Sleep Training

justkeeptrying

I know that sleep training is a controversial topic and I'm not trying to start any arguments.

For those that ARE planning on doing sleep training with your LO:
What age do you plan on starting?
What method do you plan to use?

For those that have done sleep training with other children:
What method did you use?
How long did it take?
Any experiences you would like to share?

kremerj1

We did not intend on doing sleep training, but ended up doing some. After getting tired of rocking to sleep then purring lo in crib to have him wake up, we needed a change. Lo has a whiny fake cry he does when he's fighting sleep. We do let him cry that out, but when it's real crying we don't. He will usually fall asleep within 10 minutes. When he wakes up, I feed change then feed him. Usually he's so sleepy after feeding it's no problem.

Maureen5288

I plan on doing it, although my LO only gets up once in the night for a feed now, so I need it more for her naps. But I've been reading The Easy Sleep Solution, and it seems to be a good mix of different techniques, if you're interested

jennsparrow

We started at 7 weeks with the instructions from our doctor: We put him to bed between 10 and 11pm. Make sure he has been fed and has a clean diaper on. Then we would read him a story and turn on the white noise machine. We would swaddle him and say goodnight and put him in his crib, awake. Turn the lights out (keep the white noise machine on) and close the door. The baby will cry, but set your timer for 15 minutes and walk outside for until your timer goes off. Go back in every 15 minutes to hold him and reassure him for 1 minute, then put him back down and start over for another 15 minutes. We never had to go past the first 15 minutes as he fell asleep before our timer would go off. The first few nights will be so sad and hard, but once you get to where he falls asleep within 5 minutes, it makes it all worth it. Our 3.5 month old now goes to sleep at 9pm and sleeps till 7am.

laurahaynes524

Have you read Moms On Call? That has been our bible with the eat/sleep schedule. We started at 4 weeks, and she's been sleeping through the night since 5-6 weeks. We never let her cry it out, just let her cry no more than 5 minutes, then go in soothe her, give her her paci, and she will go right to sleep. That 5 minutes wears her out, and it usually means she's just fighting sleep. We know if she cries more, there's something wrong.

justkeeptrying

DH and I have already discussed doing CIO. I am not opposed to it but prefer interval check ins as opposed to complete CIO.

It was recommended to me not to sleep train until at least 4 months old so I had been putting it off. But the last few nights have been so bad that I'm really considering doing it very soon. I was just curious if this was too early as I had originally wanted to wait until closer to 5 or 6 months.

ahart326

Right as my LO turned three months she was getting harder and harder to get to sleep for naps. It would take a minimum of 15 or 20 minutes to get her to sleep and then we had to hold her for every single nap. Night time it would take me an hour minimum to rock her and nurse her to a deep sleep and then sometimes when I put her down she would wake right up and it would start over. Not to mention her waking up in the middle of the night for half hour to an hour to eat a time or two every night. I loved holding and rocking my daughter but spending at least five or six hours doing that was not ideal, especially when I was getting ready to go back to work and another caregiver would have to take over.

Right as she turned three months and a week we decided to try controlled crying which I know is very controversial to a lot of people. I know that is a little young for the recommendation but she was showing signs of being capable of self soothing. She was getting really good at getting her hands to her mouth and would suck on her fingers and her thumb.I worried back-and-forth about whether I would be ruining her forever by letting her cry even for a few minutes. I read about several different methods including the baby whispers pick up put down method. I just felt like that would take a very long time and I was more likely to fail at it from frustration and exhaustion.

She had only ever slept in her rock n play and two weeks prior when I had laid her down in her crib in a deep sleep she had woken up after two hours. Honestly I had never laid her down in her crib at night awake to see how she would do. The first night we put her in her crib after her bedtime routine we checked her in one minute three minutes and five minute intervals. She cried for 14 minutes and slept the whole night only waking up once. When I got up to feed her I did so in the dark and didn't speak to her and I laid her back down immediately. She laid awake in her crib for a half hour but didn't make one noise before falling asleep. The next night and the intervals to check on her increased to 3 5 and eight minutes but we never had to. She didn't cry at all.Two weeks later she now gets laid down tired but awake at night and she doesn't cry or fuss. She finds her thumb and starts sucking and drifts off to sleep sometimes immediately sometimes after a few minutes. During her night wakings I feed her and she immediately goes back to sleep. Last night she slept from 7 PM until 8 AM and didn't wake up one time to eat. When I went in to get her she was just laying in her crib quiet happy as a clam. She always gives me the biggest smiles in the morning when I go to get her and I know she doesn't harbor any resentment that I did the control crying.

Sleep training for naps is a different story. I read that different parts of the brain control nighttime sleep and daytime sleep so napping can be a lot more difficult. When I lay her down for nap she sometimes fusses a tiny bit and sometimes will cry for a few minutes. When she cries for longer than two or three minutes it's usually because I put her down too late and she is overtired. She now takes two naps a day that last anywhere from a half hour to two hours. And during that time I can actually get stuff done. Hallelujah! I don't know if my story of sleep training success is typical or not. Obviously every baby is an individual. But I just wanted to let you know that it worked for me and I am so incredibly glad that I did it. If you do it just have patience. I think it is at least worth trying out and giving them the chance to learn the skill of how to soothe themselves to sleep. It's kind of the same as crawling… How would they ever learn if you hold them all the time and don't put them down so they can try?

Sorry for the super long post and good luck no matter what you decide to do!

justkeeptrying

ahart326 said:

Right as my LO turned three months she was getting harder and harder to get to sleep for naps. It would take a minimum of 15 or 20 minutes to get her to sleep and then we had to hold her for every single nap. Night time it would take me an hour minimum to rock her and nurse her to a deep sleep and then sometimes when I put her down she would wake right up and it would start over. Not to mention her waking up in the middle of the night for half hour to an hour to eat a time or two every night. I loved holding and rocking my daughter but spending at least five or six hours doing that was not ideal, especially when I was getting ready to go back to work and another caregiver would have to take over.

Right as she turned three months and a week we decided to try controlled crying which I know is very controversial to a lot of people. I know that is a little young for the recommendation but she was showing signs of being capable of self soothing. She was getting really good at getting her hands to her mouth and would suck on her fingers and her thumb.I worried back-and-forth about whether I would be ruining her forever by letting her cry even for a few minutes. I read about several different methods including the baby whispers pick up put down method. I just felt like that would take a very long time and I was more likely to fail at it from frustration and exhaustion.

She had only ever slept in her rock n play and two weeks prior when I had laid her down in her crib in a deep sleep she had woken up after two hours. Honestly I had never laid her down in her crib at night awake to see how she would do. The first night we put her in her crib after her bedtime routine we checked her in one minute three minutes and five minute intervals. She cried for 14 minutes and slept the whole night only waking up once. When I got up to feed her I did so in the dark and didn't speak to her and I laid her back down immediately. She laid awake in her crib for a half hour but didn't make one noise before falling asleep. The next night and the intervals to check on her increased to 3 5 and eight minutes but we never had to. She didn't cry at all.Two weeks later she now gets laid down tired but awake at night and she doesn't cry or fuss. She finds her thumb and starts sucking and drifts off to sleep sometimes immediately sometimes after a few minutes. During her night wakings I feed her and she immediately goes back to sleep. Last night she slept from 7 PM until 8 AM and didn't wake up one time to eat. When I went in to get her she was just laying in her crib quiet happy as a clam. She always gives me the biggest smiles in the morning when I go to get her and I know she doesn't harbor any resentment that I did the control crying.

Sleep training for naps is a different story. I read that different parts of the brain control nighttime sleep and daytime sleep so napping can be a lot more difficult. When I lay her down for nap she sometimes fusses a tiny bit and sometimes will cry for a few minutes. When she cries for longer than two or three minutes it's usually because I put her down too late and she is overtired. She now takes two naps a day that last anywhere from a half hour to two hours. And during that time I can actually get stuff done. Hallelujah! I don't know if my story of sleep training success is typical or not. Obviously every baby is an individual. But I just wanted to let you know that it worked for me and I am so incredibly glad that I did it. If you do it just have patience. I think it is at least worth trying out and giving them the chance to learn the skill of how to soothe themselves to sleep. It's kind of the same as crawling… How would they ever learn if you hold them all the time and don't put them down so they can try?

Sorry for the super long post and good luck no matter what you decide to do!

No apology necessary for the long post. I found this very helpful and encouraging to read!!!

I think I need to bite the bullet and do it. Now I just have to convince DH. I know he will be stronger than me so I want to do it when he is home. Next weekend we are likely going out of town so it'll probably have to be the weekend after that.

Thanks so much!!!

If anyone else has words of advice I will definitely not turn it down!!! I got 4 hours of sleep last night and 2 the night before

odawg

Be careful when you start...3 to 4 months holds those growth spurts and sleep regression and all that jazz. I will probably start at 5 months in hopes to be out of some of that.

Caileybug

My LO has been sleeping on his belly in his crib since 2.5 weeks. He would wake up at 1am, 4am, 7am. Eventually the 1am disappeared and I was so happy! Then once he hit 3 months he was starting to wake up every 3 hours! DH works out of town two weeks on, two weeks off so I was EXHAUSTED. When he got home we tried a form of training where we let LO cry for 10 mins, then went in to soothe him but not pick him up. I certainly wouldn't. E able to handle this so it was DH who had to go into the nursery. The first night, DH was in there for 30 mins, the second night took a whole hour (I thought I was going to die), and the third night he slept through until 6am. Now he doesn't wake up until usually 5:30am. He's 4 months old today . I put him down between 7:30-8:30 and he will sleep until usually 5:30ish then I'll nurse and he sleeps until 8:30-9am.

erin79

I think I may have responded to an earlier post of yours about this, but I'll respond again.

We sleep trained my son for naps at 7 months old.  Up until then we had a very reliable routine of sitting in the rocker with him on our lap, paci in, blankie on, and singing a couple songs.  He would fall asleep really quickly, and then we'd put him in his crib.  Then somewhere around 6 months, he started crying during this routine.  He would eventually fall asleep, but it seemed like it was probably time for him to figure out how to fall asleep on his own.  (He had been falling asleep on his own at nighttime for awhile, so that wasn't an issue.)

We did full-on CIO.  He was taking 3 naps a day at the time, so he cried for all 3 naps the first day, the first nap the second day, and then not a peep for any nap after that.  It was awesome.  The second day he actually cried longer than the first, which I had heard was normal, but the longest he cried for any nap was around 25 minutes before he fell asleep.

If you're going to do a CIO method with check-ins, please make sure you do some research, i.e. read the Ferber book.  If you don't do it properly or consistently, it is actually more confusing for your LO and may make them cry more.

justkeeptrying

Thanks @erin79. I've done a bit of reading about the Ferber method but I'll definitely look into reading a book about it

ahart326

I second reading the book on it. I found that super helpful

nolababybaby

I haven't done any sleep training, but in terms of naps, I find bouncing on the exercise ball I got when I was pregnant puts my LO to sleep within 5 minutes every time.