A bit convoluted... any advice very welcome (co-sleeping / nightfeeding / controlled crying / desperation)

[thepartysover]

My 15 month old has yet to sleep through. I'm still breastfeeding her and she relies on that to fall as sleep / be comforted back to sleep when she wakes in the night (currently 5-7 times in a 7pm-6am period). She sleeps in our bed - I tried getting her to sleep in her cot but chose a decent amount of sleep for myself instead.

Our goal is:

• getting her to take a bottle
  
• getting her to sleep in her cot
  
• waking less during the night
  

We're thinking of attempting controlled crying tonight - in her cot - is it too much to hope for in one go? ie, should we be getting her to sleep in her cot first and THEN trying CC?

Any advice most welcome. I have an older child who didn't sleep through until 20 months... I was determined not to make the same mistakes but seem to be in exactly the same position. Sigh.

[ALittleFaith]

I think this is a tricky one. We did CC. It's not for everyone but it worked for us and I have no regrets. DD was always a poor sleeper and reliant on BF to sleep. We did bed time first - gave her a bottle and I didn't BF her at all. It took 7 (variable nights) to work. Some were awful, some not too bad. Then I did day time naps which was easier. Finally we tackled night wakings sending in DH with a bottle (she refused despite taking a bottle in the day). Within 3 nights she was sleeping through and rarely wakes now - 6 months later.

The key with CC is you have to be consistent though. We agreed to do 2 minutes/4 minutes/8 minutes/16 minutes. We were never going to go as far as 32 minutes but we never needed to.

[lazuli]

I night - weaned DS at age 2. We were co- sleeping and breast feeding. Breastfed until 2 years and 8 months, still co- sleeping now ( 3 and a half). I couldn't face any distress but desperately needed him to sleep through. Used Jay Gordon's method and it worked like a charm.

[Liara]

I second night weaning and jay gordon's method, made it more bearable for me, although no silver bullet. I started out on it and stopped when I felt I had got to something I could live with for the time being.

[caeleth84]

I'd recomment the Jay Gordon method too. It's so much gentler than CC/CIO, and it's a method they're capable of understanding at that age.

[clarella]

My first thought was jay Gordon too. Dr sears talks about a similar method on his website.

Twice ds (19 mo) has had terrible mouth ulcers which stopped him feeding so he actually night weaned himself briefly - to go back to it! We bed share . I must say I do think if I forced it at his age now I think he'd accept it pretty quickly.

To give you a little hope; he really started sleeping a lot better - and 'through' around 16/17 months. We've hit a bad patch cos of teeth but I know it'll pass