now. We always put him down awake, bedtime usually takes 20 mins or so (sometimes up to an hour) of me shushing, patting and the occasional pick up. It's more the night feeds/wake ups that are causing problems. I wonder what tonight will bring....?!

Hope you had a good night.

I think she was just shy of 8 months and had a couple of nights of absolutely refusing to go to sleep - so when she did finally conk out, she slept through that first feed. At which point, I stopped offering a feed if she woke up then. She still woke up most nights for a while but would go back down with a shhh/pat. Then she gradually started staying asleep longer, so I just fed her when she woke at 1 or whenever. Now she tends to wake at 5 but will conk out again with a feed - will sleep through until 6 not infrequently so am trying to resettle her without a feed this week.

She sounds a bit like your DS in terms of the 0-60 thing, so I have never left her to cry as she rapidly gets worked into a hysterical mess. If she really wouldn't settle even with being rocked/bounced, I would feed her anyway. I also tried Calpol if I thought she could be teething.

I did a bit of cc on my 6 mo as she went from only needing 1 night feed to 2, plus comfort feeds when she woke in between.

I did cuddles and water for the sneaky extra 4am feed and just cuddles for other wakes, leaving her for 10-15 mins if grumbling, 5mins if really crying between comforting. It took less than a week and last night I wasn't disturbed between 12am (night feed) and 7am bliss!

just don't do CC. it's simply cruel.

Does he have a dummy?

Mine can often be resettled with a dummy. Once they could find it themselves they could resettle themselves.