Any NCSS success stories??!

[filewizard25]

I have a 3 month old that wakes up every 1-3 hours all night and has decided that 5AM is playtime. I just got the NCSS book and I'm all gun-ho about starting to use the principles but, everyone on this board seems to hate the book and hasn't seemed to have much success with it. I need some inspiration to keep going.. anyone have any success with NCSS?? Please tell me your story.

[Beauchamp]

I've read the book, too, and haven't really started anything. We've side-carred the crib and DH has started "wearing her down" in the Ergo after nursing. (because right now nursing *doesn't* put her to sleep... ) So, I'm up for hearing some great success stories, too, to get me motivated.

[SLPmom76]

Funny, I posted this same question on another message board! Would love to hear some, as I've read the book several times but have not yet been consistent. Just as I was about to try (my DS just turned 6 months), lo and behold he got sick and is now on antibiotics for an ear infection, which is making his tummy hurt and given him a bad diaper rash! Anyway, would love to here how it's worked for others because I feel like he's just getting worse with his sleep, but hopefully that was just the illness taking over (started getting worse before he got sick).

[NiteNicole]

I liked the book in that it made me feel that I was totally justified in not wanting to let my baby CIO. That part was great. The rest of it was pretty useless. It's a lot of kind of random ideas and suggestions and charting and keeping lists...honestly, by the time I read it the LAST thing I needed to do was fixate MORE on how much we weren't sleeping and look for any little excuse to blame it on.

I'm going to be real with you - a three hour stretch with a three month old sounds pretty good to me. A five am playtime sounds kind of awful but I would try blackout curtains or pushing back bedtime by a half hour. I don't think a three month old waking two or three times a night is really crisis time just yet and to me so I wouldn't get overly worried.

You might read Sleepless in America. To me, it's all about the importance of setting up good habits. Right now, I think you probably have a totally normal baby in a totally normal sleeping pattern. It might be helpful to know how to go forward so that the sleeping increments stretch out and the night wakings are less frequent. SiA is a good resource for that kind of thing.

Good luck!

[JennaW]

Originally Posted by NiteNicole

I'm going to be real with you - a three hour stretch with a three month old sounds pretty good to me. A five am playtime sounds kind of awful but I would try blackout curtains or pushing back bedtime by a half hour. I don't think a three month old waking two or three times a night is really crisis time just yet and to me so I wouldn't get overly worried.

That's what I was thinking too. Doesn't make it easy though.

[NiteNicole]

Originally Posted by JennaW

That's what I was thinking too. Doesn't make it easy though.

No, it most certainly does not. And it helps even less when people tell you "this too will pass" but it will.

I am not one who believes you're at the mercy of your baby when it comes to sleep and I am A-OK with people making an effort to keep things moving along a steady path to STTN (within reason) so I recommend Sleepless in America to everyone. So often, it feels like your choices are suck it up or cry it out and I don't think it has to be that way!

[filewizard25]

I should clarify on the 1-3 hour stretches my 3 month old goes. The last time we had a 3 hour stretch of sleep was over 3 weeks ago.. and it happened maybe twice. Otherwise it's up every hour, maybe two at the most.

My copy of NCSS just arrived in the mail, so I guess I'll go ahead and read that. I also ordered a copy of Sleepless in America. Is Sleepless in America written for parents of toddlers AND babies though? Seems geared toward older kids than my 3 month old baby.. but, I haven't looked to deep into it yet.

[Bokonon]

Honestly, and you're not going to want to hear this, but sleep gets or stays bad at around 4 months, so any kind of sleep training is probably going to derail during the 4-month sleep regression. There are just so many developmental changes during this time that sleep is hard to come by in long stretches.

I agree that NCSS is a bit scattered, and when you're that tired, you just want bullet points on what to do! It has some good tips, but my experience was that I was too tired to really do the plan whole hog, so I scrapped it for the time being. I'm trying something now that was inspired by NCSS, but DD is 9 months old, so sleep "guiding" (not really training) is more appropriate for her age than 3 months.

I also agree with the sidecar crib suggestion if you aren't already co-sleeping. When we had the crib sidecarred, all I had to do was roll over to feed Peepers, and I never had to pick her up. We had to put the side rail of the crib up when she started scooting on her back all the way across my bed!

Remember that sleep begets sleep. Good naps are important for good nighttime sleep. Have you read "Happiest Baby on the Block"? That book was a lifesaver during that 4-month sleep regression nightmare. Swaddling and a sound machine have been must-haves in my house.

[Mal85]

The 4 month sleep regression isn't always true. We never had anything like that. I say if it would be best for your family to work towards what you're talking about, then go for it. I wish I had started earlier with my daughter. She's almost a year old now and we're just starting to work on sleeping through the night and it's rough. I'm getting up with her several times a night to put her back to sleep.

What's Sleepless in America and how is it different from NCSS? Right now, I'm putting her to sleep and putting her in her crib. When we wakes, I get up, nurse her, and put her back to sleep and back in the crib. I'm not sure if this is helping her learn to sleep on her own though.

[SLPmom76]

MY DS did show a definite regression at 4 months due to multiple factors, and unfortunately now at 6 months hasn't gotten much better. I tried the appropriate suggestions when he was 3 months, but honestly I felt like I was beating my head against the wall because they didn't seem to be working. It may have just been his sleep personality as well as me not being consistent. However, now that he's 6 months I feel like he'll be more responsive/receptive because I do see him doing things to "soothe" himself, he still just needs help, especially in the middle of the night. Also, he doesn't usually get upset if I put him down when he's not fully asleep ( I think because he no longer has the startle reflex), whereas before he would have to be fully asleep to do so. Also, my DS is a catnapper, and the suggestions as written in the book were not that helpful in that he takes more time and my involvment to get him to stay asleep after he wakes up the 1st time. It does take more time and work, although it depends on your child. I would just say at this age try to put him down awake but drowsy (without him getting upset of course) as much as you can so he can "finish" falling asleep on his own and create a predictable bedtime routine.

[Shy0717]

I've read it. I thought overall the NCSS had some good tips but the constant lists and charting was an impossibility for me when I was so exhausted. For us I took a couple ideas that I thought would work for our family and gave them a try. Consistency was the key for us. DS has the same bedtime and naptime routine no matter where he is (3 nights a week he goes with my parents while I work). That helped tremendously. He went from waking every hour to 2-4 hours depending on his mood. He went from not really napping at my parents house to napping at least an hour by himself several times a day. We play the same lullaby cd at naptime/bedtime and also use a white noise machine on top of that (yes a little overkill but it works). The music lulls him to sleep and the noise machine stays on even after the cd is done and drowns out any other noise since ds is a light sleeper. In the book it also brought to my attention that I was nursing ds every time he stirred even if he wasn't awake and fussing to be nursed. I stopped doing that and started nursing him roughly every 3 hours unless he seems really hungry. Most of the time he just wants cuddles and then he'll go right back to sleep.