Sleep Training

alisonogray

Okay, it's been 15 months, it's time for this little girl to start sleeping through the night! She was down to only one MOTN waking, then we traveled for Xmas and ever since she's been waking up twice. The only thing I'm worried about is that she's still nursing and she drinks a lot in the MOTN, so I'm not sure if part of her waking is actual hunger. DH is out of town this wkd so I figure it's a good time to try sleep training- anyone have any sleep training advice before I give it a go?

Melidee82

We were feeling the same way recently.  We tackled the MOTN feedings first by picking a cut off time for the first night.  If she woke up before that, husband went in and rocked her back to sleep and if she woke up after it, I would feed her.  Then each night, we pushed it back by a half hour so she was nursing later and later in the night.  It took a week and a half.  She started eating later and later much faster than our half hour increments.

Now, having eliminated the middle of the night feeding she FINALLY slept through the night for the FIRST time on Wednesday.  She went down at 7:20pm and didn't make a peep until 5:15.   Last night was similar, she went down at 730 and didn't make a sound until 430.  I nursed her and she went back to bed till 710.  515 and 430 are not really acceptable wake-up times so we still have some work to do but I definitely think that knocking out that MOTN feeding has us moving in the right direction.

We also started to give her more time to put herself back to sleep at each wake up.  That might have helped too. 

Anyway, we were prepared to do progressive waiting to eliminate the wake ups after stopping the MOTN feedings, but now I'm hoping we won't have to.  We'll see. 

Melidee82

We were feeling the same way recently.  We tackled the MOTN feedings first by picking a cut off time for the first night.  If she woke up before that, husband went in and rocked her back to sleep and if she woke up after it, I would feed her.  Then each night, we pushed it back by a half hour so she was nursing later and later in the night.  It took a week and a half.  She started eating later and later much faster than our half hour increments.

Now, having eliminated the middle of the night feeding she FINALLY slept through the night for the FIRST time on Wednesday.  She went down at 7:20pm and didn't make a peep until 5:15.   Last night was similar, she went down at 730 and didn't make a sound until 430.  I nursed her and she went back to bed till 710.  515 and 430 are not really acceptable wake-up times so we still have some work to do but I definitely think that knocking out that MOTN feeding has us moving in the right direction.

We also started to give her more time to put herself back to sleep at each wake up.  That might have helped too. 

Anyway, we were prepared to do progressive waiting to eliminate the wake ups after stopping the MOTN feedings, but now I'm hoping we won't have to.  We'll see. 

LorMor

No advice, because we haven't done it yet, but good luck! I think DH also needs to be out of town for use to try! Also, DH and I take turn getting up in the night - on H's nights she doesn't get fed and doesn't seem to want to, and on my nights she does. It's probably an association, but might make it more difficult if your H isn't around.

hilsy85

If you notice she's eating a lot at night, I would try to shift some of those calories to the daytime. For us, using Feber's method of CIO was really great--I highly recommend his book, solve your child's sleep problem!