There seems to be some controversy around Controlled Crying or 'CC' as us mum folk call it for short. What is Controlled Crying? 'CC' is a sleep training technique which encourages the baby to self sooth by being left to cry for increasing amounts of time before being comforted. People think it's mean and to be honest I agree.
Apparently girls are harder to get to sleep than boys, I don't know how true this is but it was definitely the case with the babies from our NCT group. The boys were going to sleep at 6pm and there I was gone 10pm still holding Lylie in my arms. Once the colic eased she would fall asleep around 7pm but as soon as I put her down, the second her head hit that pillow, BOOM baby was awake.
I was hearing my friends talking about what they were getting done once the baby had gone to bed and I was so jealous. Don't get me wrong I love holding my baby. There is nothing I would rather do that sit and cuddle her, I can loose hours just looking at that face. But you know I have got shit I need to do, like clean the disgusting house and order food so we can live.... and maybe shower. So realistically she needed to learn to sleep on her own.
After discussing 'CC' with a friend whose children are older I decided I needed to give this a try. So that night I prepared for a tough ride, and that is exactly what I got. Routine is key with babies, apparently they thrive on knowing what is coming next. Lots of people use the bath as an anchor. Bath, story and then bed. But Lylie has Excezma like her daddy so realistically a bath every day wasn't going to help her poorly skin. So I decided on pyjamas, sleeping bag and bottle while her sleep pal was playing rockabye baby as her evening routine.
The first night it took over an hour to finally get her to go to sleep on her own, every five minutes (I couldn't leave it longer than five minutes) I would go in and settle her down and then put her back down to bed only for her to start breaking her little heart again, and in turn breaking mine. And I am going to be honest I had great ideas of what I would do when she slept on her own in the evenings including blogging, but what did I do? Fell asleep! The next night she went down on her own first time I couldn't believe it. I probably checked she was breathing 100 times! It's been over a week now since I first started 'CC' and no two nights have been the same, however, since that first awfully hard night it hasn't taken me longer than 15 minutes to get the pickle to sleep and she has been down but 7.30pm latest every night! I can't be sure how long this is going to last, and I know that lots of people do not agree with this technique and your opinion is totally yours and that is fine however.... if you are exhausted, holding your baby from 7am to 11pm and you don't know who you are any more I would say it is worth a try, and please let me know how it goes?
The first night it took over an hour to finally get her to go to sleep on her own, every five minutes (I couldn't leave it longer than five minutes) I would go in and settle her down and then put her back down to bed only for her to start breaking her little heart again, and in turn breaking mine. And I am going to be honest I had great ideas of what I would do when she slept on her own in the evenings including blogging, but what did I do? Fell asleep! The next night she went down on her own first time I couldn't believe it. I probably checked she was breathing 100 times! It's been over a week now since I first started 'CC' and no two nights have been the same, however, since that first awfully hard night it hasn't taken me longer than 15 minutes to get the pickle to sleep and she has been down but 7.30pm latest every night! I can't be sure how long this is going to last, and I know that lots of people do not agree with this technique and your opinion is totally yours and that is fine however.... if you are exhausted, holding your baby from 7am to 11pm and you don't know who you are any more I would say it is worth a try, and please let me know how it goes?
I totally get why some people think it's mean, but you have to be selfish and think of yourself in these situations. All the people I know that have done this, have their "me" time come bed time, whereas others (like my sister), spend hours wasted away trying to get her little one to sleep. I think you've started at the right time. Any older and they are harder to "retrain" as such. My youngest niece is two and a half and my sister is only now wishing she'd done it sooner. It's especially hard when it comes to her wanting a babysitter - she just won't settle with anyone else.
ReplyDeleteLove Hannah x || HannahHawes
When I first read this post I agreed it wasn't nice at all, but now I can see your point of view I totally understand and agree it might be the best thing to do sometimes! You're a great Mum Gemma! :) x
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