controlled crying

[gemmaloup]

Hi my daughter is 11 month old and since we moved in December has been having sleeping issues. Its took this long to get my health visitor to send a nursery nurse out to speak to us about it. Recently she has been getting into our bed since we are both at work and need some sleep. I know its wrong but hey ho. So tonight is the first night of controlled crying. Everytime I go up to lay her down I want to cry at her holding her arma out for me. Its so hard not to give in. Does anyone have any tips? X

It's hard. Really, really hard.

But take solace from the fact that your daughter will be happier and much more content and able to concentrate when she is getting enough sleep at night.

CC will only work if you are consistent - bedtime, any night time wake ups and daytime nap too - all need to be treated the same. If you are not consistent it will confuse your little one and result in several backward steps in her sleep problems.

Tips? Have support from your partner. You both need to be in agreement so that you can support each other and keep each other strong through this hard time. But if you are consistent, then it shouldn't last long. 3 days to a week at most to sort out settling to sleep.

Thanks. She's only been there an hour bless her but its killing me. Partner is in agreement that it needs to be done just feel awful when I go back in to lie her down, It feels like im lulling her into a false sense of security. Heartbreaking :( I am determined to keep going with it just feel sorry for the old lady next door. Haha. X

It is heartbreaking. The worse possible thing I have ever had to do in a parenting sense when I did this with my DC1.

Suffice to say, when I went on to have DC2 (and DC3 and DC4) I made damn sure that I didn't repeat the same mistakes again, so that I never had to go through the pain and distress with subsequent children.

That doesn't help you for now though. You have my sympathy and understanding though, I know what it is like.

If it helps you to know, my DC1 who was control cried at 12 months old is now a fisty, confident, independent and bright 10 and a half year old. We are very close and her being taught to sleep in this way has had no lasting detrimental effect on her whatsoever.

That doesn't make it any easier in the moment though.

She's asleep after about an hour and 20 mins. :) lets hope it gets easier as the week goes on. Scared she will hate me in the morning... if she sleeps all night. Thanks for all your advice. I will definitely not be repeating this mistake with the next one. X