Controlled crying...what was the longest your LO screamed the place down?

[Tinks15]

1.5 here...she just dont give up!

Is she tired enough when she goes to bed? My DS is 2 and recently dropped his afternoon nap (dammit!) but in the weeks before he did he was taking ages to fall asleep. We're lucky in that he loves being in bed and just chatting to his teddies but if he didn't, he probably would have been crying and fussing. Without the nap he goes down instantly.

I think the older the child the harder it is. Six months ish seems to be the optimum age, so it might take you a little longer. Keep going, it will be worth it for all if you xx

Not suggesting you stop her napping by the way. At 15 months she likely needs it still, but just wondering if she could be tired out a bit more in the afternoon.

all of you

And I'm very much against restricting napping - naps are important and, in my experience, do not impact on night time sleeping.

Yeah she does seem tired when i put her down...its frustrating though as she never naps for long either. I think she is just one of those babies that thinks life is just too exciting for sleep!

Another one here offering you support OP. You have taken empowered action to sort out baby's sleep. You'll forget the judgies on here when you wake up in a week or so to a much happier baby and a well rested self. And then I suggest you treat yourself to something you couldn't do because of the sleepless nights in celebration of the fact that you have your life back. Your DC will not be damaged in any way, I promise. Hope tonight continues to show improvement.

Lovely user

How long? All night every night for a week.

Ds is a shit sleeper. Our doc told us to try cc. We kept going in but he never calmed down at all and even when did pick him up for a cuddle he cried for hours because he was terrified.i wish we'd not done it but we were (and still are) at the end of our tethers.

Ours certainly didn't protest for a few hours then sleep, he got terrified and went into a total state of fear.

Cc doesn't work for all kids. It does work for lots though and unless you've experienced just how bad being woken constantly for months on end is then you don't understand. Once or twice a night can make you tired yes, but every twenty minutes for months on end can push you to the edge, unicorn I understand. I've been suicidal.

I have no objection to cc - it's not the first method I think you should use but it's got to be better than months of chronic sleep deprivation. It didn't work for us though.

Ds remains a crap sleeper

My dd is 16 months and still wakes every night, sometimes 3-4 times. I'd never do cc or cio as she wouldn't respond well and I just can't do it, but if you feel you've researched all the options and have made an informed decision then crack on and parent how you want to parent and do what's right by you and your child.

Cc does depend on temperament I think. If you've got a really snuggly baby who needs boob/cuddles to sleep it's harder. My DS isn't like that at all so it worked very quickly for him.

Agree totally. Ds is a seriously cuddly boob fiend with bad separation angst. Cc was not a success.

Dont let anyone make you feel bad for cc. Cio is in my opinion really cruel, but cio is NOT controlled crying.

It drives me bonkers when people are so judgemental about CC. True sleep deprivation is the worst. Every time I forget and with each baby it is a fresh hell. I am heinous with sleep deprivation and my older kids truly suffer with my lack of patience. It is impossible to thrive on nil sleep. My DD wakes every 40mins-1hr. It is truly damaging to my mental health. Well done OP for taking to bull by the horn and actually being proactive.

Couldn't agree more Raaaah.

Sorry needed a few more aaaas

I was absolutely convinced cc wouldn't work with ds. I knew he wouldn't do it. The first evening proved me right. The second evening proved me wrong!

2 hours, OP. It was misery. And the next night 45 minutes, and the next 15. He still frets (whines or grumbles, not screams and cries) about 5 or so minutes when I put him down but he can settle himself, which is actually what we wanted to teach. He'd been a good sleeper till 3 months, when teething hit, and then he seemed to unlearn how to sleep.

After 3 months of 1-2 hour or 45 minute sleeps interrupted by having to nurse and resettle, I was the kind of tired that lies down crying. I was miserable, my OCD was getting out of hand. At my lowest point I texted a friend "I've ruined my life". It was horrible.

BTW, before we did it, he screamed and whined constantly, had no attention span, and seemed to hate everything. Now he's keen, curious, funny, and fun. Yes, he's still shouty, but it's a different, excited kind of shouty. It's great.

Good luck!

Well what can i say...CC hasnt done a thing here. It hasnt worked for DD unfortunately which is frustrating, all my hopes were on this, but hey what can you do. I will just have to stick it out with this sleep malarky & hope she grows out of it sooner rather than later.

There are no medals for sleep martyrdom.

A happy, awake parent, and their happy awake child is surely better than everyone being grouchy and exhausted.

I'm a big believer in doing what is right for the entire family- and every family is different so why is there this idea that 'just do what I did' will work? CC works? Great. Co-sleeping works? Fab. What I can't stand is attaching some kind of moral failing/bad parenting to a particular practice. Some of these posters seem to think that mums and dads are lazily snoozing away whilst their babies shriek until they cause themselves psychological damage. Really? Aren't we all just doing the best we can to hold it all together?
Last thing- a mentally healthy and happy set of parents has got to be one of the most important things to a child's development and happiness. Don't sacrifice this out of a sense that you are being selfish in trying to get your basic needs met.

It's such a hard decision to make and I'm sorry it didn't work out Op.

We are at a cross roads here too. I was keen on the Gentle sleep methods but some of the posters above citing study's on cortisol and how cc/cio does not cause long term issues have me thinking.