Move to cot

Daniel slept the following arrangement: 0-4month, in a Moses basket in our main bedroom; 4-9month, co-sleeping with me in our spare bedroom; Recently, I move him to sleep in a cot in his own room for night sleep and naps as well.

Day 1, I expected he would cry for hours before settling down. However,It turned out not as bad as I thought it would be. I didn't used the Controlled Crying method though the Gina's advice is that Controlled Crying would be the most effective for an older baby to establish a good sleep habit, however, this will just be my last resort. Instead, I used the Gradual Withdrawal, which is known as the most gentle approach to sleep-training. My aim is just to break off his sleep association with breast milk at this stage. One thing at a time! Dummy would be the next thing to go. The thought of weaning him off the dummy altogether did occur to me but it would be too cruel to watch him crying hysterically. So dummy stays on, Daniel cried for several minutes, no worse than some the occasions when the breast milk ran out and he failed to sleep. Once dummy was on, he stopped crying. Obviously with me sitting by his bed reading or talking to myself(explanation in next paragraph).he fell asleep quickly at 7.15pm, not much later than he would fall asleep in the old ways.

Day 2, Same story as Day 1 but Daniel fell asleep a bit earlier than Day 1 at 7am, and he had a good first half night sleep, during which he didn't stir at all. (he would do this couple of times when sleeping in our spare bedroom). The second half night he woke up once crying for boobies and I settled him by talking to myself. Here I have to mention one of the trick to get Daniel sleep is to phone my mum, which I found out by accident. Daniel will fall asleep very quickly and calmly while I am talking to my mum over the phone. This trick always works to a point that once I say 'Phone Waipo' He would calm down. And each time I phone my mum she would know that Daniel had trouble to sleep, she would talk to Daniel a bit and Daniel would listen to it. I virtually phone her every day. Unfortunately this trick I can only use for his day naps due to the time difference. In the evening when settling him I tried to read Chinese children book but it didn't work, he knew the tone is different. So I pretended to phone my mum with a toy phone, I ended up talking to myself for 30 minutes and it worked. Daniel fell asleep calmly and quickly listening my voice.

Day 3, Daniel seemed to get use to sleep in his cot and he slept very well this night. I expected he would stir on the second half of night as he settles quite early in the evening (before 7pm) and would normally come to a light sleep around 5am. But he didn't. He just roll from on his side to on his back and slept again.

Day 4, Daniel backtracked a bit wanting to get back his old pattern of settling by reaching out his arms and legs in between the bars of the cot and I have to hold his hands through the bar of cot while lying down on the floor next to his cot.

It is said that this method will take a lot longer than using controlled crying. Finger crossed! Hope I don't need to practise the controlled crying, because I believe babes should get frequently support while they are learning how to go to sleep without direct comfort from their parents.