Sleep Training

TwinsCitiesMomma

Has anyone started sleep training yet?  I hear it's best to start at 3 months because there is a regression stage that comes along at 4 months.  I'm interested in trying the "drowsy but awake" method but am going to research a bit on how it works first.  LO will be 3 months old soon and I'm dreading the first week of crying that comes with sleep training but best to be done with it.  

If anyone has already started, would love to hear your comments or suggestions.

Mummy0315

My son was born on March 21 he's still waking up every 2-2.5 hours through the night. Anyone else in the same boat??!

TwinsCitiesMomma

Mummy0315 said:

My son was born on March 21 he's still waking up every 2-2.5 hours through the night. Anyone else in the same boat??!

Your response has nothing to do with my question and you've asked the same thing on two other threads. I'm sure that if you are patient you'll get responses to your question.

rojita-2

We started a schedule at about seven weeks and so far (he's 10.5 weeks now) so good! For us, routine has been key - every night at about 9:00-9:30 we have playtime, tummy time, (bath some nights), change into pyjamas, nurse/story time, then into the pack n play with music at about 10:15. I try to put him down when he's drowsy but awake and sway with him to the music just before setting him down. I then give him a little tummy rub until he closes his eyes. If he is still wide awake after 5-10 min I usually find another couple of minutes of feeding does the trick. So far it's been working great and we haven't had any tears - he's usually fast asleep by 10:30 until 5:30-6:00. I'm told by many that the long stretches of sleep will stop once he starts teething but we're going to try to stick to this routine and see how it goes!

Lorabean

I've been following the book "healthy sleep habits, happy child" and it's worked really well for us. We start his bedtime routine at 6pm, (change him, books, song and prayer) and he's asleep by 6:30. On nights that we give him a bath we start a bit earlier. He wakes up usually between 1-2am for a feeding then goes back down until 5am. He is 12 weeks old and this has been our nighttime routine for the past 2 weeks. I haven't gotten his morning nap scheduled yet but he has been consistent with his afternoon nap from 12:30pm to 3pm.
If I was still working I wouldn't be able to follow this schedule because I would never see my son at night! But since I'm a sahm it works and also allows my husband and I to eat dinner alone which is nice. Most importantly though my son is like a new baby since we started putting him down earlier. He used to be so fussy in the evenings from being overtired. Even if you can't follow this schedule the book is worth checking out. It offers great tips for troubleshooting sleep problems. Good luck!

adelems

We follow the healthy sleep habits, happy child book too. Along with a little baby wise. We've been working on a routine for awhile now. He's 11 weeks today. Unfortunately I have a VERY difficult daytime sleeper on my hands. This is our second baby, first one was sooooo easy. I'm struggling with this one. He doesn't want to take long naps. Only wants to cat nap and then he gets really cranky really fast. But anyway! Sleep training doesn't have to be about crying it out and stuff. If you start now you can slowly work your way towards going to bed awake and never hear a peep usually! My little man goes to bed awake without fussing usually since he was a couple weeks old. I've only had him cry a couple times and that's when I messed up and he got WAY overtired. With our first kiddo she cried one time and that was that.

I recommend reading the healthy sleep habits for sure. There is also a website called mybabysleepguide.com that has helped me a lot too

TwinsCitiesMomma

adelems said:

We follow the healthy sleep habits, happy child book too. Along with a little baby wise. We've been working on a routine for awhile now. He's 11 weeks today. Unfortunately I have a VERY difficult daytime sleeper on my hands. This is our second baby, first one was sooooo easy. I'm struggling with this one. He doesn't want to take long naps. Only wants to cat nap and then he gets really cranky really fast. But anyway! Sleep training doesn't have to be about crying it out and stuff. If you start now you can slowly work your way towards going to bed awake and never hear a peep usually! My little man goes to bed awake without fussing usually since he was a couple weeks old. I've only had him cry a couple times and that's when I messed up and he got WAY overtired. With our first kiddo she cried one time and that was that.

I recommend reading the healthy sleep habits for sure. There is also a website called mybabysleepguide.com that has helped me a lot too

Thanks. I remember your LO had trouble napping like mine. We are up to 30-40 min naps now which is better than the 15 min ones from before. I ordered Healthy Sleeping Habits last night so glad to hear that's what you used.

adelems

@TwinsCitiesMomma we still have interrupted naps.. I've discovered that his issue is he doesn't transition from one sleep cycle to the next , he wakes up and is super upset. I'm able to get him to transition with assistance now. He will sleep 30 to 50 minutes, wake, fall back asleep for 30 to 50 more minutes. Usually sleeping for about 1.5 hours to 1.75 hours (including the time it takes to fall back asleep). I'm hoping soon he won't need help. I never had this trouble with my DD so it's very frustrating! Lol.

I also ordered what's called a zipadeezip to see if that will help. He never swaddled , but maybe he will take to this and it will help him not wake all the way between cycles .. Fingers crossed

TwinsCitiesMomma

@Lorabean - so is your LO awake from 3-6 pm?

Lorabean

He usually falls asleep for a short nap from 4-430. My sister followed this plan too and she said when her sons were about 4-5 months they took a 9am and 1pm nap and then went to bed between 6-7pm. Eventually they didn't need the 9am nap anymore and just had one afternoon nap. This is my goal- but it's a work in progress! It has been much easier to get the nighttime routine down than the naps but we'll get there!

torie2132

Our baby is 12 weeks today and sort of has his own daily cycle. Up by 6, eats around 8 ounces, because he's down by 8pm. Usually will fall back asleep for another hour and then throughout the day it's eat, play, nap. Every 3 hours until 8 when he usually takes his last bottle. He's sleeping till around 5:30 or 6, so I think for us the daily routine is even more helpful than the nightly routine. Especially since baths and such are every few days - but before bed.