Has anyone read the book The No Cry Sleep Solution and tried the techniques? I have a 17 month old DS who doesn't sleep through the night and is still getting a bottle o/n. He was doing really well until he was 9 months old when we went to the UK to visit Nanny and Grandpa for Christmas and has only slept through about 6 or 7 times since we came home in January!
I know that he will get it eventually, I mean lets face it he won't be waking for a bottle when he's 21 right! I do accept him for who he is and I know that some babies just take longer than others but his little sister is due to join our family on November 14 and we would love to think he was in a good solid sleep pattern before she arrives. We hate to hear him cry for us in the dark of night so can't quite get our head around the "just leave him to cry" until he falls asleep technique. I've tried the leave him for 2,4,6,10 min etc etc and once he digs his heels in he can cry for hours because he knows we'll give in and get him his nice warm comforting milk, give him a fresh nappy and pop him back into bed. He does self settle in that he goes to bed awake and goes to sleep OK he just won't stay asleep all night.
I'm thinking we'll give him one more month and then we'll have to try something.
Mine's not the best story to share as Sophia has sleeping issues due to her illness so there is not much we can do about everything but I have tried some of the techniques in the book and found them useful.
I definitely think it's worth a try. It takes some work and time but I feel much better going the gentle route.
I have the NCSS for Toddlers and I have found it helpful. I must admit I did not follow it completely, but I did get some useful tips out of it and some good explanations. No real success story here as we have other issues to contend with such as food additive sensitivities and a bub who is harder than most to wind down, but overall the book has really helped us.
I know this post was made a while back but I just wanted to say that I think you are a wonderful mother. I loved how you said you love him for who he is! What a beautiful thing to say. And your very right in saying it. Do you think he is waking for these bottles because of hunger or because of comfort? Because if it is hunger then maybe see if he will eat more solids during the day, finger food if that helps. Or if it is for comfort then you could think of other solutions. He will eventually get out of it, but he will need help being swayed away from that routine.
I know he's definitely not hungry he eats stacks! For example yesterday he had a bowl of Nutrigrain for breakfast, some cut up apple, sultanas and banana for morning tea,for lunch he had a slice of wholemeal cheese on toast and some strawberries, dinner he had pasta with his favourite homemade apple and tomato sauce, for desert he had yoghurt and some more fruit (grapes, strawberries and kiwi fruit. On top of this he has 1 bottle in the middle of the day plus his bed time bottle (250ml each) and he drinks heaps of water. He's a very active little boy and just burns up his food so he eats really well.
He has started sleeping through a couple of nights a week over the past 2 weeks so maybe we've turned the corner and he'll just get better and better. Now that the weather is starting to warm up here in chilly Melbourne I'm going to start taking him to the park in the afternoon so he can run around with his ball and play on the equipment and see if that helps.
I'm sure he wakes for a snuggle and just associates the bottle and the cuddle with comfort. We'll see how he goes over the next few weeks and hopefully he'll just lose interest in that o/n bottle.
I really liked the book, thought it had some great tips.
The problem for me was that by the time I picked it up, I was absolutely at the end of my rope and most of the techniques need a week or two to work. I was well beyond the point of being able to stick at anything for very long by then, I was so seriously sleep deprived from getting up 4-5 times a night for about 8 months by that point.
Eventually my hubby and I worked out a schedule with him getting up to DS a couple of nights a week. So now DS is STILL waking up all over the place but I am coping better now and not feeling so desperate for it to stop. DH goes to work a bit zonked out a couple of days but he says its worth it not to have to deal with me screaming and crying all the time and I agree. I really was a mess at the end there, hugs to you I hope you sort something out.
Last edited by Tobily; August 20th, 2007 at 12:59 PM.
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No Cry Sleep Solution
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