wait until your darling DD is 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 and STILL waking at 2.30am. or maybe waking at 9pm, 11pm, 1pm, 3am and 5am.
Then maybe you will get why some parents find that they need to help their darling angels realise that it the middle of the night mummy or daddy isn't going to be lavishing attention on you!
as others have said CC isn't about abandoning your child, if done properly it is about checking your child is okay and then teaching them through example that if they are dry, fed, warm and safe, once they are in their cot it is sleeping time.
I hav't read the whoel thread but noticed some peopel giving that old story of 'well if you co-sleep or co-room' then your baby wont' wake up or will eb soothed easily as they are crying for attention.
thats bollocks! maybe it works for some people, CC works for some people too!
DS DOESN'T go to sleep if you are in the room or bed with him! not only that but he sits up and bounces on you! and then screams.
Here are my experiences of sleep solutions;
So bottle feeding to sleep - wonderful idea and then they just grow out of that? and don't need a bottle every time they wake up. NOPE, DS had a sleep association with a bottle until he was 14 months. Okay for some people that might not be a problem but 3 -5 night wakngs for at least 30 minutes each time was killing all of us by this time
co -sleeping; no way, not only am I a light sleeper - I can't share a room with another adult, but DS is an active sleeper and once he got past 8 months he was an active NOT sleeper if there was anyone to play with. He onyl falls asleep in bed with you if he is absolutly exahusted - and i'm not keen on the idea of him not sleeping except for two hours between 6am and 8m through sheer exhaustion.
Pickup putdown, worked a bit, the Shh pat was better but Ds is VERY active and we spent 4 weeks trying this with him sitting bolt uprigth hodling his arms out and screaming for over 3 hrs most nights.
swaddling/sleepsafe best thign we did. DS gets himself in a sate and can't seem to quieten down - classic hyperactive states. So we had to use swaddling, then growbags and a sleepsafe to keep him lying down. If he physiclal couldn't roll over, flail his arms about, sit up etc he would relax and dop off far quicker.
gradual withdrawal. Best method to use prior to CC. We had a bottle associaiton so we used GW together with the sleepsafe etc to wean him off the bottle and learn it was okay to lie down and mum or dad would stay in the room but not hold him.
CC - once DS got past 18months I did CC all the way. I go in and chekc on him once, change nappy and offer a drink. If he is scremaing hystericlaly i check for sleep terror or illness. but most of the time he is either very sleepy or he is playing up. How do I know he is playing up? because when you go in he hides his head under the blanket, stops crying and starts giggling, then he wriggles further and further down the bed playing hide and seek!
I woudlnt' do CC before 1yr, because I coudlnt' tell the difference between his cries as well then and because before 1 yr I felt he might still need to feed etc in the night.
We're now down to 1 night waking or early wake ups most nights, I'm trying to break this habit but with little success. I think we ay have to accept oen sleepy drink of water a night until he is old enough to handle a cup on his own in the dark.