why i'm glad i didn't do CC, and gave up on the books...

[PregnantGrrrl]

I thought that DS (9mths) would never sleep through. I tried The NCSS book, then you-know-who was purchased, but i couldn't follow it all- went against my instincts really. I got to the point where i was planning CC. marked it on the calendar. the date passed, i kept finding reasons to not do it that weekend, then the next one and so on.

But DS is doing it on his own. He had a knock back with a stomach bug, then a cold and 3 teeth at once, but he's getting there without crying or strict routines or books about what we should do with him. He's just 'ready'. I stopped thinking of it as a sleep problem, and started thinking of it as a little person, struggling to learn a 100 things a day, not understanding that we have work, or that we can't nap in the day, and just needing our love.

This isn't a rant against CC or any other method- i understand making those choices. I just wanted to say that if you feel there's no hope, and they'll never sleep, they may just get there on their own.

I am so glad i didn't have the guts to do CC, because we didn't need it in the end. There's hope for all you sleepy parents out there, there really is!

I will try that Malaleche, thanks for the advice. DH wanted to try CC but it just breaks my heart to think about it.

ELf we inroduced long stories with daddy as a precursor to the bf. nad v tiring days.

One night she just dropped off while DH was telling stories. He looked he had been given the moon. It wasn't linear sometimes she wanted a bf and sometimes not but over a month she was weaned off at night. She was a bit older though 2 i think. For a few weeks she would occasionally get upset and I would feed her but not for long and not to sleep.

Oh I forgot a bit(bleared eyed emoticon needed) for a wee while I gently encoraged her off the breast and into bed to nod off just as her eyes were going. If she went loopy i just went with the flow. Again not linear but it was pretty much all the time before we introduced the stories.

She was in a bed with me next to her though not a cot with me outwith iyswim.

Think would also probably be helpful if your dh would try and get your dd to sleep in her room rather than have her sleep in the pram.
If you're happy with a bottle, then could you maybe introduce that in place of the breastfeed. All depends how you feel about replacing your boob as a comforter with a bottle. WOuldn't have bothered me at that age, but both mine were (still are) dummy lovers and so they'd feed. I'd stop the feed and then replace nipple with dummy and put them in their cot.

Thanks MrsApron. I'd brought DH some books at Xmas for DD iyswim for him to read to her, so will get him to dig them out!

ELF we sometimes found dd found the books distracting so rambling made up stories worked well with no rustly pages and pictures they want to see. it varies though.

Pooka, I dont mind replacing boob with bottle but then I worry if I'm going to have another battle to get rid of the bottle iyswim
Will get him to put DD into the cot / go to sleep in our room on college nights. B/feeing isn't much of an issue, I just would like to stop at some point! At the mo she's on cows milk in the day but b/milk in the morning and evening, so only 2 feeds a day but I'd like to reclaim my boobs soon

Thanks all. Sorry for the hijack PregnantGrrrl and congrats on your pregnancy

I think it's just a case of seeing what way works best, and if in the end your dd has a bottle to get to sleep, that's something you can deal with when she's older and more bribeable Youmay find though that just persistence and perseverence is enough.

WRT overstimuating books, somehow we've got into a pattern with ds (18months) of reading 3 short books. The first might be something "racy" (!) like peepbo or some other peekaboo style book. The last is usually something rather more sedate and soporific (no flaps and so on). But then I'm not sure how much of a difference it makes - just once something seems to work it becomes like a talisman.