Starting gradual retreat tonight

[Peelspeelspeels]

7 month old DS has been a pretty bad sleeper all his life. He used to feed to sleep (BF) or had to be rocked. Recently he’s been harder and harder to feed to sleep and resists rocking too - it takes longer and longer and he cries and squirms a lot during it, as if he doesn’t want to be held. He’s only sent himself to sleep in a stationary pram or cot a handful of times, and “drowsy but awake” is always “drowsy then screaming”. We’re starting gradual retreat tonight after reading about it here and reading Lucy Wolfe’s book. DH is on the frontline, I’m hiding in the living room with the TV on so I can’t hear him. If anyone has any positive stories I’d love to hear them. I fear it’s already started off not brilliantly as he refused to feed from both sides before bedtime, as he usually does

How did it go @Peelspeelspeels? My DH is currently ploughing through the Lucy Wolfe book as we’re in a similar position with our 9 month old!

Morning! Much better than expected! Took just over an hour in total - he was cross/confused for the first half hour or so, but DH kept distracting him from crying. Then the second half hour he was trying to fall asleep. DH worked out he got annoyed being stroked or patted, so only touched him when he was getting really cross, and didn’t feel the need to pick him up at all. He repeated our sleep mantra quite a lot too. He slept from 8-3.45, then I fed him and he fell asleep feeding so I put him back down and he shuffled about a bit and moaned a couple of times then went back to sleep til 6 (his usual wake up time). He has been sleeping til 3/4 solid for about a week now though (having been up 6 times a night between 4.5 and 7 months - we co slept through it). Fingers crossed for a repeat performance, or better tonight!

I really like the Lucy Wolfe book - I like that she doesn’t make me feel guilty for having co slept or fed to sleep in the past, as some books do! And I like the flexibility of being allowed to pick up, comfort etc however feels best. Wish we’d had it when he was a newborn though!

I'm planning to start the Lucy Wolfe approach this weekend so watching with interest! How did it go on the second night?

Second night he was more cross and it took an hour. He then slept til 5.50am though! Last night it took 45 min with less crying, and he slept til 3.45 again. We’re not really sticking very closely to Lucy Wolfe exactly - he’s having two long naps a day, rather than 3, and we’re not attacking naps yet as we thought it was better he have enough sleep in the day so as not to be overtired by bedtime whilst this is new. DH is doing the first 4 nights too as DS is so used to me feeding him to sleep in his room we thought switching after 2 nights would be too soon. Plus I’m a wimp when it comes to crying!