Am I doing this right???

[DIANNEKB]

Well bubs is now 9 months old and has never slept through the night and he wakes anywhere up to 8 times per night... So I have decided as a last resort as we cant get into sleep school for ages to control cry him.

Now not sure if I am doing it right. I put him down and keep going in and sh'ing him and rubbing his back 1st night took 38 minutes to get to sleep but slept till 4.19am!!! Wow he has never done this ... But took him 1.5 hours of crying on and off to go back to sleep. 2nd Night he was in bed by 7pm awake by 11pm took 1 hour of crying to get back to sleep and then woke at 2.15 and took 2 hours to go back to sleep and then he was up for the day at 6am. Now when I go into settle him if I just leave my hand on his bottom he tends to fall asleep... Am I giving him the wrong signal by doing this?? I just cc'd his 1st day sleep and took 35 minutes but I ended going in and putting my hand on his bottom and he fell asleep straight away.... Am I doing this right or wrong???
And you wont believe it just as he fell asleep he pood his little pants but cause he fell asleep I have left him ( Oh I feel so mean for leaving it but I didnt want to wake him after him crying so long) :(

It seems the 1st night was better but last night was harder... How long does it take before you see any difference. As I am in desperate need of sleep as I am pregnant also.

Please help me and put me on the right track.....

[Alisonp]

Hi Dianne,

Here is an excellent link that I found very useful. It has a step by step guide to controlled crying and discusses other options too (see the links on the left margin).

http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/controlled_comforting.html

Sometimes it can take a while to work. From memory ours took about three nights before we had DD sleeping through from 7pm to 6am. Each night was better and better. Between 5 and 7mo DD had been waking many times a night. No matter what I did it didn't seem to help so it was a big relief for us that the method worked so well and so quickly. She still has some periods of waking at night when she is sick but as soon as she is well she goes back to sleeping through the night again.

Good luck and I hope you get some sleep soon :wave:

Alison.