Is anyone out there PRO controlled crying please????

[gd1976]

I have been advised by my HV to do controlled crying. My 6 mth old wakes every 45 mins sometimes more, somtimes less in the night. Having spent weeks ruling out all the usual things- hunger, cold, hot, dirty nappy, wind etc. we think he just wants us to go in and put the dummy in. He often sleeps without a dummy but in the night if we go into him when he starts crying and put the dummy in he goes straight back to sleep.
I would like to try controlled crying, but having done some research on mumsnet it seems everyone is very against this and seems to think it will have a lasting pyscological effect!
I would be grateful for some advice...

I should probably add my voice to being pro-CC after my experience over the last few days (although I can't say anything about the long term).

DD is nearly 8 months and since she was 3 days old, we've co-slept with her latching on every hour or two during the night. We moved her to her cot in her own room full time a week or so ago in the hope that everyone could get some sleep and I was still getting woken up every hour or two and had to go feed her back to sleep (she refuses bottles so DH couldn't really help).

Things came to a head on Saturday when she was up at 10pm/12am/2am/3.30/4.30 (when I cracked and brought her back into the bed where she grazed until 7), taking about half an hour and a feed to settle each time. I was so miserable/melodramatic the next morning that me and DH decided to give CC a go.

Sunday night I tried CC (2 mins/5 mins/10/20/20 etc). It took an hour to get her to sleep, I fed her at midnight when she woke up because I didn't want her to go hungry when she was used to eating all night. She woke up about 4am and needed to be left to cry to resettle, then she fancied breakfast just after 6am. I was terribly pleased when she was still smiling at me the next morning because I felt REALLY guilty!

Last night she slept through from 8pm-8am, came into my bed for breakfast then catnapped until 9.30. She has never slept more than 4 hours at once. I am still

Hoping I haven't jinxed things, touching wood etc :o

I've just done C.C. on my 6 month old DD after having a torrid day with her, but has really been going on since day 1 and getting worse. I suppose I have done it as the last straw and time will tell how effective it has been. I've been struggling to get her have daytime naps and have always had to feed her to sleep, co-sleep during the night but she never seems to be settled for more than a couple of hours at a time. Usually shell cry again within 40 mins of going down, but lately its been after 20 mins and the slightest noise would waken her up.

I put her down for a nap at 5pm, feeding her to sleep then she woke up, so I left her to cry while I did tidying up etc in the hope that she would go off herself. She'd be exhausted by this point as she had only had catnaps all day and had been awake since 6. However, she didnt and I picked her up and nearly had her sleeping on me when DD1 crept in. DD2 woke up, I ended up shouting at DD1 and her friend so I thought that I really was going to have to be firm and see it through.

After her bath and feed she feIt was quite cathartic to get this down and reading through the earlier posts I am resolved to keep going with it. The part that resonates is that I need to think of the whole family. It's not fair to keep getting annoyed with a 6 year old cause she is wakening up her sister.

Will get back later on. This is as much for me than it is for you avid reader!

Feel really bad but hoping it will work out for the best.

i've used cc and have to say i'm a fan off it

dd was about 7months when we started it, tried everything, i was getting ready to start putting whiskey in her bottle

first night she screamed for about 30mins, now its about 2 mins max!

to me its the lesser of 2 evils. my choice was have dd crying all day because she was tired (with me being grumpy because she had been up all night) or have her crying just before bedtime

Bumping this as thanks to 4 month sleep regression hell I may be putting it to the test in a few weeks / months...!

no expert but have used cc adapted to each of 4 children think its worth it in the long run if the alternative is extreme tiredness.

Extra tip- i used a sippy cup of water for dc 3 and 4 to sit them up in cot and let them sip to rehydrate after crying and lie back down. after a couple of nights it seemed to calm baby (6 months) and they each started to lie their own selves back down after a sip. at least ruling out being thirsty = 1 less thing to feel guilty about.