Has anyone had success with the No Cry Sleep Solution?

cassoppea

Sorry, another sleep post!

I bought this book with high hopes that it would help break my LO's nurse to sleep issues, frequent night wakings, etc.  I have really tried the methods mentioned in the book and, while some have worked (bedtime routine, looking for first signs of sleepiness), the overall sleep situation in our house still isn't good.

Anyone have success with this book?  Any advice?

If you didn't have success and tried something else that worked, please recommend! 

 

amanda1680

I liked NCSS, but I found the ideas too vague and I couldn't stick with them.  We are having success with Good Night Sleep Tight.  It has more of a step by step plan and concrete ideas.  HTH. 

kimbo1216

I bought the book for the same reason. It was full of great sleep information, and I don't regret reading it, but it did not work for us. As a working mom, I was just too sleep deprived to begin with and was admittedly too tire, and therefore impatient when it came to trying her vague, often time consuming tips. We often ended up reverting back to our old ways because of it.

So, we ended up sleep training via a method of cio. I actually prefer saying work it out, but that's not a recognized term.

We started in December and A is now sleeping 9-10 hours a night. She naps better and is overall a happier, more pleasant baby. FYI, just so you know where we were coming from..we did not have minor sleep problems either. We never had a good sleeper. It got so bad she was waking 6-10 times a night even while being held. Nursing to sleep didn't even help.

If you want to here more, I'd be happy to explain more. And fwiw, CIO is not this traumatic experience a lot of those that are anti-cio make it out to be. For us the first night was the hardest, but it was so worth it.

cassoppea

Thank you for the responses. 

Kimbo, I felt the same way as you described.  And I'm just too tired to go through all of that.  I am not against CIO at all.  I'd like to hear more about your experience.  I haven't read Ferber's book so maybe I am not doing it correctly, but we did try it for a week and it just wasn't working.

Heres how our CIO trials go: Go through our bedtime routine, put her in the crib drowsy but awake.  She starts crying pretty much right away.  We go back in in increments of 3 min, then 5, then 10, etc and pat/rub her back.. She is still screaming.  (Now she can stand in the crib too so I don't think that helps with the falling asleep)  After 30-60 minutes of this she gets to point where she is hysterical so we take her out and I try to nurse her.  Sometimes I can get her to sleep but as soon as she hits the crib, shes crying again.  On the rare occasion that she does stay asleep after nursing, shes up 45 minutes later and we start all over again!

kimbo1216

Well. I will not to pretend to have read ferber, but I have done a ton of sleep research and know a bit about it from talking to others. I can tell you that you probably won't have much success if you continued to give in and pick her up and feed her after a certain amount of time. If you stick with your increments, it should get less and less each night.

Here's what we did: she was already used to crib, so we were good there. After making sure she has a nice full belly, I (or DH) rock her for a few minutes. When I know she is done eating for sure (a bottle right before bed has jot been a bad sleep association for us btw), and is starting to fight sleep, I use our key words telling her its night, night time, that I love her and its time to sleep. I lay her down, pat her back and leave the room. If she cries, I give her ten minutes to work it out. If after ten mintues, she is still crying, I go back in. I do not pick up. I pat, slush, and reassure her I'm there and above her. I use our key words again and leave. I do this every ten minutes until she is asleep (an hour the of this he first night, not more than 15 over the next week, and not more than ten size then).

If she wakes in the night, its the same routine. She gets ten minutes to work it out. If after ten minutes, she is still fussing, I go in, use key words, pat and leave. I have a stander too, so I often had to lay her down in the beginning also. DH and I would take turns going in even ten minutes as needed.

At first, size she was used to eating overnight, I would go ahead and feed her so long as it was at least a few hors after her last feed. As she started sleep longer, this got pushed later and later. Last week, it was 5am before she'd wake to eat. Now I have gotten her to go to 6am most nights. I use judgment here though. For example, she woke at 5 this morning, and I went ahead and fed her because her cry was a hunger cry, not a fussy cry.

We eventually used this for nap too. It has worked well for us.

Overall, I think it could work for you. However, you have to stay strong--even if it takes two hours. Then, do not feed her unless its been a certain amount of time. You can set this time. I might recommend starting at midnight and pushing it back as time goes on. You will find she starts eating more during the day. At least, that's what A has done.

I really hope this helps. Sorry its so long. I tend to be wordy. Let me know if you have more questions.

FYI...carlaandjames swears by ferber, and I know she would be more than happy to talk about it to. Also, secondary pulse has recently had success using some of the techniques I've mentioned. Hopefully she will chime in with specifics that have worked for her also.

kas80

amanda1680:

I liked NCSS, but I found the ideas too vague and I couldn't stick with them.  We are having success with Good Night Sleep Tight.  It has more of a step by step plan and concrete ideas.  HTH. 

That's exactly what I thought, and also that there were a lot of great ideas for toddler age, but obviously we aren't there yet.

 

march2008

I used certain parts of the NCSS along with some methods in the Good Night Sleep Tight book. Ultimately, we've sort of molded a method of our own that works best for our DD's temperament. What the books did for me was give me the confidence I needed to make changes to our routine and we've been surprised at how quickly DD has caught on to falling asleep on her own, which was our biggest hurdle.

RobinSparkles81

march2008:

I used certain parts of the NCSS along with some methods in the Good Night Sleep Tight book. Ultimately, we've sort of molded a method of our own that works best for our DD's temperament. What the books did for me was give me the confidence I needed to make changes to our routine and we've been surprised at how quickly DD has caught on to falling asleep on her own, which was our biggest hurdle.

this is us..and also a little bit of CIO.  I really like the GNST book.  Tonight is only the third night but so far it's going pretty good.  She never had a problem going down...it was more the night wakings that were a problem.  The first night I fully intended to nurse her but never ended up having to.  She's also taken two real naps the last two days which she has NEVER done.  I think the two biggest turnarounds were that we let her cry for 5-15 minutes and she fell asleep before we had to go in(it KILLED ME to hear her cry but I know that she needs sleep and needs to "work it out" as PP said---great way of putting it btw!)...and also that I'm waking her up about 3 hours earlier than she used to.

cassoppea

jenny_jeff:

march2008:

I used certain parts of the NCSS along with some methods in the Good Night Sleep Tight book. Ultimately, we've sort of molded a method of our own that works best for our DD's temperament. What the books did for me was give me the confidence I needed to make changes to our routine and we've been surprised at how quickly DD has caught on to falling asleep on her own, which was our biggest hurdle.

this is us..and also a little bit of CIO.  I really like the GNST book.  Tonight is only the third night but so far it's going pretty good.  She never had a problem going down...it was more the night wakings that were a problem.  The first night I fully intended to nurse her but never ended up having to.  She's also taken two real naps the last two days which she has NEVER done.  I think the two biggest turnarounds were that we let her cry for 5-15 minutes and she fell asleep before we had to go in(it KILLED ME to hear her cry but I know that she needs sleep and needs to "work it out" as PP said---great way of putting it btw!)...and also that I'm waking her up about 3 hours earlier than she used to.

 

If only it took 5-15 minutes with us, I'd have no problem with letting her cry.  But we are going on an hour here with going in every 10 minutes and she's still hysterical. 

It absolutely breaks my heart knowing I can go in there and fix this for her.  I can't imaging whats going through her head - she trusted me and my DH to help her and we have abandoned her in her crib.  I know in the long run its good for her, but right now, its terrible.  This is why I wanted to start with NCSS.  I will look at GNST too and see if that looks like it will work for us.

We are probably coming from a slightly tougher starting point - she is used to bed sharing with us.  She naps in the crib but only for 30 minutes or so.  She is also used to nursing to sleep.  So we are breaking all of this at once.  I'd like to do one thing at a time, but we've been trying since 4 months to break the nurse to sleep association and it's not working.   Recently she's been putting herself to sleep occasionally in our bed.

RobinSparkles81

cassoppea:

jenny_jeff:

march2008:

I used certain parts of the NCSS along with some methods in the Good Night Sleep Tight book. Ultimately, we've sort of molded a method of our own that works best for our DD's temperament. What the books did for me was give me the confidence I needed to make changes to our routine and we've been surprised at how quickly DD has caught on to falling asleep on her own, which was our biggest hurdle.

this is us..and also a little bit of CIO.  I really like the GNST book.  Tonight is only the third night but so far it's going pretty good.  She never had a problem going down...it was more the night wakings that were a problem.  The first night I fully intended to nurse her but never ended up having to.  She's also taken two real naps the last two days which she has NEVER done.  I think the two biggest turnarounds were that we let her cry for 5-15 minutes and she fell asleep before we had to go in(it KILLED ME to hear her cry but I know that she needs sleep and needs to "work it out" as PP said---great way of putting it btw!)...and also that I'm waking her up about 3 hours earlier than she used to.

 

If only it took 5-15 minutes with us, I'd have no problem with letting her cry.  But we are going on an hour here with going in every 10 minutes and she's still hysterical. 

It absolutely breaks my heart knowing I can go in there and fix this for her.  I can't imaging whats going through her head - she trusted me and my DH to help her and we have abandoned her in her crib.  I know in the long run its good for her, but right now, its terrible.  This is why I wanted to start with NCSS.  I will look at GNST too and see if that looks like it will work for us.

We are probably coming from a slightly tougher starting point - she is used to bed sharing with us.  She naps in the crib but only for 30 minutes or so.  She is also used to nursing to sleep.  So we are breaking all of this at once.  I'd like to do one thing at a time, but we've been trying since 4 months to break the nurse to sleep association and it's not working.   Recently she's been putting herself to sleep occasionally in our bed.

I realize it's the next day (I hope you got some sleep!) but thought I should clarify a few things because I realized after rereading what I wrote it wasn't totally accurate.  I TOTALLY have been where you are...like 3 days ago!

The first night she fell asleep right away(the only big change to our night time routine was instead of doing a book and then nursing her, i nursed her and then read the book).  But she woke up about 2 hours later and she was hysterical so we went in every 10 minutes for about an hour...finally after rocking her and sitting on the floor next to her crib patting her she calmed a bit...but started crying as soon as I left the room.  At that point I was running on empty (the previous night she was wide awake from 1am until 5am) so DH sort of forced me to just let her CIO.  I shut the door and (though I was crying too) didn't go up at all...she fell asleep on her own about 15-20 minutes later and STTN only waking twice for the paci!!!  I of course didn't sleep great cause, like you, I felt like I had broke her trust.  

In GNST they encourage a "dramatic wakeup" so when I heard her rustling at around 6am I went in, turned on the lights, smiled and said "good morning, sunshine!" and nursed her to her hearts content.  She was a little groggy and confused because (also like you) she was used to bed sharing.  Up until now when she rustled at 6am I always would bring her into bed with me (DH leaves for work at that time) and we'd sleep in until about 9:30.   I've since learned that this is probably the reason she doesn't take a proper afternoon nap...which in turn is why she doesn't STTN.  Now for three mornings in a row we get up at 6ish and she takes an hour long nap at around 8 followed by a 2 hours nap in the afternoon.

The second night we did the same routine and when she woke up 2 hours later, we again let her cry.  It was about 15 minutes but again she STTN and only woke up twice for the paci.  For her afternoon nap she was asleep for 1.5 hours and then I missed her so we cuddled in bed and extended her nap a little   Last night was about the same except that at 2am she seemed a little more awake so I just went ahead and nursed her...she fell back asleep until 5am and I think the only reason she woke up this morning was due to a poop (argh!).  I actually tried to bring her to bed with me11 just to try and make it to 7am but she was FUSSY...I put her back in her crib and she fell asleep right away!  I'm happy that she wanted HER bed but also a little sad cause I love cuddling with her in bed.

RobinSparkles81

cassoppea:

jenny_jeff:

march2008:

I used certain parts of the NCSS along with some methods in the Good Night Sleep Tight book. Ultimately, we've sort of molded a method of our own that works best for our DD's temperament. What the books did for me was give me the confidence I needed to make changes to our routine and we've been surprised at how quickly DD has caught on to falling asleep on her own, which was our biggest hurdle.

this is us..and also a little bit of CIO.  I really like the GNST book.  Tonight is only the third night but so far it's going pretty good.  She never had a problem going down...it was more the night wakings that were a problem.  The first night I fully intended to nurse her but never ended up having to.  She's also taken two real naps the last two days which she has NEVER done.  I think the two biggest turnarounds were that we let her cry for 5-15 minutes and she fell asleep before we had to go in(it KILLED ME to hear her cry but I know that she needs sleep and needs to "work it out" as PP said---great way of putting it btw!)...and also that I'm waking her up about 3 hours earlier than she used to.

 

If only it took 5-15 minutes with us, I'd have no problem with letting her cry.  But we are going on an hour here with going in every 10 minutes and she's still hysterical. 

It absolutely breaks my heart knowing I can go in there and fix this for her.  I can't imaging whats going through her head - she trusted me and my DH to help her and we have abandoned her in her crib.  I know in the long run its good for her, but right now, its terrible.  This is why I wanted to start with NCSS.  I will look at GNST too and see if that looks like it will work for us.

We are probably coming from a slightly tougher starting point - she is used to bed sharing with us.  She naps in the crib but only for 30 minutes or so.  She is also used to nursing to sleep.  So we are breaking all of this at once.  I'd like to do one thing at a time, but we've been trying since 4 months to break the nurse to sleep association and it's not working.   Recently she's been putting herself to sleep occasionally in our bed.

I realize it's the next day (I hope you got some sleep!) but thought I should clarify a few things because I realized after rereading what I wrote it wasn't totally accurate.  I TOTALLY have been where you are...like 3 days ago!

The first night she fell asleep right away(the only big change to our night time routine was instead of doing a book and then nursing her, i nursed her and then read the book).  But she woke up about 2 hours later and she was hysterical so we went in every 10 minutes for about an hour...finally after rocking her and sitting on the floor next to her crib patting her she calmed a bit...but started crying as soon as I left the room.  At that point I was running on empty (the previous night she was wide awake from 1am until 5am) so DH sort of forced me to just let her CIO.  I shut the door and (though I was crying too) didn't go up at all...she fell asleep on her own about 15-20 minutes later and STTN only waking twice for the paci!!!  I of course didn't sleep great cause, like you, I felt like I had broke her trust.  

In GNST they encourage a "dramatic wakeup" so when I heard her rustling at around 6am I went in, turned on the lights, smiled and said "good morning, sunshine!" and nursed her to her hearts content.  She was a little groggy and confused because (also like you) she was used to bed sharing.  Up until now when she rustled at 6am I always would bring her into bed with me (DH leaves for work at that time) and we'd sleep in until about 9:30.   I've since learned that this is probably the reason she doesn't take a proper afternoon nap...which in turn is why she doesn't STTN.  Now for three mornings in a row we get up at 6ish and she takes an hour long nap at around 8 followed by a 2 hours nap in the afternoon.

The second night we did the same routine and when she woke up 2 hours later, we again let her cry.  It was about 15 minutes but again she STTN and only woke up twice for the paci.  For her afternoon nap she was asleep for 1.5 hours and then I missed her so we cuddled in bed and extended her nap a little   Last night was about the same except that at 2am she seemed a little more awake so I just went ahead and nursed her...she fell back asleep until 5am and I think the only reason she woke up this morning was due to a poop (argh!).  I actually tried to bring her to bed with me after changing her, just to try and make it to 7am, but she was FUSSY...I put her back in her crib and she fell asleep right away!  I'm happy that she wanted HER bed but also a little sad cause I love cuddling with her in bed.

Anyway, sorry for the SUPER long post but I just wanted you to know you aren't alone in your feelings.  I couldn't let you think that it was so easy for me (and I still am waiting for a regression!!!).  I even think I will just go ahead and take her morning nap with her cause I miss cosleeping so much already!  I feel like she sleeps so much more now that I'm missing cuddle time (cause when she's awake she is a mover and a shaker! lol)  I strongly encourage you to read GNST because it's non-CIO but it's a step by step plan which for me was more motivating that NCSS.  Good luck!!!

cassoppea

Thanks for your responses. I guess no one has really had much luck with NCSS since most of you have said you have to modify it or use something else. Well that makes me feel better since it didn't work for us either! Last night was the same story a usual. Crying for and hour until she actually fell in her crib from standing and bumped her face. At that point we gave up. MH brought her into bed and she fell asleep in like 3 seconds. So ultimately she cried for over an hour for nothing. And she hates her crib even more now since she hasn't had to sleep in it. I know that this is totally my fault because I'm not sticking to any sort of plan. I would like to check out the GNST book since it seems to have worked for a lot of you ladies. I know it will involve some crying an I'm ok with that. After the hysterics last night I realized I just might not be cut out to do CIO with her just yet.

RobinSparkles81

cassoppea:

Thanks for your responses. I guess no one has really had much luck with NCSS since most of you have said you have to modify it or use something else. Well that makes me feel better since it didn't work for us either! Last night was the same story a usual. Crying for and hour until she actually fell in her crib from standing and bumped her face. At that point we gave up. MH brought her into bed and she fell asleep in like 3 seconds. So ultimately she cried for over an hour for nothing. And she hates her crib even more now since she hasn't had to sleep in it. I know that this is totally my fault because I'm not sticking to any sort of plan. I would like to check out the GNST book since it seems to have worked for a lot of you ladies. I know it will involve some crying an I'm ok with that. After the hysterics last night I realized I just might not be cut out to do CIO with her just yet.

Actually it doesn't!  We are letting her cry but it's not actually part of the book...I took from the book what is helping but not all of it...if you follow the book precisely, there isn't actually any crying.

kimbo1216

cassoppea:

I would like to check out the GNST book since it seems to have worked for a lot of you ladies. I know it will involve some crying an I'm ok with that. After the hysterics last night I realized I just might not be cut out to do CIO with her just yet.

I agree.  Cio is something mom and dad have to ready for also.  It sounds like GNST might be better for you (at least from what I know about it).  I hope it works for you.

FYI...Amanda1680 has been using it after giving up on NCSS.  I think it's working for her if I remember correctly.