My first year of being a mum was tough! One of my biggest problems I used to face was my daughter not sleeping throughout the night. I tried control crying when she was 6 months. With this method I felt she was very distressed and my husband and I couldn’t bare to hear her cry. So we stopped control crying.
(I highly recommend buying this book if you are going to try control crying, Teach your child to sleep)
How I put my baby to sleep
I was so exhausted and I couldn’t function the next day as I hardly slept. I used to leave her muslin which was over my shoulder in the day so it smelt of me, in her cot so she carried on sleeping. This worked for a little while until she was 1o months. My daughter become smart and realised mummy wasn’t actually there. After realising I wasn’t there anymore she started to wake up every hour and wanted to feed again! It got to a point where I was literally laying down and she was next to me on the bed, comfort feeding and I would fall asleep. This happened for a few months.
Back to Control Crying
I knew I couldn’t carry on like this, so I seeked advice from my sister in law who used the control crying method on her son and worked. My husband and I had to really think about doing this method again as we couldn’t bare the sound of her cries. At the same time I couldn’t continue without a sleep. So back to control crying…
How I started Control Crying
I kept my normal bedtime routine the same by giving her a bath then dressing her in her sleep suit and putting her in her grow bag. (I highly recommend gro bags as they associate this with sleep)My daughter’s bedtime is 7 pm, which would mean my husband and I could spend time together. I gave her hug and a kiss and placed her in the cot to lay down with her personalised teddy and her feathered Petite Piccolo muslin. I stroked her face and said good night and walked away. That’s when the cries began!
We had the monitor on, so we can see what she is doing. I would go in first every 5-7 minutes and settle her by laying her back down again and saying its ok, and doing the Shhhh Shhh…sound, then I would leave the room again. After 30 minutes went by I would then go in every 10 minutes…one hour went by and still she was crying. I did want to give in and just pick her up, but I really had to stop myself. After one hour I went in every 15 minutes. Finally she soothed herself and went to sleep at 8.30pm. During the night she only woke up once. Result!
It takes 20 days to really train them to control cry, my little one managed to do it in 10 days. On the 10th day, I said good night and put her in her cot and she hugged her teddy and I left the room and heard no cries. Checked the monitor and she fell asleep on her own 5 minutes later.
Tip: When doing control crying do not pick them up from the cot, try and comfort them in the cot by tapping them and reassuring them its going to be okay.
(I bought this beautiful white cot bed from amazon)
