Gradual Retreat - starting tonight. Any positive stories?

[pollydianasmummy]

We've just gone to a sleep clinic with my nine-month old and have been given a schedule with gradual retreat. dreading it!

Has anyone gone through it and emerged victorious the other side?

Definitely. We tried this when DS was about 2 and it was the only thing that worked. After 2 years of sleepless nights DH and I were like zombies. Found gradual retreat a lot less stressful than other ideas such as controlled crying. Whole process only took 7-10 days. My only advice would be to make sure that you and your partner fully understand what's involved and prepared to commit to it for at least a fortnight before embarking as we had two false starts when I had been almost got to the end of the process when DH (who works shifts) offered to do one of the nights because I was so exhausted and ended up getting DS out of the cot because he was too tired to wait for baby to settle on his own - putting us back to square one! Have to say I could've throttled DH at the time but the main thing was that we stuck with it, started communicating better and on the third attempt by working together from the start we completely solved DS's sleep problems.
Good luck - will be thinking of you.

Thanks themacsmum - well we made it through our first night-. In fact the screaming wasn't as bad nor prolonged as I thought it would be. But I have just been warned by the HV that it might get worse before it gets better. I think you are right that it is less stressful than cc. I'm also hoping it will cure her eating problems (lack of eating I should say) so have got high hopes.

For what it's worth, I too would have been livid if my DH had done that. Last night mine ran up and down the stairs during our pre-bed story waving at her. Grrrrr!

Congratulations on getting through the first night - you know now you can do it - try and remember that when it gets tough. I know easier said than done!
Keep at it and please let me know how it goes!
PS: DH read your post and said "could completely understand the waving thing - your DH was only trying to help" - don't you just love them!

I am planning to start gradual retreat with my dd (11mo) next week. (waiting til then as we are going away for the weekend) Also plan to gradually nightwean. So I would love to watch your progress if you feel like keeping posting! I think I am actually on the way there already as can already sit in the middle of the room whilst she falls asleep, although I have to go back to the cot and cuddle and settle her a few times usually. And I sing so that she knows I am still there. She squeaks if I try to leave the room too early, so I am slightly dreading the point when I actually move to being outside the door. Good luck!

Hi - we did gradual retreat for 4 nights but came to realise that my daughter had swapped food for me being in the room as her method of getting back to sleep.

So on night 5 I switched to controlled crying as a method of getting her off. I felt comfortable going to cc at this stage as she knew she wasn't being abandoned and her crying was out of frustration rather than any fear.

We have now had 3 complete nights of sleep and she now eats properly during the day. Hurrah!

Yes we did it through a sleep clinic aswell although DD was 4 by the time we called them in, took us 3 weeks and now she sleeps wonderfully. Good luck.