Your experience of PU/PD sleep training

[Cdl84]

My baby is 6 months next week and is fed or rocked to sleep at night then put in next to me crib (which he is outgrowing), but often wakes up on transfer and we start again. Same when he wakes at night (usually fed as easier, but has slept 7 hours in a row on occasions so unlikely that he is hungry at a lot of the wakeups) I am going back to work soon and wanted to move him to his own room but will struggle to put him in the cot asleep so I am considering trying pick up out down.

Has anyone had success with this method? If so how long did the first attempt take before they fell asleep? Just trying to get a realistic idea to reduce my chance of just giving up! I am worried he will get wound up by being picked up and put down so much but I cant leave him to cry on his own so not willing to try controlled crying (at this point in time at least).

Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences.

It distressed minr more being picked up than if I'd just gone in and done a shhh and patted their back and left again. It was like the whole cycle restarted every time I picked up. Probably not what you want to hear sorry!

Didnt work at all for mine. Was just really stressful for us both.

Thanks for letting me know. That's what I was worried about. Think I'll give it a miss then.

Just to provide another perspective - PUPD worked well for us with now 7.5m DD when we did it just after Christmas. Were in similar position where I’d feed to sleep but she became impossible to transfer to the cot. The first night it took about 45 mins and a lot of picking up but it got easier quite quickly and within a week she was settling quickly for naps and the night in her cot - not always completely independently, sometimes with patting/singing/nursery rhymes - but it has sorted the problem of being unable to put her down without waking her. We also moved her to her own room at the same time and although it wasn’t a miracle cure we’re down to 2-3 wake ups between 7 and 7 whereas before it was rare for her to sleep more than two hours in one go. I still feed when she wakes in the night as it’s the quickest solution, put her back down awake and she goes to sleep on her own. So it can be successful! As always depends on the baby I guess.

Hep1211 - did you stick with pupd for start of night, during the night after feeds, and for naps all at the same time? Naps are currently always on me as he always wakes if I try to put him down but would also be nice for him to be able to nap independently as he will be going to nursery 2 days per week.

OP - yes we did it all at the same time. It might just have been that she was developmentally more ready anyway but thought it might confuse things if we were mixing and matching and feeding to sleep/rocking to sleep had stopped working as well as they used to anyway - I spent hours over Christmas feeding in a dark room with white noise blasting trying to get her to go to sleep! The only exception is sometimes if she wakes around 5am I bring her into bed with me and feed and co sleep for an hour or so if she’s not settling in her own as I just don’t have the willpower by that point of the night (and enjoy the snoozy cuddles). Honestly if you’d asked me six weeks ago when all naps were on me or in pram or sling and she was fed to sleep every night I would never have believed it could change so quickly. It was definitely worth it for us. Good luck whatever you decide to do!