Advice on starting CC

[Charlie'sMum]

Hi all,

Our 6 month old DD was once a good sleeper and has now become harder to settle and is waking more during the night. My husband and I would like to try CC.

When we have tried some CC in the past, our DD screams, gets out of her swaddle and kicks off her blankets. She hasn't slept without being swaddled, so I am not sure how to teach her to self settle and to sleep without being wrapped. It seems like she would never stop crying!

Can anyone offer any advice on how to get started and what to do about her kicking off her swaddle?

[tweedledee*tweedledum]

With the wraps, my 2 were starting to wriggle out of them at about 3 months, so what I did was still wrap them, but only their legs and left their arms free, they got used to it pretty quickly. After about a week or so of that, I bought sleeping bags and didn't bother with wrapping anymore. This might work for your daughter. As for the CC, this will probably take longer! You will have to be very consistent in the way you do it. I left them for 5 minutes and would go back in to re-settle them, without picking them up. Then I would leave them for 8 minutes, etc.......Generally they settled within 10 minutes, but your daughter may take longer. Don't go over 30-45 minutes with this, as if she hasn't settled by then, you will have to pick her up and comfort her. Also before you start, make sure she is fully fed, has a clean nappy and DO NOT CC is she is unwell. If all goes well, she should be able to settle quickly within a week or so. But that is going to be a VERY long week for you!!! :thumbsup: Good Luck!

[red crayon]

t*t has given some great advice. my son was the same with the swaddle. he was spending more time and effort trying to get out of it than trying to go to sleep so at 5 or 6 months, i started by just wrapping loosely and also not re-wrapping at night after night feeds. you'll have a couple of days or a week of adjustment but they soon get used to it.

with cc, i went to a sleep school in melb and the method they taught was to go in put your baby on its tummy or side and use whatever techique that works to calm your baby down. spencer loves a back rub, other babies like rocking or patting or whatever. once the baby is quiet and calm, slolwy take your hands off and exit the room. if your baby cries, wait 2 mins and then return to the room and repeat the calming techique. then it goes 4 mins, 6 mins, 8 mins, 10 mins, 10 mins and i think a 3rd 10 mins but i can't remember. if they're still restless, go back to 2 mins and start again. like t*t says, don't go past 30-45 mins, give them a cuddle.

good luck!

[cosmic]

I would just like to say that apparently it is quite common for babies to start to be more wakeful at this age. My DD is 5mths and she has been waking every 1-2hrs between midnight and 5am for the past few weeks. Some nights she is better, some are horrible but I fully expect her to grow out of it. I co-sleep, so her waking involves minimal disruption to my sleep - I basically feed her and we both drift back off to sleep very quickly. I don't feel sleep deprived at all (amazing what you get used to ;)).

I am happy to say I'm passionately opposed to CC so would never dream of using it, especially with such a young baby but you are obviously entitled to do what you think is best. I just wanted to say that I do believe what you are experiencing is fairly normal, and in many cases, CC does work for a short while but when your DD goes through the next waking phase, you will probably have to do it all again!

Also - the AAIMH (Aust Assoc of Infant Mental Health) recommend that if you are going to do it (they recommend only from 18mths+) that you go by the level of distress in the cry, not by the clock and I think that is pretty good advice. :)

[tweedledee*tweedledum]

I just wanted to say that I do believe what you are experiencing is fairly normal, and in many cases, CC does work for a short while but when your DD goes through the next waking phase, you will probably have to do it all again!

:)

I have to disagree with you here. I have twins and since starting CC, I have not had them wake unnecessarily, even whilst teething. For me the success has been very much long term. There has been the odd occasion where one will grizzle for a few seconds, but doesn't wake fully. It is normal for babies to wake during the night, several times, as it is with adults, the idea is to have them be able to settle themselves back to sleep without becoming upset or distressed about it, not sure what is wrong with that?

[cosmic]

T*T, Like I said, everyone should do what's best for them and I'm glad it's worked well for you. I've just heard lots of stories of it working for a while, until the baby goes through another developmental phase and it comes all unstuck.

And I also think there's nothing wrong with babies being able to settle themselves! I personally just won't accept a solution that involves leaving my child in distress for any length of time. There's a great book called "The No Cry Sleep Solution" that gives some great advice for getting babies to sleep through the night without having to leave them cry - which you have to admit, most parents do very reluctantly and only because they don't know of anything else that works.