Hi, I wrote this advice on controlled crying a while ago, thought you could get some use out of it.

Good luck :)

Hi! I couldnt do CC - tried and just made matters worse as I gave in at 2am after 2 hours solid screaming. 6 months later I discovered there was an alternative - the No Cry Sleep Solution. DD1 was sleeping thru about a week after I started implementing it. In some ways it's harder than CC, as you take baby-sized steps and have to keep the big picture in mind. But if you cant listen to all that screaming and get too upset by your baby's distress, then it's worth doing.

With DD1 all I did was to stop feeding her to sleep and to put her in her cot awake and stay there holding her hand until she fell asleep. (There are loads of ideas in the book and you just pick & mix what you think will suit your situation.) She wasnt pleased the first night but she soon accepted it. I havent had the courage to try anything with DD2 yet, but I shall try it soon as Im finally fed up with waking so often with an 18 month old - but I give in when she's teething (which she has been since 4 months!)!

See Advice articles on it

• No-Cry sleep solution
• Alternative to CC

Also try Searching "Controlled Crying" at the top of the page - reading other people's experiences may give you the confidence to go for it. You need to do what's best for YOU, whatever that method is!

Ok, be prepared to be physically held down with this method if you are the kind of mum who goes in as soon as your child cries.  Honestly, my dad had to hold my mum down when my younger sister was started on the road to controled crying.

The key with it is to be consistant and persistant.  Let her start crying for about 5 mins to begin with then gradually over time, extend how long it is before you go in to her.  This teaches her that you aren't going to drop everything for her NOW! and therefore patience.  It is ok to have some teddy bears in bed with her.  Ours does and after letting us know she's awake, Miss 11 months turns around and starts playing with her toys.

Hi

I had to do cc with Madie as i was sick of rocking her to sleep and it was taking longer and longer to do so. It took me a while to bite the bullet and actually start  but im so glad i did she now sleeps 12hrs straight! This is what i did. I would give her a cuddle and a kiss say goodnight put the dummy in her mouth put her down and walk out. As i too cant handle hearing my baby cry i would go sit outside for 5mins so i couldnt hear her and then i would go in and if she was still crying , go in check that she is ok put dummy back in her mouth and say goodnight and walk out for another 5mins and so on. If she was not asleep after an hour i would go in with a drink of water for her and give her a cuddle to calm her down a bit and start again. The longest it ever took was an hour and a half and i started seeing results after 3 days. The crying time gradually decreases until there is little or no fuss at all. The first and second are the hardest and i would recomend having ur partner or a support person there to help u through it . I know its so hard to hear ur baby crying  but it is so worth it at the end. They seem to sleep better when they put themselves to sleep.

Anyways i hope this is helpful. Good luck

I highly recommend going to Tresillian. They have fully trained nurses to help you every step of the way. You can either ring their 24 hour help line, or they have day programmes or you can book in to do a week long stay, which is what I did. For the week stay you do need a letter from your doctor, but that's easy to organise.

I couldn't do it on my own as I had no-one to support me as hubby was at work...and you really need that support as it's hard. Also CC needs to be done right and the nurses are the best people to help you in starting it and give you the confidence to do it on your own, as it takes longer than a week to fix, but I know once I went home I felt much stronger and more able to do it just right.

Good luck

Amanda xxx