No Cry Sleep Solution

I got out the NCSS from the library. There were some great things like good bedtime routines, cuddlies and wind downs which I used and we did use soem of the ideas for getting out of feeding to sleep.

However to be honest I found it really vague on how to actually fix the 1 hourly waking. Maybe if I hadn't be so sleep deprived and depressed we could have stuck it out and she would have learnt to wean herself off patting and rocking. But after 6 weeks we were all miserable and more sleep deprived than ever. I have heard that it works if you give it time, but I haven't come across anyone who has used it successfully. I'd love to read a success story as the principles in it are lovely. If you cosleep maybe it has more success?

sorry to sound negative, but that was my experiance.

I'm the same Linzy and was going to request a copy of the book from the library today as feeling more and more tired by the day and finding bringing him into bed isn't really working anymore as he's still really unsettled and keeps crying out and I'm not sure what's keeping him awake now. I think it's teething, but how long can I really blame teething for?   Or as you say how do you know if it's that or separation anxiety or developmental? I still pat and shush to sleep (and sometimes rock) too as am too tired to move to the next stage. Some how it seems harder now than the newborn stage.

I'm not into CIO or CC either, but also not into not sleeping



Edited by chelle

if you're not into cc or cio and want some ideas the baby whisperer (tracy hogg) website forums are good.

they have lots of really specific ideas there.

I'm with SpecialK. I loved the ideas but found it very waffly and long winded and we never had much success with it. It was passed onto me from my best friend who also liked the ideas but failed to make it work for her. I don't want to put you off though. I agree it could work better for co-sleepers.
Good luck!

I tried it as well with Esme. It helped reduce her night waking (or that could be coincidental) as I reduced the length of her feeds using the NCSS technique. But I never got past that and we are still (5 months on) waking 1-3 times a night. It was a bit vague and I ended up more tired than I would be just feeding her.

The thing is the NCSS isn't a 'stop the night waking' book, it's a book about how to stop them needing assistance through the night book. I think it is a bit of trial and error to find what works for you.

We are a 'success' story...but I think a lot of of it was just the 'right' timing. We actually only had to do one thing, but after 2 months of 5 very broken hours of sleep in every 24 it was the right thing we did. Having said that, it hasn't meant he's stopped waking forever more and not needed our help because he has, the longest stretch we had recently was 5 months earlier this year when we went away and his sleeping went to h*ll in a hand basket. It was 5 months of slowly moving from being IN bed with him, to being able to sit beside his bed, to sitting just outside his door, to sitting in the hallway to being able to walk off for 5ish minutes and come back and check on him.

For us, all we did initially was put him to bed at 6:30 which was an hour earlier than we had been putting him to bed. That night he slept 10 STRAIGHT hours without needing us once, and this carried on for another 2 weeks when he started doing 11-12 hours overnight and a 2-3 hour nap during the day. We had 18 months of 10-12 hours overnight without needing our assistance when he woke (I don't for one minute think he wasn't waking up because everyone wakes in the night), including a month where he was sleeping 7-7 instead of going to bed at 7 and being awake for the day at 5am!

He had just been night weaned the week before he stopped sleeping, a process that we took slowly over the course of a couple of months and to be honest I felt a right idiot for having night weaned him in the first place because it had up till then been the easiest and quickest way to get him to go back to sleep. He seemed to grasp the concept really well though because he seemed to understand that during certain hours he was only going to get a cuddle/pat/rock and not boob unless he was hysterical or sick.

Good luck anyway. We've had a sick child this week and he has so far spent 4 nights in our bed, but slept in his bed last night. He did wake up 3 times last night and have to be put back to bed, where he stayed, but I think that was because daddy was working and he could hear him.

Without resorting to CC or CIO I don't think you can ever truly *stop* night wakings.

In terms of self settling we might slowly be getting there, the thing that I am working on is the connection between DD2 falling asleep on the boob - or rather reducing it, so far so good although we are going *really* slowly with things anyhow. She is far more readily accepting of a quick cuddle / pat / shh / rock when she wakes in the night rather than demanding a feed, although I'm still keeping that 'tool' in my toolbox iygwim? We feed in the night once most nights, I try not to feed her before midnight, but sometimes only boob will do.

*shrug* What will be will be, some kids take to self settling, some kids don't, the same goes with night waking etc etc.

I do believe though, that you will find what works for you both in time *hugs* (though I agree it ain't easy!)

Ben is up now and will go to bed with me once I get off here!
This is the 3rd time he has woken tonight and he was asleep at 6.30pm, waking about every 45min or so. I just don't know what to do. If he slept well in our bed it wouldn't be so much of a problem but at least 50% of the time he still wakes every few hours. If he *only* woke once or twice then I would do cartwheels

T_Rex wrote: I'm going to complete a sleep log this weekend, and I'll post it on here.

OK I might try and do that too, I might even try and keep Ben in the cot as I don't really wake 100% when he is in our bed so probably will forget to write in the log

Will be interesting to read the sleep logs!
I should try and complete one this week too.