Am i doing the right thing?

[lori21]

My ds1 is 9mnths and a terrible sleeper. we've tried ncss, co-sleeping and all the gentle advice but no improvement. we don't want to try cc and our hv has given us a book by from the millpod clinic.

here is the plan.....

a. gradual withdrawl from bf to sleep, going to rocking then holding, then stroking, then holding hands, to just sitting by him. making the transition every 3 days

b. gradual night weaning from every 2 hours during the night by increasing the length of time by 1/2 hour every 2 days.

my concern is that he won't get enough milk as he won't take ebm from anything or anyone and is still very distractable during the day. i used to bf him to sleep in the day as well but am doing the gradual withdrawl for this.

would love your honest opinions about the plan as i am really worried - i hate to hear him cry but am exhausted.

thanks

Sounds completely doable, but I do wonder about the time spans you suggest. It wasn't that easy with ds1 and I had to wait 'til he was "haapy" with where we were before moving on. A few people I spoke to on this did also admit that it wasn't as straight-forward as the books implied.
However having a plan does make it much less stressful and you'll get there in the end if you're consistent.

Mmmmm I had wondered about the time scale as well as we have been trying the change with naps for about a week or so and he is still very cross with me for not feeding him.

If you don't feed him as much during the night he will eat more during the day. This is a very gentle plan, and you clearly need more sleep. Lack of sleep is torture.

Well the first night went much better than expected. Although he woke up hourly I only fed him 2 hourly and he fall asleep on me really easily. It is going to be a lonnnnnggggg process me thinks but at least I have not had the awful crying to cope with.

lori, take heart, you'll get there!!! i've gradually weaned dd down during the night. she too was feeding almost hourly which is easy to do when you're cosleeping as i am. now, i just cuddle her, she'll cry for a bit then settle down. if she continues to cry, i know its because she really is hungry. i've also tried gradual withdrawal and dd responds to it well. have been lazy recently and bf to sleep. tried it again tonight and she went to sleep in her cot from awake iyswim?

i agree, i dont DO crying at all!! good luck and well done on your first night

Thanks for the support tibsy. he is coping far better than I imagined he would do. We've moved on to holding and not rocking to sleep and he seemed fine with that. The next step is holding him in his cot but I am not sure on how this will work. I'm going to start another thread to see how others have done it.

Thanks again