CC help with a 7mo!

[Naetha]

Pleae help me - I'm trying CC, but I don't know if I'm doing it right, or even if it's the right thing to do in this situation!

DS is nearly 7mo, and got a cold about a month ago. He got over this, but got in the habit of waking several times a night. Last night he woke at 11, 2, and 5am - each time he woke up I went in, and he fell asleep in my arms within about 30 seconds - if I didn't pick him up he soon went into full-blown crying, with his dummy doing no good. However, once he'd fallen asleep again he'd wake either as soon as I'd put him in his cot, or within a minute of being put down. I'd have to repeat this about 5 times for each waking period, and eventually waited until he'd been asleep on me for about 20 minutes before he stayed asleep.

At 10:30 tonight the same thing happened - he hadn't taken much milk at bedtime so I gave him another 7oz which he drunk, but still took the best part of an hour to settle.

It's now 2:45 and after two attempts to get him to go back to sleep, he's been crying for 3/4 of an hour. I've been returning every 5 minutes, putting him on his back again and giving him his dummy. How much longer is this likely to go on for? When should I call it a day and let him go to sleep on me? Am I going back to him too frequently? My visits don't stop him crying at all, just make him cry more when I leave again.

Help me!

The 3 hrly waking is a normal sleep cycle. your baby is behaving in a normal way for his age.

3 am in the morning is one of the hardest times of the day to make any commit to anything.

if your instincts are telling you to pick up your baby, your instincts are right. we are mothers first.

I know nothing i have said so far will solve your problems.

If the crying thing is getting you down and are looking for gentler ways of reducing his waking, there is a book called the No Cry Sleep Solution which a lot of people find helpful in that it empathises with the mother and the baby. It doesn't have a one size fits all solution but it helps you to define what may work for your baby with few tears from either of you.

It also tells in an idiot proof way how sleep patterns change over the first year with your baby. The period of his life when his brain is developing and changing the fastest it ever will do in his life.

In truth I don't mind him waking up, as long as he settles reasonably quickly, but I can not sleep when he is asleep on me. (and it's also not a habit I particularly want to get into, although I don't mind it once in a while if he is in genuine distress)

For the last month now (two weeks of which he had a cold, so fair enough) he has had this sleep pattern, and I have been functioning on minimal sleep (approx 3 hours a night). I can't go on for much longer, so although I like the idea of working through this difficult time with him, in reality it can't happen. If he is fed, warm, clean and has jus been cuddled and I am in danger of dropping him I am that tired, then something is going to have to give, and it's going to have to be him. And although part of me wants to rush in (the heart shall we say) the head part of me is telling me that he needs to learn how to handle night times.

I borrowed the NCSS from a friend recently, and although I didnt' read it cover to cover, much of it either didn't apply, or didn't work with my DS. I'll give it another try, but didn't really think it was the book for us.

Oh, and he fell asleep 10 minutes after I posted and didn't wake until 7:15. Although I'm aware that part of that was being knackered from crying for 3/4 of an hour.