You don't have a difficult sleeper who will never change, but you do have a boy who is very dependent on comfort suckling. He does not need to feed for 1 hour at bedtime - even small babies feed quicker than that. He is sucking for comfort and that's what he is looking for at frequent opportunities. One thing is for certain, if you keep feeding him in the night then he is going to keep waking up. CC can take up to 3 hours and by starting it and then feeding him anyway, you are stuck in a vicious cycle and really confusing him. Sit down and have a chat with your husband and decide what you want to do. Are you happy to have some more disturbed sleep until you stop breast feeding completely. Or can you find the strength to continue breast feeding but limit this to a morning feed, a late afternoon feed and a bedtime feed of 20 minute duration. Outside of these times, cc done consistently would be your best approach. Come back with what you decide.

reply by Mentor-Wendy - 5 weeks ago

Wow, 3 hours?!! This is going to be tough. We do want to wean him off night feeds because I'm going back to work part-time in a couple of weeks and need the unbroken sleep. He also needs to take a cup and self-settle for naps because he'll be with a childminder 3 days a week. I'm also hoping to have him fully weaned day and night by November at the latest. (I naively thought he might just stop by himself, but, as you say, he seems determinedly attached!)

Just to clarify, my original post was misleading, I do only feed him for about 20 mins. The whole bedtime routine is between 7 and 8.

So, we've decided to opt for water through the night and cc to get him down and resettling if he wakes.

I have a few questions, though. We started last night and he cried hysterically for 45 mins, then slowed down to a stop at an hour. He then slept through the night to 7. He'd cried himself almost completely hoarse, though and it's so distressing. I'm not doing him any harm am I?

Should we also be attempting this for naps? The last 2 days my husband has given him a cup of milk and put him down for his 11am nap. Yesterday he went down with little complaint (but only slept an hour instead of his normal 2) and today it took 30 mins (still sleeping).

My other question about cc is that every so often we sleep at a friends', at grandparents' house or in a hotel and this throws him completely and he won't settle well at all (despite ritualistically sticking to his routine and trying to recreate his home environment). I can't use cc at friends' because it'll wake their baby, but last time we were there nothing would settle him and I ended up giving up after 2 hours and taking him to bed with me where he finally fell asleep on the breast. Any magic tips for this scenario?!!

reply by sleepy5622 - 5 weeks ago

Hi, you won't do him any harm and the first night is always the worst and it will improve. You should use this for naps to if you need to. If you stick to the CC he will soon learn to self settle in a cot so when you stay away from home as long as he can sleep in a cot, although it will be a strange place, he will know how to self settle and should be ok to sleep the same as at home. Keep us posted.

reply by DT-emily - 5 weeks ago

Hi, thanks for the reassurance.

Since Saturday evenings are getting better definitely. Tonight he cried for only 6 mins and has, so far, been sleeping through the night (fingers crossed).

Naps are still sticky, though. He was good on Sunday and yesterday, but today he screamed for 40 mins and crashed for 30, then refused to go back to sleep and had another crash nap in the buggy later in the afternoon. Will keep at it and hope for some improvement.

I was wondering if there are any tricks anyone knows about getting babies to sleep in the buggy. Max stopped sleeping in the buggy at 7 months (coincided with crawling and with taking away the footmuff as it got warmer). It's frustrating because it means I'm tied to the house for naps and can never travel further than a set diameter so that I'm back in time for a nap! Suggestions welcome!

Thanks.

reply by sleepy5622 - 5 weeks ago