Does No- Cry Sleep Solution Work ?

If he is only waking up 2-3 times a night, that is pretty good! My daughter has always slept with us, and is exclusively breastfed and I am lucky if she only wakes up 3-4 times. Her sleep patterns have changed every few months. Of doctors who are in favor of AP, most of them say not to sleep train until your child is 1 year old, at least. The reason for more constant waking has to do with development and teething. They don't sleep as well when they are going through physical or developmental growth spurts. They don't sleep well when they are teething. They need comfort. Not to be locked away in a room. I support you not going for the CIO method. It only teaches them you won't be there when they need you. Makes the child less secure later on. Follow your instinct. I understand your need for sleep. The days when River has woken up every hour drain me and I am not a nice person, but she is a happy, independent, well adjusted baby. So sleep is my sacrifice now. It will not be forever. But it's what she needs for the moment. Follow your mothering instincts. It goes against every mothering instinct we have for our child to be crying and us not doing anything about it. I tried the No Cry Sleep Solution for a little while, but River wasn't ready yet. I'll try again in a few months and see if she is ready. Listen to your baby and listen to yourself. If your baby needs comfort more now than ever because of pain and changes, now is not the time to tell him that you won't be there for him. Remember that it's temporary. Go to bed when he goes to bed. Or have your husband put him down and go to bed a little earlier so you can get a head start. What is your long term goal? A happy, independent child who knows that you will be there when he needs you? Or sleep right now at the expense of your child's emotional well being? I'm sorry if that comes off harsh. I don't mean it to. But when you're sleep deprived, sometimes you have to put it in those terms to yourself to do what's best for you and your baby.
Good luck.

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I would really recommend you read the book before you use the CIO method. Even though many parents say that its hard to let them cry it out its actually( I think ) the easy way out. Its takes commitment and love to help you baby sleep through the night. My pediatrician told me it was like teaching a 2 year old how to drive a car, they are not ready. I highly recommend reading the book she goes more in depth about CIO method and explains it better. Even though it does work for some parents and they say it does not hurt them they are just not seeing it. Babies are more clingy during the day, have more separation anxiety, and later on developmental problems. My son is 8 1/2 months and is very confident of him self because he known I'll be there for him he goes with anyone who wants to carry him and hardly looks back when I say bye to leave he just laughs and laughs.

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Pantleys book works, but you have to have patience and it is a process that takes a few weeks, because you have to figure out what your baby responds to. But I recommend having compassion for your son, giving him respect, and using it. We never let our son cry it out and we're so happy that we didn't. Your son may be either feeling his teeth come in, or have reflux, or have somethinge else going on; ours started getting ear infections. Ear infections and reflux are aggravated by laying down. My sister-in-law had her baby crying it out while she was suffering from reflux, and in a lot of pain. I'm sure the emotional stress added from having non-responsive parents added to the overall condition of fear and acid production. I also work full time, my baby was exclusively breastfed until 9 months (lots of pumping!), and know that it's hard; but you will feel better if you know you didn't make your son suffer. There were a couple of times when we were too exhausted to get out of bed and he had to cry for an hour or so. THe next day he was wary of us, and whiny, and it made me committed to finding other ways of helping him make it through the night. Also at his first daycare (we later switched), they would ignore him when he cried, and we would find him purple with screaming. This made him fussier all around, for eating and sleeping as well as general behavior. At his new daycare they are nurturing and attentive, and he is an angel again, and relaxed, and easy to read. When I knew what to look for, I realized that there were always reasons for his not sleeping, that could be dealt with (such as teething (give tylenol), illnesses, etc). Now he sleeps about 10 hours a night. Western culture is the only one that thinks it's OK to make your kids cry (scream) it out; we're also the only ones who have widespread bad terrible two's and teenagers who hate their parents. Knowing, listening to, and responding to your childs needs is a continuum that starts now, and lasts for your whole life together, whichever way you choose to handle it. This is a wonderful time of responding using your deepest instincts, that is like no other way of knowing in our life. Best wishes for a cozy close life with your son.

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That sounds EXACTLY like my son, who's now 9 months old. Like you, I also was hoping that the Pantley book would work for us. Unfortunately it didn't, and it took me four more months to get frustrated enough to try something different. We did something called graduated extinction where you put him to bed, let him cry for 3 minutes, then go in and soothe for about 30 seconds. We did this every three minutes for about an hour before he finally fell asleep on his own. The next night, we waited four minutes, and he took 45 minutes. The following night was 5 minutes, and it took him 35 minutes to fall asleep. By the fourth night, he fell asleep by himself within five minutes and didn't wake up the rest of the night. Since then (it's been a couple of weeks), he goes to sleep every night within five minutes and very rarely wakes up during the night. When he does wake up at night, he usually will put himself back to sleep within about a minute. I will say, though, that the first few nights of crying were VERY difficult. It helped knowing that we would be going in to soothe him in just a few minutes. I'm glad we did it, though, because we were bringing him into bed with us every night, and while he slept well, neither my husband nor I did. Good Luck!

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I have also read that book and used some of the techniques to get my two boys to sleep (8 months and 2.5). My boys were also exclusively breastfed and I consider the CIO method cruel and unusual punishment for our babies! The absolute most helpful thing that I found was not a method but my husband! When my first son was almost 1 we decided that it was time to end nightime nursing so we could all get a little more sleep (we all share a king bed). We started out by having a very consistant evening routine, and when he did wake up my husband would take him, offer him a drink of water, and console him agian until he fell asleep. I tried to help but it was worse with me because he knew that I could nurse him and would just get really upset. It was a ROUGH couple of nights (3 to be exact) for my husband but once it was done and over with we were all greatful and sleeping much better. My son did not continue to wake up during the night after those few nights. Good luck to you!

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