Please help! Beginning PU/PD for 11 month old

[MotherofRose]

Hello all,

New newbie here.

My 11 month old has always been hit and miss with sleep. Partly my fault as I simply didn’t know how to implement a routine when she was brand new. Around 5/6 months she was brilliant at going to bed, at first she drank her bottle to sleep but then would go down awake and settle herself.

She has tended to nap on me during the day from around 9 months. This was simply because I was so exhausted, couldn’t face the 40 minute fight to get her to nap for half and hour and to be honest, I loved the cuddles. She would still settle well at night, but wake around 4ish and get into bed with me. A few weeks ago she got ill with a stinker of a cold, quickly followed by hand footr & mouth and tonsillitis. She is just getting over this now. Sleep has gone out the window. Nighttime she fights her cot, she wakes around midnight and is hysterical unless she gets into bed with me and now daytime naps are effected too. Last night she woke at 1:30am, and would cry hysterically if I put her back down. I kept picking her up when she became upset and putting her back down again. She finally went to sleep in her cot at 4:30am holding my hand. (She woke at 6am for her bottle and I was so tired she fell asleep next to me in bed which I fear has undone all that work in the night)

I would dearly like to try the PU/PD method to help her. Do I start it from the very first stage, or do I jump straight to the stage for her age? I’ve also just moved her cot into her own room today, as I think I was disturbing her sleep with it being next to my bed.

Feeling incredibly inadequate, useless and rubbish at the moment! I just want to help my baby sleep!

Any advice greatly appreciated. Thank you all xx

[ulliko]

Hi MotherofRose,

I am not sure if you still need support but I am currently re-using pu/pd with my now 11.5 months old daughter. I had similar problems, no routine at the beginning and I stumbled across Tracy's books when I was desperately looking for a solution when my DD was 9 months and could only fall asleep at the breast (unfortunately Tracy's books are not well known in the German speaking area and most currrent books are very focused on attacement parenting....needless to say I am recommending Tracy's books to all my pregnant friends so they can avoid our problems).
We had a pretty hellish first week (more for me than for her, she is a spirited baby and I think she didn't mind the long pu/pd time at the beginning... me I was pretty exhausted) and the 2 really good weeks. We then got 6 teeths in a row which was a nightmare for all of us, then a bad cold before Christmas and unfortunately I didnt stick to it and some accidental parenting crept back in. I have started to use it again und luckily I am already seeing good results and will definitely stick to it now!

I would advise you to use the age appropriate solution, that worked well for us (then and now). It is easier to calm her in the crib then picking her up all the time (which, in our case, would also wind her up even more due to her spiritied nature... not to mention my poor back could not take it I think...), so as recommended it would mostly only use the "put down" part.
Also, before she used to sleep in our bed so she had to get used to the cot. She would cry when I put her down, basically after the first day, which involved a lot of pu, she wouldn't cry anymore when I put her down. After that I mosly used the pd part, and only pick her up when she is really frantic.

I can only recommend to stick it out, it really is worth it!

Hope that helps!
Good luck and all the best!