Maybe you could try the NCSS method instead - I am
sure you have already seen their mega-support thread,
plenty of non-cc advice in there and by the sound of it
it does seem to work. Eventually.
I have read through a lof of the anti-cc research, e.g. on this page
bawlingbabies.blogspot.com/2006/06/quotes-from-various-doctors.html,
and my strong impression is that yet again the baby
is in danger of being thrown out with the bathwater!
Of course, simply ignoring baby's cries is not a good idea.
Of course, abandoning baby is simply cruel.
However: switching from one extreme doctrin to another is
hardly the solution. The new extreme postion being:
'Baby must not, never, under no circumstances cry otherwise
Bad Things will happen. Research says so.'
As usual in life a nice middle of the road solution seems
to do the trick: Use all the non-cc methods - create a soothing,
consistent bed-time routine, introduce sleep cues e.g. grobag -
to get lo into right sleeping rhytm. Then start removing the
'crutches' and use cc to signal that 'yes, lo, I know you can
do it all by yourself, no boob/dummy needed.'
In our case, we spent the first three months happily co-sleeping
and breastfeeding in bed. It was wonderful to have the little
squidge in bed with us and we all got a great night's sleep.
At the same time dd learnt the right sleeping pattern - sleep
at night, play during day.
After three months, though, we noticed that dd had become completely
dependent on the boob to fall asleep. In fact, there were occasions
when she was so tired she would conk out, only to wake herself
up 10 seconds later screaming for boob as she clearly felt tricked
into falling asleep without it.
At the same time she also started waking up more and more often
in the night and had to be resettled through a quick bf -
this wasn't a growth spurt, it was just a habit getting badly
out of hand.
By using cc we have taught her within less than 2 weeks that
she is perfectly capable of falling asleep by herself.
Whenever she wakes up in the night we are still ready
to give her a good feed but again we listen out for her cries
- even at the tender age of 4 1/2 months we can tell when
she is hungry or simply trying to resettle herself.
Bit like learning to ride a bike: At first a child can
do with stabilisers but eventually it pays to be daring
and remove them. Despite significant research that indicates
falling off a bike can have psychological effects...
Anyway, long live diversity! Good luck with the ncss, the anti-cc
camp seem to swear by it.
Daddyjoon ( The DH)