anyone had success with no cry sleep solution?

[lifeintheshwa]

(new here... hi!)

I have a lovely, delightful, funny, cute, adorable, high needs little 4 1/2 month old boy who does everything fantastically well and developmentally appropriate, except sleep.

Anyone try the no cry sleep solution and have success (even some). Last night wasn't too bad with him being up every 2-3 hours and I was able to get him to go down again quickly (which is an improvement from the over the holidays 40 minute stretches) but lawd do I need some more, decent sleep.

Any luck?

[KerryS]

Have you tried cosleeping? Waking every 2-3 hours is a GOOD night's sleep in our house. But because we cosleep, it doesn't hugely affect my own sleep when he wakes hourly to nurse.

[lifeintheshwa]

I was co-sleeping exclusively but I'm a light sleeper and my son seems to have inherited daddy's noisy sleeping habits and all his stirring woke me up, plus and he wanted to nurse every half hour. I found the more sleep deprived I got (4 days without being able to sleep a wink) the less co-sleeping worked for me. I think it's great and appreciate the suggestion, just found it didn't work for us.

He now sleeps in a crib beside our bed and sometimes when i nurse him at night i don't bother putting him back into his bed but am trying to be more vigilant about it. this am he only came into our bed at 6am but he's yet to spend a whole night in the crib.

He just woke up from a good nap (nursed him back to sleep partway through) and i think we're on the right track but need encouragement.

How old is your wee one?

[KerryS]

My baby is 10 months.

I've coslept with all three of my children. My daughter continued to wake every 2 hours until she was 3 years old. I night weaned her at that time, which helped. In retrospect, I wish I had done it sooner, but I'm not a fan of any kind of sleep training or external manipulation of sleep patterns until they're closer to a year, or at least taking a fair amount of solid foods.

[lifeintheshwa]

It takes me a long time to fall asleep, and even more so when I'm sleep deprived and it becomes a vicious cycle of he didn't sleep, so I didn't sleep, and it spiralled into some pretty nasty insomina (yay good drugs, taken as directed!)

I'm not looking for the "he sleeps 11 hours" kid and actually enjoy nursing him at night... if he went every 3-4 hours I'd be completely fine with it, just when it takes me more than an hour on a good night to fall asleep I'm really only getting an hour or two of sleep at a time. It may sound selfish but it's been really hard on me as I've never been one who could go without sleep.

I make sure to get exercise and fresh air every day which helps with my sleep (and probably his) and no cry sleep solution really to me isn't hardcore sleep training by any means, it's really just ideas you can use to help baby sleep longer at night. The author's quite plain that she co-sleeps and recommends it but it really had me at some pretty low points.

[KerryS]

I hope you're able to figure something out!

[cream_city]

The no-cry sleep solution didn't work for us, but my son is pretty stubborn! Really, even now he has trouble sleeping (he's six). He sleeps all night, obviously, but gave up naps early and has trouble falling asleep.

Do you have a partner who can help at night?

[lifeintheshwa]

He does, and is really great about it, but isn't as good at putting him back down as I am. He takes our son for long shifts on weekends so I can sleep (bringing him up to nurse) and once our son is fed for the night and down he draws a bath for me to just relax. I appreciate the input - I think my son is pretty stubborn too.

[MiMi_of_4]

I don't have any advice, but do agree with Kerry about waiting a bit longer if possible. I also wanted to welcome you to the board!

[KerryS]

I think my son is pretty stubborn too.

FWIW, I don't think it's at all unusual or abnormal for a 4mo child to wake every 2-3 hours at night. I'm sure that doesn't help you with your sleep deprivation, but it sounds pretty developmentally normal. I would hesitate to attach a behavioral label to it.

[lifeintheshwa]

yeah, if he consistenbtly went 2-3 hours i'd be ok with that; last night was the best night in weeks... he wakes up more frequently than that usually hourly give or take 20 mins.

I base the stubbornness on other things he does, and he likely comes by it honestly from both parents. :)

Thanks for the welcome.