Deep breath.. sleep training starts tonight...

[mmelody]

Ok so we have spent the whole afternoon clearing out the pit of the spare room that DP has slept in on a mattress since DS was born 10 months ago.

DS now officially has his own room and we plan to start some kind of sleep improvement from tonight.
He has never slept thorough the night and wakes frequently and will only BF back to sleep.

Our plan is to offer milk from a beaker when he wakes and to keep putting him back into his cot when he cries. I am absolutely dreading it and will probably go to bed extremely early (earlier than I do already!!)

DP is ecstatic to be spending the night in a bed again and I must admit our bedroom looks lovely and tidy again now its been de-babied.

We really need him to start sleeping better than he does currently as I am back to work in 6 weeks and it would be nice to actually get to do something of an evening instead of running up and dowstairs.

Will post tomorrow for an update... anyone else doing sleep training??
Wish me luck...

good luck mmelody, you are doing really well, thanks for the updates, good luck tonight.

we have had some improvement with amby hammock and occasional dummy use (but not keen on dummy full time for some reason!).

He is just over 10 months

Go for it Mmelody - I am now considering night weaning as well - so knackered and fed up of the night feeds, plus we have a few weddings coming up where I was hoping to be able to leave her at my mum's overnight!

Keep us informed with how you're getting on - so far it sounds very promising!

Night two.. Put him down at 6.30pm and he went straight to sleep.. Woke up at 8pm absolutely screaming his head off.. very unusual as he normally wakes up crying but not quite as awful as that.. tried to comfort with a cuddle but he became really inconsolable and was sobbing loads so I decided to BF him as it just felt like the right thing to do and he seemed to be in some discomfort.. maybe teething.

He woke at 12.15pm,, this was the toughest yet . I cuddled him and offered him water but he really let rip. We did CC with one min intervals and he kept it up for a full 20mins (less time than previously but far more volume!) I nearly caved in but remembered that this would all be in vain.. he went to sleep eventually in his cot with lots of shushing and back rubbing...
He woke at 3am and I prepared myself for the next round of screaming...BUT picked him up and he stopped crying immediately... put him in his cot and he went straight back to sleep
This is the good bit... I heard him grumble at 4am (as usual) but he went back to sleep on his own Which he has NEVER EVER done
Ok so he was up for the day as usual by 5am.. but still some cause for minor celebration!

He came in our bed for a huge cuddle and lovely long BF and all was well again. Another action packed day and have fingers crossed very tightly for tonight.

Im glad you have had some improvement weasle.. Bodkin I feel like there may be light at the end of the tunnel and am so glad we made the decision to night wean... I don't doubt that DS will never be a fantastic sleeper... but even if he did a few 4-5 hour stints we could get back to normal again and actually have a night out.. go for it I say.. (smile)

Well done! Fingers crossed for further improvements tonight.

I have ordered a couple of sleep-training books from the library to pore over before I get started!

With DD1 i just got on with it and it was all done and dusted in 3 nights... DD2 seems to be an altogether more stubborn creature (either that or I'm just a lot softer on her than I was with DD1!)

Ok.. night three was even better.. went down at 6.30, woke briefly at 8 and had BF. Slept till 12.15 and woke up crying.. He settled pretty much as soon as I picked him up but had trouble getting back to sleep and was quite restless so I had to resettle him about 4 times within 20mins.. BUT.. He slept all the way through till 5am.. which is an absolute flippin miracle in this house.. I was awake at 3am waiting for him to wake but I soon dropped off again

We are in complete disbelief.. though there is an air of optimism in the house now that never existed before.. Good luck Bodkin..

That is all very exciting! So basically - your DS went from 8.15 to 5am without a feed.... wow!

Just as I am about to embark on baby sleep boot camp, DD decides she is actually not the world's worst sleeper and just woke the once for a feed at 2.30 last night.. so she has a reprieve (until the next dire night )

How's it been the last couple of nights?

Hi Bodkin, sorry for the delay!
Well DS definately goes off to sleep like a dream now. Bath BF and bed all relatively easily.
we have also managed to keep up the night weaning and just offer water .. the problem is though that he still wakes up a minimum of three times a night.. which I know is marginally better than when we were co-sleeping but a pain all the same. He wakes up crying and has to be cuddled for a while and resettled... sometimes it takes just a moment but at least once a night he takes about half an hour to re-settle and cries
Last night it was 12, 2.30, 4.30 and up for the day at 5.20. Previous nights he has done a couple of four hour stretches which is encouraging... I guess its still early days.

How's it going this week mmelody? I'm lurking and watching with interest!!!!