No cry sleep solution

[ejecoms]

I'm posting here because I'm about to try the No Cry Sleep Solution to try to help my 6 month old's appalling sleep! I have co-slept and breast fed on demand since birth and she has now turned into the most terrible sleeper which is so frustrating as she used to sleep quite well even when very young.

I have never let her cry and got into the bad habit of feeding her whenever she stirs at night. I think also she is used to sleeping cuddled up to me and so she wakes frequently in the evenings until I come to bed with her. She also mainly naps in the sling again so she is cuddled up to me. I will do a sleep log today and overnight and post this tomorrow with my sleep plan.

Please nag me if I don't do this!

hi Kate

It was a fluke ... It's gone back to every couple of hours again. Sorry your nights have been bad

I think it might have something to do with the time of year. dc1 was a summer baby so no sniffles/colds/coughs and he slept through quite early until he had a regression at 10 months ish.

Dd is a diffrent ball game she's just been constantly teething/coughing/snotty. She's in childcare all day today and I've had to send her with formula because pumping was doing me in.

Hi Kate! Do join in! I think we will all find it easier to stick to our plans with support! It sounds like you are making progress if she stayed in bed all night and it is good she is detaching herself. I think them with time she should get used to sleeping without sucking...

First 10 day log: a much better night's sleep. Although she woke 8 times, she slept for a total of just over 12 hours and managed a 4.5 hour stretch! (She did wake/stir halfway through this but fell asleep again without crying/feeding so I'm not counting that).

Here are the details:
19.51 fed. Asleep
20.31 fed for 10 min, cried again at 20.46 rocked, fed
22.21 fed
22.42 fed
3.13 fed
5.31 fed
6.39 fed
7.07 fed I got up after feeding
7.57 woke

I'm pleased she slept better but I think she slept better because she was cuddled up to me. I wonder if part of the problem is separation anxiety. She is used to being with me all the time now. I wonder if some sort of lovey would help...

Hi guys,

Sounds like you've made some progress. I keep a cellular blanket in the bed with me to put over her as an extra layer when she wakes and its chilly. The blanket is warm and smells of mummy. A lovey is a good idea.

I ve also found that she'll settle quickly with a dummy when shes not really hungry, i still remove it though as i would my nipple.

Huge breakthrough last night, she slept 7:30pm til 3am then waking every 1.5-2 hours before getting up.

I'm thinking it was a fluke but i did really focus on her naps yesterday and i wonder if not coming into bed with me helped.

We'll see what tonight brings. Its exhausting when week after week youre sleep deprived!

Well, I have to admit to losing motivation to improve things in the last couple of days. I think this is one of the problems I have with improving sleep, I just can't stick to a plan consistently. I think it is when she is sleeping a bit better that I would be able to make a difference to her sleep, not when it is really bad. But at the moment I just want to read my book,not make sleep plans!

Ejecoms - sorry to hear you've hit a bit of a wall.

I've been carrying on with the plan but I'm not sure I'm seeing much progress. I shall wait for my 10days though and see how I've got on. Though I can't remember when I started now!

Hi Kate! I have to admit I have slid back totally. Partly due to Easter holidays and colds but also because I have been reading 'the Lord of the rings' and was totally distracted by that... Also because she had one good night's sleep when she was cuddled up to me and so I thought that cuddling up to her would be the answer... But it isn't. The other thing that has stopped me is that I love cuddling up to her at night! ... But on the other hand I would dearly love a good night's sleep. I can't remember the last time I woke up feeling refreshed... but I find at night I am waiting for her to wake up so that I can go to feed her and then we'll both fall asleep together.

So I am back on the wagon...

I've been thinking and reading about habits and I think a lot of our problems are due to habits: she is in the habit of waking recurrently at night and feeding and I'm in the habit of feeding her every time she stirs and falling asleep with her feeding. How to change these habits is more difficult... I hope that if I change my habits them she will change hers.

She's been napping really badly so I'm going to work on that initially. I think things have been too excitong with DS at home during the holidays. I'm going to try to cut down to 2 longer naps/day, the first in the buggy and push her to try to get her sleeping for longer, and the second in bed, but try to keep her sleeping for longer. I need to stop her napping in the sling! My shoulder ached so much today.

At night, I will try to start the night in my own bed. I'll try to follow my sleep plan as before otherwise.

I'm going to count this as night 11 as I had a bit of a lapse... DS had a really bad night - coughing a lot which was the main reason I feel knackered today. I managed to cuddle up to DS in my sleep... Woke up and we were all snuggled up together.

My sleep aims for today are:

• remind my friend that she needs to get the buggy she is lending me down from the loft - done
• ask my dad to put up the blackout blind when he comes over tomorrow
• time the length of my DD's nap
• write down my nap routine so I start following it

Here's my nap routine:

1. Up to bedroom
2. Close curtains
3. Put on white noise
4. Put in sleeping bag
5. Rock and sing 'sleep baby sleep'
6. Lie down and nurse
7. Disengage her before she falls asleep

Well, I managed to achieve those things I wanted to today. Her first nap only lasted 40 mins! So the second nap, I was ready and fed her again as soon as she stirred. She then slept for another 20 mins, then started to wake again but I managed to get her back to sleep with some rocking and patting and she ended up sleeping a total of about 1.35 hrs which I'm pleased about. She then had a third nap at about 5pm but only for 25min, which was just enough to get her through till about 7.30. I also followed my nap routine.

Tonight, she fell asleep about 7.30. She's already woken up once. I'm hoping to stick to my plan for the night:

• when she makes a noise, pretend to be asleep and see if she settles herself
• if she doesn't, try patting/rub to get her to settle
• if that doesn't help, nurse but limit length of feed by disengaging her
• roll away after she has finished feeding

Currently waiting to see if DD will wake again after 40 mins sleep...

Night 12: Pretty bad night's sleep last night. DS was coughing a lot, he only woke up once but it was just when DD had just woken too. DD wasn't very well either, she kept crying and arching her back so I think she may have the same virus.

I have ordered a lovey! We'll see if it helps... Otherwise I'm hoping to do 2 longer naps in her bed today and at night, put her in her bed awake and feed.

Well, just on cue, she woke but I fed her straight away and she is now fast asleep again. Let's see how long it lasts!

Hello! I'm watching with interest, sounds like you're doing really well. I have a 6 month old who is pretty good at night (one feed plus a couple of wakings but resettling) but the naps are just dreadful. I'm going to copy your nap routine and see how we go.

My main problem I think is staying relaxed around the issue. Im sure he senses my tension at nap time which is not at all conducive to sleep.

Hi splendide! I think it is worth trying this method for getting them to nap longer - it seems to be working. This morning, DS slept for 1 hr 20 mins. This afternoon, she stirred at 40 mins, but them settled herself and slept another 20mins. She then started waking up but I fed her and got maybe another 30 minutes sleep out of her, but she was feeding the whole time. That was enough to get her through until 7pm.

Night 13: so bad it is almost funny. They were both asleep by 7.30 and by 8.30 I was feeling on top of things. Then I woke DD by putting clean clothes in her room... To discover that I hadn't put her nappy on properly and it had leaked through everything right down to the mattress. At the same time DS woke coughing and coughing until I thought he'd be sick. Eventually all sorted, all went to sleep, I vaguely remember multiple night wakenings and then to top it off, DS wet the bed! So I didn't follow my sleep plan at all. Anyway, DD is currently asleep while I deal with the mounds of washing...

Night 14: still waking a lot. Probably because I've been so tired I haven't followed my sleep plan...

I wonder if I'm doing this all wrong... And actually increasing her suck to sleep dependency. I had previously been trying sometimes to settle her in other ways, but recently I've just been feeding her and disengaging her. This nap time, I fed her until she was just closing her eyes, then rocked her, then put her down and patted her and she went to sleep.

Some success to report: managed a 2 hour nap in bed yesterday morning! I nearly had to wake her to pick DS up! I fed her, stopped when she was just falling asleep, then rocked her, put her down. She opened her eyes but settled with patting. She started to wake after 40 mins but I settled her and she then slept on my lap.

However, in the afternoon really struggled to get her to sleep as DS kept coming in to bounce on the bed!

Had a better night. DS woke once for a wee. I'm planning a log on the 23rd which will be 1 month from when I started this.

So, I've changed my approach because I thinn I've been reinforcing the suck to sleep habit. I'm going too:
Get ready: put on sleeping bag and white noise and close curtains.

1. Feed until stops sucking actively
2. Disengage
3. Walk with her and pat and sing
4. Put down and pat.

Repeat any of these steps if needed.

At night, I'm going to make sure she goes into her bedroom awake and then follow the same routine.

For night wakenings, I'll try the same in reverse effectively:

1. Wait to see if settles herself
2. If not, pat
3. Pick up and pat/Rock
4. Feed but disengage, pat then put down

I am new here but found this post while searching for some help in trying to improve my 13 month dd's sleep habits. I have an older ds who was also a bad sleeper, but has got it now. Dd had reflux and got into some terrible habits as a result of this (and of me being soft!). She has mostly outgrown the reflux, bar a few triggers, so I am biting the bullet! Mind if I join the thread for support?

So far I am trying to put her down awake and cutting out night feed, though still cosleeping to make this happen. I also find it really hard to spend any time in her nap as ds at home too, so hoping to start with bedtime.