Report on first night of 'shout it out' with 8 mo DD....

[PutThatInYourPipeandSmokeIt]

DD is BF and goes to bed at 6:30pm and wakes for the day ~ 7:15am but she wakes at 10:30pm, 1am and 4am. We decided to let her shout it out at 10:30pm (going in every 5-10 mins if she was still bellowing to reassure her etc).

This is what happened:

She woke as usual at 10:30pm and we waited until her cry was a proper cry and then went in, reassured her and left (her now bellowing). Repeated at 5 - 10 min intervals while rapidly scanning MN for reassurance and feeling very flustery!! We did this over the following 30 mins and then (minus dummy as it kept being chucked in anger), she settled herself. All was quiet for a few mins and then she cried again but not bellowing as before etc. She finally settled properly at 11:15pm. She woke at 2am and I fed her (I was worried about going from 3 feeds to none in one night!) but she didn't really need the feed so tonight I won't feed at all! I put her down again (minus dummy because I couldn't find it) and she woke for the day at 7:45am.

That sounds a great result for a first night!

Sounds like progress - I would keep up the other feed at the minute and give her a few nights to get used to the first change. The bf is comfort as well as Milk.

I used this method to get DD to go to bed without feeding to sleep and although it worked within 30 mins and by night 3 we had instant peace it can go backwards when they are poorly. I was up most of the night last night and just knew leaving her to cry would not solve the problem. It is a real learning curve for both of you and is not the quick fix many think it is. If you are consistant in your approach you will see good results though.

Good Luck for tonight!

ah yes - I did wonder about keeping the 1-2am feed but then I wondered if that would then confuse her - i.e. some times I come to her and sometimes I don't - she doesn't know what time it is and I wondered if it would be sending mixed messages? What do you think?

If she wakes at regular times it does tend to be habit as well as hunger so if you break the habit of that first feed then you might find she has learnt to self settle and won't bother with the others by herself within a week or so. This is certainly what we found. We "fixed" bedtime and her night wakings improved dramatically. So much so that I have never done CC for night wakings.

Although now she is moving around her cot I have a whole new problem to fix because she calls me to come and lie her back down!

We did this recently with ds. He appears to have quickly got the message thankfully.
He would wake before his dreamfeed at 11, then again at some time between 3 and 5 for another.

We did cc for 11pm feed, then for the first week I was prepared to give him a diluted feed of 3 oz in 4 oz water after 3am.

He only asked for it 3 times in the past week, all other nights he has slept through

Thanks so much for replying - it is very reassuring to know that we can mix the CC with the softer approach of just trying to knock out the first feed and seeing what happens as a result of that .

Tonight we took the dummy away - I thought that if she's going through the CC thing for the feeding then we may as well take the dummy and try and crack that too rather than going through that later. Usually she just goes to bed no problems at all. Tonight she started bellowing about 5 mins after I'd left her room and awake in her cot as usual. That lasted for about 10 mins and then she just went out like a light. Fingers crossed. The poor thing, I'm feeling like such a mean mummy

You are teaching her a skill for life. Yes there are other ways with some Babies and Mummys but you have chosen this route for a good reason. Please bear with it, taking the Dummy was a good idea - just do not give it back. If you cave in you have wasted not just time but her emotions too.

Have a look on the Sleep is for the weak thread. You will find lots of Mums with sleep problems and they are a great support! They have started their own blog too but I don't have the link yet!

Hope DD is still asleep, we are having a better night here. DD must have worn herself out at Nursery - First Morning today

You did not say how old she is? It can make a difference with CC etc. Mine is 1 Year in about 10 days time