for those who have tried the NCSS...

I tried just about everything in the NCSS with my b/g twins. (Starting at around 5 month, till they were around a year old.)

The only thing that we had any success with was the "Pantley Gentle Removal" technique. That being said, it worked only for my ds. And, it didn't decrease the number of his nightwakings, it only decreased the length of time it took to nurse him back to sleep.

With my dd it made her (and me) completely crazy. She is now 2.5 and has only recently learned to let go of the nipple before she is completely asleep.

Perhaps b/c I have twins it was too difficult to work on the sleep challenges of two babies at once. But mine have always seemed pretty determined to do things their own way, and NCSS wasn't that helpful for us. That being said, perhaps parents with a more easy tempered babe might have more success with it. It's worth trying since there aren't a whole lot of gentle alternatives out there.

I bought NCSS when my own dd was 9.5 months because the night wakings were getting to be more than I could handle. I work full time (dh is a stay-at-home dad) and waking to nurse 10-11 times over the course of 7-8 hours was driving me literally insane!

That said, I tried a few of the techiques (like the pull-off, making a sleep log, and starting dd's sleep routine earlier in the evening) and found that they were helpful about half the time.

The earlier bedtime didn't help since dd seems wired to fall asleep at 10pm no matter what...it didn't really matter if we started the bedtime routine at 7pm or 9:30pm, she fell asleep at the stroke of 10 (of course, she'd wake up half an hour later, but that's another story!). The pull-off worked best if dd was pretty groggy from nursing and if I popped her off the breast and gave her a finger to suck on instead of leaving her mouth empty (pressing her lip didn't make a difference one way or the other). Once she'd sucked on my finger for a moment I could ease the finger out and she's stay asleep. So more gradual than the "official" pull-off, but still easier on my nipples during those weeks of non-stop nursing!

What I realized from other threads here at mdc is that the 9.5-11 month age group seems to have a lot of night waking in general. Possibly because of developmental milestones, and teeth, and general growing pains...but little ones right around 10 months seem to have a lot of sleep issues! So, while some NCSS tricks did seem to help, the fact that dd went from 10-11 wakings a night to 2-3 wakings a night probably had more to do with her getting a few weeks older than with my attempts at the pull-off and earlier bedtimes. I'm certainly keeping the NCSS close at hand in case something like this happens again, but if you don't find the tips and tricks in the book working for your little one, just give them a few weeks and the situation might improve on it's own!

Hang in there...I know how icky chronic sleep deprivation can be!