NCSS-wish me luck

I'm starting NCSS techniques tonight after probably a month of 1-2 hourly wakeups from DD, from the moment she goes to bed. I'm getting tiiiiired.

Any success stories to keep me positive and motivated?

Oh Saffy that is tough. Good luck with it. NCSS is a lovely approach and hopefully DD will pick up the cues and draw out her waking times for you all to get some better sleep. I used her gentle nipple removal approach with DD with some success which made us all a lot happier.

good luck!! I read the book but found I basically did the stuff anyway, just not as strict with it. too often I would take the easy way (just lay down and bf and sleep etc) when it warms up here I am going to move her to her own room and plan to revisit ncss and use the methods in it
let us know how you go.

I used the nipple removal (Pantley Pull-Off) method too, with success. Didn't get any big changes from any other techniques though, time was a bigger factor here. Oh, the tip on trying to bank some sleep any way you can before trying to make changes is a good one too. good luck

He did you go Saffy?

Pretty good! Got a few 2 hour stretches in the early evening so had gotton 4 hours sleep by 2pm which is a lot more than the night before, she probably woke 1.5hrly after that but came into my bed at 4.30, fed once then slept til getting up at 6.30 so that was good. We had a big storm overnight that was very loud and woke me up so not sure if that was waking her too.

I feel like it went well with me doing a consistent approach- with a BF/ pull off and put in cot straight away. I had already been practising the Pantley Pulloff, so she went well with that, most times stayed off the first time, and going straight into the cot worked sooo well I was shocked, she went straight to sleep just about every time! I had built a nest on the nuirsery floor out of pillows and doonas thinking i would have to sleep on there at some point ( our spare room is being done up and the bed is in pieces) but I went straight back to bed each time.

Also, Dh and I got to watch an episode of Breaking Bad with only a 2 minute interruption to settle her- thats a miracle!

So feeling positive about it all, still had 7 wake ups but the settling was quicker. I gave her 'full' feeds at 10 and 2 when she woke cos I was nervous about going cold turkey for my boobs, not sre if that was the right thing too or not- I'm expecting to still feed her overnight anyway - just hopefully 1 or 2 times not 7 or 8 :lol:

Thats awesome! Keep on trucking! I have had some success with it, but it takes time. Like weeks and weeks. But worth it.

yea I think thsts the key. consistency. keep at it!

I'm doing similar at the moment. Except, patting and shhing DS (13mos) in his rather than in my arms. NCSS has been a big help.

Good luck! I've been doing it nearly a week now and DS has gone from 1.5hrly wake ups to sleeping from 7.30pm-midnight-3.30-7am.

oh wow thats good Charlotte.

I just put her in her cot, I thought she was nearly asleep, but she woke up giggling, flipped over onto her stomach, fossicked around a bit and eventually fell asleep after 10mins- I'm amazed!

Yep, DS is a wriggler in bed. I find there is nothing more frustrating than being giggled at during settling. :)

When we first started settling DS was taking an hour to fall asleep. He now settles between 10-25 minutes. I'm hoping that eventually he will settle on his own, or at least sleep all night.

one of my problems was interfering too much, eg if she did wiggleand half sit up etc I would lay her back down, ive stopped now as I worked out she was getting comfy, like a dog walking in circles she does the same.
in saying that we have only gone from 1-2hr wake ups to 2-3 msybe 4 hour wake ups over night....

How's it going Saffy?

Sorry for my rude silence- our internet at home has been broken for a week, such a saga to get fixed :wall:

Anyway, we are going great! It is time for my 10 day assessment lol, and I can report we now have 3-4 wakeups instead of the 8+ we were having when we started. I am under no illusion it is anything I have done, but because I put her in the cot when she was awake the second night and she rolled onto her stomach she has decided she is now a tummy sleeper ( she slept for 4 hrs straight that night :dance:) and sleeps soooo much better. I also think there was an element of time as a factor too, ie she might have been settling into a better sleep pattern anyway.

We have had a challenging week, so it makes it even more amazing. DD got sick about 4 days after I started with a virus/fevers, then just as she was recovering i gave her some tinned salmon which she had a reaction to ( projectile vomiting) and then as soon as that settled I got sick ( all this with no internet - yay :o) but we are all on the mend now. There was afew nights when by 4am she was on the boob contiunually for about 2-3 hrs but I guess she wasn't well so she was allowed to do whatever she wanted.

So basically I have had to abandon most of the techniques- the last few days she would NOT come off the boob at all even if she was practically asleep- and naps are not complying with the NCCS at all, but I am still putting her to bed at night slightly awake and she goes to sleep by herself. I think I will restart after the weekend but to be honest I can easily manage the way it is now- she goes to bed around 6.30, then wakes at 10.30ish, 2ish, 4ish ( comes into bed then) and probably has another feed around 6/6.30. i still go to bed early so by 4 I can log about 6 hrs sleep and if I get any more thats a bonus ( DH gets up for work at 5 so I often don't sleep much around that time).

I feel like a new woman!

thanks for asking, hope anyone else is going well too- its a great book to reread constantly to get reassurance and reinforce what you are doing :D

Ah tummy sleepers. I have one of those. Good news is once they are in a better pattern it becomes an instant sleep cue. As soon as I roll DD2 onto her tummy in bed, she goes still, preparing to drop off.

Hope it continues to go well once everyone is healthy!

Great to hear. And your goal shouldn't be to 'sleep solidly by herself for 8 hours' the goal is to be something that you and her are comfortable and happy with, which soy do like you have =)

yeah I'm happy with the way it is at the moment, would be good if the 2am feed could stretch out to 3 or 4 which it did one night ( I woke up after 4 hrs asleep and panicked!!!!) but its definately better and that can happen later anyway- she is only 6 mths after all, well 7 months next week.

Hmmm yes, tummy sleeping is a god send at the moment, I realised one night she wasn't settling in my arms for ages that I should try putting her down and guess what, zonked within a minute, i was a revelation, she definately sees it as a sleep cue. Mum said I was a tummy sleeper but that was the 70s so I just thought all babies were then.

hey, saffy - how'd you go with this? I borrowed the book last week & plan on reading this w/end. my little guy is 9 months now & his sleep has been all over the place since around 7/7.5 months. now it's getting a bit redonk, the longest stretch last night was 2.5 hours. I'm wrecked. he settles fine at night, dinner, bath, boob, book & popped in to cot awake - goes to sleep quite happily. sometimes I can settle when he wakes, just a quick 'it's ok, shh, time for sleep', pull his blanket up & walk out. Other times he will not settle without a boob... the time in between boobs is getting shorter & shorter... :-/

Oh hi Andie, sounds tough!
Once she started sleeping on her tummy she was much better so I abandoned it, and over the next months things gradually improved with the usual setbacks of wonder weeks, illness etc. 9 months wasn't a great age but by 10months it was like something clicked and her sleep was a lot better ( not from anything I did) and was only waking once or twice a night.

It's mostly been that way up til now-we are currently overseas in the UK for 3 weeks and between changing time zones immediately followed by a severe bout of gastro for her and me, her sleep has deteriorated again and I have been co sleeping since from the first wake up, I'm pretty sure she feeds between 3and 5 times a night. Poor DH not getting any action, I haven't spent a full night in bed with him since we have been away.

I was actually just thinking about revisiting it when we get home, but was also looking at Jay Gordon's night weaning program. I think that one is only for over 1 year olds though. Will try it if things don't settle when we get home, I can do 1or 2 wake ups but any more is getting too much and don't think I can do another year of it.
Any program I think takes a longtime, you have to put in the hard yards initially so I will have to choose my time carefully.

I'll reread my book when I get home, it's a good read and it makes you feel relieved when you read it that you aren't the only one. The advice is practical as well and you can pick and choose what suits. Best of luck, I'm looking forward to getting back to some sort of routine when we get home, after the jet lag settles of course.

yeah, it is tough atm... i'm losing my mind a bit. last night I got 2 x 2 hour blocks of sleep. it's not enough for me to function during the day & my little one has little bags under his eyes too today. definitely time to try something. I keep thinking he is just going through a phase, he'll grow out of it. which of course he will eventually. not before I go mental from sleep deprivation though. :o

gastro is no fun... I hope you & your little one are ok now. I can imagine you're looking fwd to getting home, everything seems so much easier when at home & in your own routine. had a little smile about your lack of 'action', I don't think my dh even knows what his bits & pieces are for anymore... decoration?! ;)

Yikes 4 hours is not enough!

He will grow out of it but you need to do something in the meantime, can't go on like that. It's hard to get the energy to do anything when you are exhausted. Once we settle back home I will need to bite the bullet, DH won't put up with much more, he is sick of me being in a bad mood about her sleep. She is taking over an hour to feed to sleep at bedtime, I was in the foulest mood last night when I finally got her to sleep, put her in the Portacot then she immediately woke and stood up screaming, so I had to start again.

Have you read the book yet? I looked back over the diary I kept before I started and she was waking 7-8 times on average, got it down to 3-5 pretty quickly which doesn't sound great but a big improvement. Even if you can get one 3-4 hour sleep out of him, it makes a difference ( I used to go straight to bed when I got dd to sleep to clock up as much as possible early in the night)

Hope you manage to keep your sanity a bit longer and get some shut eye :-)

jeepers.. an hour to feed to sleep, no wonder you are in a foul mood afterwards. that must get a bit draining. especially when you have to start all over again when she wakes when transferring her. when you reduced the wakings down to 3 or so a night, which techniques did you try, just the pull off, or others?

I have read the book now, think I will try the pantley pull off & getting him up at the same time every day, 7am. his wake up time is anywhere between 6-8am depending on the night he's had. so hoping to reset his body clock a bit. it's strange bc he doesn't feed to sleep for day time naps, or bedtime. just seems to have picked it up somehow during the night. he is now hardly breastfeeding at all during the day, yesterday he went from 8am-6.30pm without a feed. I offered numerous times but couldn't get him to even latch/get letdown happening. anyway, I should probably start a new thread rather than completely hijack yours... ; )

I can't even remember, it may have been her just starting to tummy sleep which improved things.

Don't worry about hijacking, but maybe we can start a twin thread " help solve our babies' sleep issues please"

Not feeding during the day and feeding all night would be annoying. The hour to get to sleep is bad but cos we are away I am giving her the benefit of the doubt, so many things like noise, light, different beds etc that I can't control, not to mention constantly having her naps stuffed up because DHs family believe babies can just nap whenever to fit in with adult plans grrr, but that's also another thread lol.

Be interested to see how you go, I think I started with the pull off technique and putting down slightly awake, although of course 9 months on I am still putting her down asleep argh!!!!!!!

I have been giving my little one the benefit of the doubt too, he got a another tooth a couple days ago, just started pulling himself up on everything (last night he started standing in cot..), it just seems like he has so much going on right now. but like you mentioned, I can't keep going in with 4-5 hrs broken sleep, so I have to do something.

last night was worse. bad mummy moment. I fed him at 3am, changed nappy & put him to bed. usually he just goes to sleep. he was up for another hour, there was crying & I had to get dh to take over. : (

although, I should add I managed to settle without boob at 9.45pm. so that's progress..? :-/

Don't worry about asking DH to help, that is a good idea, I only do it when I am crying in frustration but should get him in earlier so I don't get to that point. Sometimes the babies need a new set of arms holding them too - hugs xx

you started again yet, saffy? how's the sleep (or lack of...) going?

I had 2 days of 12am-6am so thought I turned a corner... not so lucky. Back to at least 3 wake ups (last night was 4). I did stop the pull off technique though, I just can't say no to his relaxed little face when he's all warm & cosy... I'm hopeless! Must start up again...

I was thinking last night of coming in here to see how you are going.

Haven't started as we are home, DD had jet lag for a few days and has had a cold ever since with a foul nose, so just struggling to get through the night. Bedtimes are fantastic though, back to half an hour including reading a book so that's made me happy, the rest of the night is a bit of a shambles. So much better to be at home though, I am much more tolerant. Made it til 2 last night before co sleeping but I can't go to sleep before 10 and she is waking at 1130, so I am feeling very tired during the day. Might read the book though, I haven't looked at it yet.

12-6 sounds good, pity it hasn't lasted!

half an hour sounds much better, glad you got some time back. must give you a bit of patience to continue to work on the wakings?! can you sleep during the day? im hopeless at it, I really need to try and grab 20-30 mins if I can though.

No, funny thing is I used to be the queen of nana naps pre baby. DD naps at 12 which is too early for me, I crash about 4 when she is in full feral mode so I don't really sleep during the day.

Love how you can't resist his cute face!!

I crash around 3pm, with the hour of power being 4-5pm. Don't want to speak too soon but my little guy has woken at 12.30am & 5.45am two nights in a row. I've been going to bed at 9.30pm & I think I feel a tad better. Still had to get up at 3.30am last night to take nurofen for a splitting headache. must drink more water.

Ok we're back to normal sleep here-2wakeups, she slept for 5and 6 hours the last 2nights before her first wake up, so I feel like a bit of a fraud when I read NCSS. It's technically a sleep through. I'm still going to read the book, as it does give me motivation, but I might end up doing the Jay Gordon night weaning.
Need to catch up on a lot of sleep first, then summon up the courage to start- it's hard to take that first step when you know it is going to be difficult for some nights!
How are you going Andie?

Wow, that sounds great. Nice one. I hope you can bank some sleep & find that extra bit of energy you need to night wean. It's really hard to face changing anything when you're already exhausted.

We were doing well for a few nights, back to 2-3 hourly wake ups now though. Last night was intense, 10.30pm, 12.30am, 2am, 3.30am, 5.45am. Ok.. so now I've actually typed those times down, it's more like 1.5-2 hourly... :-/ I think he's getting more teeth though, so I'll give him the benefit if the doubt... again... ; )

i think things are getting worse here again... last night he fed at 11.30pm, 3am - then didn't settle. he was awake from 3.30-5am. in the end i had to lay with him in my bed, which is not great bc im not set up for co-sleeping. which meant i didn't sleep until he woke up for the day at 7.30am. he wasn't unhappy as such, just couldn't seem to switch off. half asleep, then popping eyes open and exclaiming 'bah!'. i did have to smile. little ratbag. lucky he is the sweetest thing in the world. i think he's teething, learning so many new things that he was just wired last night. although it did seem like as soon as i lay him flat he would grizzle, i actually propped him on my pillow & he drifted off. im sure that's not good co-sleeping practice... :redface: dh tried for a while, but he doesn't have much luck. fair enough bc its usually me, feeding then ds goes to sleep. but this doesn't seem to be working now. :cry:

Oh foul, I had a night like that when I was in UK, and everytime I tried to sleep DD would hit me or cry to wake me up, it's sooooo hard and needless to say I wasn't finding her cute at all at that stage.

You poor thing, you must be a zombie :-(

yes, zombie is a good word for it. I am desperately hoping for a better night tonight... ; )

Generally for us a bad night is followed by a good one but who knows. Good luck anyway!

I am half way thru eating the NCSS book again, well reading actually but I will leave that mistake there cos it's funny lol, might start up again with the pull off method.

I might eat mine too... do you think it will help?! I really need to start the pull off thingy again too. I'll try tonight. ; )