Recommend your sleep training method

kmonroe2

Hello! My 9 month old is still waking up 1-2 times every night. Sometimes he just needs his paci but sometimes he won't go back to sleep until he is fed. He is up for the morning at 5am. My husband and I have always make excuses as to why its happening. He's sick, he's teething, etc. We are at the point now that he really needs to be sleeping through the night. Did you do any sort of sleep training?

pb_bride

WE did Ferber and it worked for us.  HIghly recommend reading the book before you start.

ellebee2

pb_bride said:

WE did Ferber and it worked for us.  HIghly recommend reading the book before you start.

All of this. Ferber was awesome for us (took 4 days for nighttime sleep). I read a lot of books, and found the most useful/easy to read/follow to be The Sleepeasy Solution. 

g8trkim

We did Ferber and it worked wonders. We had a big issue with falling asleep. It was a drawn out process every night. Now she's a dream to get to bed. Naps are still a nightmare though. The night is another thing though. I would say she wakes up in the middle of the night about half the time.

LyndseylovesHugh

Another vote for Ferber!  She was waking up 5-10 times per night for her paci and once to eat.  We did Ferber (including night weaning) and now she sleeps 12 hours straight.  We did it for naps too and those are great now too (sometimes they are a little to short, but most of the time they are great).  She went from being a horrible sleeper to being the most amazing sleeper ever!  She just needed to learn how to self sooth and once she learned that she began getting the sleep she needs to really thrive.  I read many books, which I recommend you do too, before picking what seemed best for our family.  Do not do any sleep training without reading the entire book so you know exactly what to do and why you are doing it.

laraashleyt

We "Ferbered" our twins at 9 months since they also were waking up 3+ times a night for paci's. They dropped the bottle at 6 months. I finally put 6 paci's in each of their cribs at night and started the sleep training! Best thing we ever did so far!!! It took about a week with the twins, since they also had to learn to sleep through each others cries, but it worked and they now sleep about 11 hours! During teething we gave them Advil at night, and they still slept 11 hours. No matter what method you do, be consistent!!! Through the bad and good...be consistent!!!! Good Luck!!

JoNi2010

Another vote for Ferber, although it was not a miracle for us.  We Ferberized our LO at 6 months.  Be prepared for a lot of crying.  People say their LOs cried "a bit" but mine cried for 45minutes straight the first night.  After 3 days, he went down for bedtime with minimal crying and only needed 1 MOTN feeding, which I was fine.  Naps very SLOWLY got better.  With all these developmental milestones, he has gotten worse with MOTN wakenings, so we will be re-Ferberizing again soon.

JJ_13

I liked Kim West's Good Night Sleep Tight book. I have friends who swear by the SleepEasy Solution.

margokendall

We did Ferber too! Highly recommend it! Our 9 month now wants to go to bed each night in her own room We had no issues on vacation. She sleeps for 11+ hours. It has gotten a bad wrap in the past. When you read the book the method makes seance.

kmonroe2

We tried the Ferber method when he was around 5 months. The crying went on for 6 nights before we caved. Wondering if he was still a little too young at that point. I might look into the Sleep Easy solution. 

sadie+w

My LO is 11 months and we are just starting good night sleep right. My friend said it worked wonders for her babies and two nights in, it's already better with my LO! Basically you put them down awake, and sit very close to the crib, letting them cry. Then you keep movin a little but further away until you're not in the room. I feel fine letting LO cry because he sees me and know I'm right there. I can't bring myself to let him cry without me there.

tortuga47

I might be in the minority here, but waking up once a night at 9 months isn't completely outrageous. Some babies need to eat throughout the night still. If he was waking up 3,4,5,6 times a night, I'd say he needs a little guidance, but once or twice sometimes isn't horrendous. Our guy WAS waking up 5 or 6 times a night and we did a cross between the Lullababy sleep method and the No Cry Sleep Method. It took a bit longer than Ferber, but I wasn't comfortable with CIO. 

erbear

That doesn't sound abnormal for 9 months. Both of mine woke up for a feeding until about a year at night, then they dropped it on their own.

Babyduedec

tortuga47 said:

I might be in the minority here, but waking up once a night at 9 months isn't completely outrageous. Some babies need to eat throughout the night still. If he was waking up 3,4,5,6 times a night, I'd say he needs a little guidance, but once or twice sometimes isn't horrendous. Our guy WAS waking up 5 or 6 times a night and we did a cross between the Lullababy sleep method and the No Cry Sleep Method. It took a bit longer than Ferber, but I wasn't comfortable with CIO. 

I'm trying the no cry sleep solution but LO wakes up as soon as I gently remove the nipple.. (we are still BF) .. How did you move to putting him down awake! I can't even imagine!

CarolynTheRed

We did a sort of cry it out, and it was shorter than I thought. Basically, we did the first step, which was comfort and even a bottle offered, but no nursing, when she woke up. My daughter screamed bloody murder for 10-20 minutes (I left the room, just so the milk source wasn't present), and eventually settled down and fell back asleep. After two days of this, she put herself back to sleep when she woke up without help, and we didn't have to reduce the comfort gradually. She backslid when she had a gastro bug, but it was only one night of horrible screaming, and then only 10 minutes, and she was back to sleeping though to 5am (round it to morning).

I think it's worth trying. As far as I can tell, there's no reason a 9 month old can't go 8 hours without feeding, they just may need to eat more (solids or milk) during the day. 

tortuga47

Babyduedec said:

tortuga47 said:

I might be in the minority here, but waking up once a night at 9 months isn't completely outrageous. Some babies need to eat throughout the night still. If he was waking up 3,4,5,6 times a night, I'd say he needs a little guidance, but once or twice sometimes isn't horrendous. Our guy WAS waking up 5 or 6 times a night and we did a cross between the Lullababy sleep method and the No Cry Sleep Method. It took a bit longer than Ferber, but I wasn't comfortable with CIO. 

I'm trying the no cry sleep solution but LO wakes up as soon as I gently remove the nipple.. (we are still BF) .. How did you move to putting him down awake! I can't even imagine!

Once you get past the removing the nipple part it gets much easier. We did that a few months back because he kept falling asleep without eating enough. We started doing a bottle at bedtime of pumped milk. We then did the rocking. It took a week of him in the crib to do it completely on his own. The first two nights I kind of held him in the crib because he just couldn't calm down (it took about 45 minutes). The next two nights, I had my arms around him. The fifth night I put my hand on his belly and the sixth night I just stood next to the crib and he settled himself within about 5-10 minutes. At night (he still eats once or twice) he eats, takes out the nipple himself and I just lay him down in the crib and he rolls over and goes to sleep. It definitely takes longer than the CIO method, but I felt better about it. Good luck!! When you get past the nipple stage, I promise it'll get easier!

honeydew01

Another Ferber family here. I was prepared for the worst given DD's stubborn nature.I had read the book, did lots of research and knew it'll be the hardest thing to do but it was necessary for our family.

The first night she cried for 24 minutes, it was a hardcore and intense crying. It was really hard. I did the checks and it took every ounce of me to not want to grab her and end it but I knew if I gave in all her crying was for nothing. After that 24 minutes of crying she laid there for a long time and wasn't sure what she was supposed to do as I had always put her down totally asleep. I had tried putting her down awake but drowsy but it had never worked. We also ditched the swaddle the same night, it was like ripping a band aid so she had to get used to that as well. That night she woke up a few times and cried 5-10 minutes each time.

The second night was so much better. She still cried but it wasn't the intense, oh I am going to die, cry. It was more of a protest cry. The third night she didn't cry, she went right back to sleep. The middle of the night awakenings also went down significantly.

Then, on day 5 we hit a regression. Do your research, this regression is common. This is when most parents think that the training is not working and ditch it.  Day 5 to 8 it was like we had gone backwards and she had forgotten everything. She cried for 30 minutes on day 5, less on days 6-8. It wasn't the intense crying of the first night, it was more of a protest crying.

Then all of the sudden on day 9 it was back to "working" and it has been consistent since. I am able to put her down awake. She goes down after 5-10 minutes of rolling around and trying to get comfortable.

I never thought a day would come where putting her down for the night would take less than 4 hours of shooshing, rocking, rinse and repeating..and to be honest never thought I'd say that the night time routine is a time we all enjoy now. Before I dreaded each night and felt so emotionally and physically exhausted. DD was also tired during the day from broken and disrupted sleep. Now, she absolutely loves her night time routine and going to bed. She is all giggly and smiley after her night time bath and I absolutely look forward to our special pre-bedtime routine. Everyone is SO much happier and I have to say it was worth it for our family.  

A couple of sites that I recommend on this topic are:  https://www.troublesometots.com/ (it was recommended to us by our ped) and https://scienceofmom.com/best-of-the-blog/

I have to admit after reading the book I spent many hours on these two sites as well.

 

Good luck!

 

 

GrantHenson

I suggest the sleep sense solution.  It is an online program, videos that walk you through it. 

hupp0013

We did the Ferber method.  We tried a couple of other methods and they didn't work for DD.  It does definitely depend on what works for you and your child too.