1st night sleep training - not sure I can continue

[Timtammy]

Not sure why I am posting really - I guess for support/positive stories.

I have a sleep consultant in to sleep train my 9 month old DS to get rid of his dummy. She has known him since he was 5 weeks old so not a stranger. He has been waking lots at night and I am on my own with another DC and have PND. Am finding the lack of sleep makes my PND much worse and am so ashamed but I spoke so crossly to DS last night and just cannot cope anymore in the day.

He has been crying for 20 minutes though now ( sleep consultant is in the room with him) and I just can't bear it. I never really let him cry. Am wondering if I should just go in and stop it. It feels so wrong. I just want to go and grab him. As I'm on my own I can't really judge what to do. Surely this can't be ok though?

I did a form of controlled crying with my dd2 to put an end to co-sleeping (which we had ended up doing, not intentional!) and comfort suckling.

The first 3 or 4 nights were the worst, but it got better almost immediately and that was just over 2 years ago now. It was honestly the best thing we did, and I never thought it was something I would consider.

Think if the long term goal, and if this doesn't work, read this thread which might give you some hope. It did for me which is why I did it!

Sorry, forgot to post link

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/sleep/a1707445-Jo-Frost-Controlled-Timed-Crying-for-9mo-baby

Thank you sleepyfergus I will go and read.

I think that's the thing I never thought I would sleep train, my friends all think I'm too soft as a mother. I guess I hope that it will be better for him to be less tired, and for me to not be so exhausted and angry. But when e is crying his heart out I lose confidence in my decision to do it.

I never thought i would use cc either. But i had to get back to work!
I have not regreted it. My baby is a good sleeper now and i can get hours of good sleep.

This method isn't as draconian as other methods and it pays dividends quite quickly for everyone concerned! Good luck! And if the sleep consultant doesn't work, give it a go yourself. Everything feels 100x harder with PND (I suffered too) and a lack of sleep and feeling helpless is awful. Hopefully with a sleep routine nailed, YOU can enjoy some sleep and that is worth it's weight in gold.

When we used cc at about 14 months, our only regret was not doing it sooner. Remember your DS isn't alone. What approach are you/the trainer taking? We went in and resettled after 2 min, then 3 min etc and only ever got up to 6 mins. It only took a few days, we agreed beforehand that we'd try a week and then reassess, but we didn't need the whole week.

Hi Pico - yes that is the method she is using too. Times intervals but in the room.

Thank you everyone - it does help to hear of stories when it has been worth it!