breaking a bad habit.... crying down???

[tinkerbell*]

Theo used to be really good at sleeping in his cot, but now he wont sleep unles we rock him in our arms and then we have to wait untill he is in a really deep sleep before we put him in his cot, and evern then he sometimes wakes up and screams his head off.

i i was wondering what peoples oppinions are on "crying Down" how do you do it? how long should you leave them... how long should you persisit for ect ect ect????

any advice would be greatly apreciated as nighttime wakings are getting silly... nearly every 45mins!!! its a killer!!!

thank you

 

[Sherlock]

TBH he sounds like a lot of young babies and wants to be close to you and be cuddled. I'd not say it is a bad habit. Its a natural thing he is doing. Being on his own in the cot is probably not comforting to him hence him waking. Being close to you he hears your heartbeat, smells you, is warm, all those things a small baby understands. He doesn't understand big empty cot atm.

Have you tried a basket? Swaddling? White noise even? Also when you lay him down keep your hand resting on his head for a while till he settles again. Something of yours near him so he can smell you?

Leaving him to cry won't work as he is too young to understand. He just wants his Mum or someone to cuddle him. Controlled crying is only good past a certain age (well over 6 months iirc) and before then its a case of trial and error. What works for one won't for another. We got our LO to settle by 4 weeks and go to sleep in his basket by 6 weeks. But it was a lot of work and patience. And I never did controlled crying ever for it.

 

[LisaJ1986]

All i have for you is these
Angel has just started this phase so i know how you feel! I had an absolute nightmare last night with her. She was fast off, but the second she touch the mattress that was it, all hell broke loose again. This went on for an hour.
I know i haven't given any advice, i just sympathise. I've found sticking her in bed with me makes a world of difference. But i refuse to do it all night as i daren't. I put her in around 4-5am.

 

[CoreysMummy]

At that age I wouldnt leave LO to cry at all pretty much. up till 3 months, we did every no no in the books, rocked to sleep, dummy, you name it. Now at 4 months, he dosent need to be rocked to sleep, he dosent have a dummy, he dosent want to be held/carried all day... they forget as there so young, I wouldnt worry.

Cuddle him, love him, wait till hes older to inforce a self settleing. I doubt leaving him to cry now would do much but make him worse, more worried that you wont come back when you leave him/put him down etc.

 

[newmum]

I think he is too small for the crying down/controlled crying. It really only works on a bit older babies, particularly when their long(er) term memory starts kicking in. How long has he been doing it? Ditto what Sherlock said plus he might just do it for a couple of weeks and then stop again by himself.
We have had a million phases with the night routine thing. One time, for two weeks the only way I could get her to sleep was to push her round the fields in her pram until she went to sleep and then transfer her to her cot. Then suddenly she stopped it. There was a new phase after that but we never had to do it again!

 

[tinkerbell*]

thank you for ya reply. in reply to your post sherlock, we have tired all of these things. we have tried laying dad's T-shirt in his cot as he is a daddys boy, tried putting item of my clothing.

he sleeps inbetween a sleep support whihc is very snug, so he lays snuggled up in that. i often lower him very slowly into his cot and leave my hands around his tummy and resting on his head, i sit there for 15mins untill he has settled, but he only sleeps for 10mins max... and then screams. he then wants more bottle (wont have a dummy) and winding... and then the whole process i spend forever doing this and getting nowhere... not to mention to sleep. and in the day time he wont sleep more then 2hrs in the whole day.
i ask adviced becuase i thought that people on here do cry their babies down??? or use controlled crying???

 

[emma10]

Hi, i agree with the reply's that uve already got in the respect that ur LO is too young to remember the whole controlled crying routine.

Have you tried co-sleeping? it's a great way to get some decent sleep and keep ur LO happy as they feel safe and close to you, i did this until my little girl was 5&half months and then it was into her cot in her own room and we used the controlled crying to get her off to sleep from then, it took two nights and alot of willpower! but it worked a treat... i do believe if we have tried this any earlier i wouldn't have worked just caused alot of upset for all of us coz it is really distressing listening to ur LO crying their eyes out

Hope you get sorted soon

Emma x

 

[kalia]

Try putting a hot water bottle in LO's bed to warm it and the blankets up. Take it out before putting LO in. The midwife recommended this to us and it works brilliantly!

 

[Redshoes]

Isaac was like that and only started to change when he was 5months old and would then take a dummy, so we just co-slept until then, I'd try a dummy every now and then, there are diff makes too, Isaac would only have certain ones. There's lots of other options than CC which I wouldn't do with Isaac until he was 15months I was still doing what you are now, so I know it can have a negative effect if you leave it, but until LO is older I would go to him when he cries, although I know with Ophelia if I've left her a minute she has cried herself to sleep, I don't leave her daily, just its happened a couple of times. Also the sound of a hoover can work, don't know why but its an idea, just keep an eye on your baby if you try it to be certain they aren't upset by it. Very best wishes, I would say co-sleeping is the best option currently for you, but if that's not for you, try anything and everything you're comfortable with, but remember you've plenty time to let LO learn how to sleep alone, don't worry about it

 

[Quill]

any advice would be greatly apreciated as nighttime wakings are getting silly... nearly every 45mins!!! its a killer!!!

Have you considered swaddling him? Elijah would wake himself up often when he was a few weeks old by flailing his arms and/or hitting the side of the basket in his sleep. Then we began swaddling him and there was a big difference. There's a special blanket that makes it easy to swaddle with flaps (I think it's called the Swaddle Me) but you can also do him up with a regular blanket.

It really made a world of difference for us. He knows it's time to sleep now when the lights go down and we swaddle him. I hope you're able to get some sleep soon.

 

[Becky]

DD used to grumble herself to sleep from quite early on. It took me a while (and a nudge from my mum) to realise that it was a different cry and that I was causing mor problems by picking her up. I found that she would grumble for up to 10 mins sometimes - which feels like a lifetime, but that she would go off to sleep this way most of the time. I found that if she was still crying/grumbling after the 10 mins then I knew she needed something else. I also learnt to spot the difference in her cry to know whether she needed anything from me.

My mum says that my sister was the same and liked a good grumble/cry while she drifted off to sleep.