(More) Sleep Questions!

Plumeria1214

Hi - I'm looking for advice/experience in multiple areas regarding sleeping so I'll list all rather than make multiple posts and feel free to respond to any or all! Thanks in advance! 

1. For those of you doing "drowsy but awake", how long did it take before LO could put self to sleep? 

2. Does anyone still rock, hold, or nurse to sleep? Is anyone able to just put their baby down awake to sleep at night? If so, what did you do that you found successful? 

3. For those who are stopping night time feedings, did you wean or stop cold turkey? 

4. What are you bedtime routines? 

My situation: My LO will be 7 months in 2.5 weeks. Pediatrician said to stop night feedings cold turkey, but I am weaning. Since LO has gotten used to waking up to eat at night I suspect she'll continue to wake for a while once they stop altogether.  

I have to hold LO every night to sleep then transfer to crib but I'm starting "drowsy but awake." I cannot just put her down in the crib awake. My LO has been doing 9 hour stretches some nights recently but it's inconsistent (can do anywhere from 4-8 hours). 

I've tried to establish a bedtime routine however by the time my husband gets home and we eat it's almost her bedtime (between 7 and 8). Some nights she's ready by 7 and if I don't get her up in time she's over tired, other times she'll stay up later and I can read her books, etc. But every night we do pjs, nighttime diaper, white noise, turn off lights, give bottle, and then hold her for a bit and sing to her or shoosh. Tonight she didn't get bottle at bedtime bc she was over tired and it was 6:45 (napped poorly). 

Thanks again in advance!! 

Yiggle09

At 4 1/2 months we left the pediatrician with a pamphlet about eating and other things. One was on sleep crutches. Ours was feeding to sleep. We would go up stairs I'd change him put him in crib and then feed him from a bottle till he was asleep. We have EP ed since 6 weeks but even right after coming home with baby I would pump and feed at night and bf during the day. Anyway the pamphlet said by 4.5 months they are able to go all night without eating. That the waking and feeding had become a routine and not a necessity. Every time he would wake we'd get up shove bottle in mouth he'd go to sleep repeat lol. We stopped cold turkey on a Thursday night. He woke 3 times first time cried but not a real distress cry for about 15 mins. It was hard but I stayed in bed while my husband rubbed my back to try to make me feel better. Next two wake ups were 5 to 10 mins but again not a distress cry just a I want something cry. The second night was 2 wake ups. Third night one wake up and he's slept through the night since. He cut two teeth in 5 days and still slept all night. He goes down around 8 till 6 or 7 am usually. We don't have a set routine for bed but most night go- we get home around 610 he gets a bottle- I pump. Then it is puree time after that it's play time. Around 740 or 8 we go up either bath time or bed time he gets his diaper change and lotion. Then I pick him up quick cuddles and I put him right into crib. He isn't "drowsy" he will roll a bit fuss a bit sometimes but always falls asleep. The other night my husband had him laughing throwing him in the air. I took him put him in crib and he rolled over and went to bed. Some nights he wakes me up because he's talking to himself now and it's cute to listen to then he goes back to sleep. We never used a paci or rocking. I can get him to sleep when we're out by rocking and patting his butt. We bowl on a league on Wednesday and when he's tired we rock and butt patt then he goes to sleep in his jogging stroller. Even as an infant he would often sleep a 5 hr stretch around 2 weeks old. I hope this helps.

BabyBean815

1. For those of you doing "drowsy but awake", how long did it take before LO could put self to sleep? 
2. Does anyone still rock, hold, or nurse to sleep? Is anyone able to just put their baby down awake to sleep at night? If so, what did you do that you found successful? 

We've been doing drowsy but awake since about 4 1/2 months I think.  It definitely took some time (a couple of weeks maybe?) for him to learn how to fall asleep by himself, but he's an old pro at it by now.  In the beginning, we did a lot of putting him in his crib, patting his belly (he was on his back at that time), picking him back up if he cried, putting him back down, giving him his lovey, re-inserting his pacifier, shushing, etc.  It was a lot of work but totally worth it in the long run.  We had to be consistent and really keep trying anything and everything to get him into sleep mode.  

When we first started drowsy but awake, one of us would be in his room for 30-45 minutes just getting him to sleep and making sure he was asleep.  These days, after I put him in his crib, I sit on the floor and stay for about 10 minutes while he fusses around getting comfortable, and then he usually falls asleep within 10 minutes and I leave the room. 

3. For those who are stopping night time feedings, did you wean or stop cold turkey? 

We did a dream feed for a few months at like 10 or 11 at night and when we started feeling that it wasn't effective anymore, we started dropping down the amounts.  There were a couple of weeks where we were on stand-by in the event he woke up hungry in the middle of the night, and we'd have like a 2-oz bottle ready.

4. What are you bedtime routines? 

He eats solids at around 6, and we try to wash it down with a bottle, but he's not always that hungry.  We do bath every other night.  Then, we go to his bedroom, get him changed in to PJs, read 3 or 4 books, go around the room saying goodnight to everything, I put him in his crib, give him his pacifier and his lovey, and wait for his little eyes to close. 

ElleMF728

1. We do DBA.  We started trying around 3 months, I would try to put him down 2 or 3 times but if he fusses I would just rock him to sleep and try again the next night.  Eventually it just got easier and easier. There were obviously set backs with teething, crawling, pulling up etc. but in general he has figured it out.  

2. DS goes down awake for naps and bedtime a lot at this point though some nights he is more tired than others. Everything we did was in baby steps, little changes that brought us closer to being able to put him down awake. There was a few nights when we stayed in his room while he fussed and then picked him up to comfort if he started crying but that was more related to rolling and crawling than going down awake.  

3. We just weaned from his 3/4 am feed and are on 1 MOTN feed pretty consistently as of last week.  DS2 tends to eat around 11:30-12 am and then is good until morning.  I much prefer weaning, I did it with my first and found it pretty easy and very low stress from me and LO. The boys are basically on the same timeline since they both went down to one eat around 7 months and I'll attempt to drop this last MOTN wake around 9 or 10 months probably if he doesn't do it on his own. 

4. Our bedtime routine is pretty basic.  Lullabies, bottles, cuddles then bed. I start with the lights dim and then turn them off at the end.  We use white noise as well.  A few nights a week he does DS1's bedtime routine with him when Dad isn't home so we do some Monkeys jumping on the bed but that doesn't happen too often. 

irenejean

1. For those of you doing "drowsy but awake", how long did it take before LO could put self to sleep? 
It didn't take very long for LO to learn to put himself to sleep, but some nights we had to go into his room several times to put his pacifier back in his mouth. He still has nights when it takes him a while to get to sleep, but we don't go into his room nearly as much as we used to. For both naps and night time sleeping the lovey made a huge difference for us, I think it would have taken much longer for him to learn to put himself to sleep without it. 

2. Does anyone still rock, hold, or nurse to sleep? Is anyone able to just put their baby down awake to sleep at night? If so, what did you do that you found successful? 
We just put him down with a pacifier and his lovey, we only go in when his pacifier falls out. We swaddled until he was 3 months, then we used the merlin sleepsuit. Both of those helped a ton, I think it was because we only used them for nighttime sleeping (not for naps) and they were cues to LO that he was going to bed. Last week we stopped using the Merlin and his nighttime sleeping has still been great, he still puts himself to sleep thankfully!

3. For those who are stopping night time feedings, did you wean or stop cold turkey? 
LO has been formula fed since week 2, and we weaned him from nighttime feedings over time. We noticed LO falling asleep during MOTN feedings (after maybe drinking an ounce or two), so we started giving him a pacifier during MOTN instead of a bottle. If LO went back to sleep after getting his pacifier, we knew he wasn't hungry, but if he kept spitting his pacifier out we would feed him. We noticed when he was sick and wouldn't eat as much during the day, he was more likely to need a MOTN feeding. I think he was completely done with MOTN feedings around 4.5 months. 

4. What are you bedtime routines? 
We do one last feeding anytime between 6:30 and 7:30, change his diaper, change into jammies, read a book, put him in his sleepsack, put him in his crib, turn on the white noise machine, give him his pacifier and lovey, turn off the lights and leave. Pretty easy for us!

missliz53

1. I think we were blessed with a really good nighttime sleeper. We started doing drowsy, but awake at 2 months and we almost never have to pick her up to soothe her. She goes down without a pacifier at night and will occasionally wake up in the middle of the night and then I do give her a pacifier and shush her for a few minutes and she is golden. Sometimes she'll talk to herself for about 5 mn before falling asleep. 

2. We really didn't do anything special. We still loosely swaddle her with her arms out. We stopped at 3 months and then the 4 month sleep regression hit. She's too long for a sleep sack and I hated how they bunched around her legs anyways. But she loves being cuddled up in a blanket. She doesn't try to break out of it even though she easily could and isn't interested in rolling onto her stomach. 

3. She stopped the nighttime feedings on her own. First she dropped the 5 am feeding. She would wake up and I would try to feed her and she's eat an ounce max so I stopped. Then her 2 am feeding started getting later and later until now she goes until 4 or 6 am. But when she wakes up she is super hungry. Eventually I will probably start weaning this feeding down, but right now she is already at 8-10 hrs between her bedtime and early morning feed. She does better with slow transitions and she really does need to eat.

4. We start bedtime around 7:30 pm. We brush her teeth, do pj's and a fresh diaper, then she plays until 8. We dim the lights, She gets her last bottle at 8 and is very drowsy after that. We lay her down, swaddle her, turn on white noise. Turn off her light and leave the room. 

ReneeJ2011

1.  LO will go to bed completely awake and put himself to sleep without difficulty. This started when we moved him to his crib around 4.5 months (we Co slept before)  
2.  I do this sometimes though. There are some.nights especially if he is really tired he will fall asleep nursing and then I just hold and cuddle him because I can and he is so busy during the day sometimes this is the only time I get cuddles. He has done it all on his own so I don't really have any advice on how to get them to do it. 
3. We still feed at night.  He goes down between 6 and 7 and usually wakes up to eat around 3 then is up for the day around 5 or 6. He is taking a full feed at 3 so I know that he needs it  I decided that I don't care that the ped says he doesn't need to eat at night. I call BS, if he is crying in distress and eating a full feed every night around the same time I feel like he needs it so I get up and feed him, so I can't help you here. 
4.  We eat dinner around 530 or 6 and then it is bath, pjs, then depending on the time maybe a little play or a book, then nurse and when he is finished input him in his bed. 

hlb8179

LO is 7 1/2 months now. We started drowsy but awake when we transitioned her to her crib at 6 months. Before that she was in rock n play then pack n play. To put her down DBA, we started by patting and shushing until she stopped fussing. We stepped out of the room when she was quiet but often had to go back in because she would fuss as soon as we left. It's only this week that we can set her in crib, say goodnight, leave and not have to go back in at all. So about a month and a half altogether. 

We still rock and sing before laying her down but ensure that she is awake while we do this. 

She is currently waking up twice in twelve hours to eat about 2 ounces each time. We have been weaning these down but she still wakes and is eager to eat at these times. We tried cold turkey at our ped's recommendation at 6 months but she cried for too long so we decided to wean. I believe that she doesn't need to eat but she cries so much if we don't feed her that I don't know what else to do. 

We have a very structured bedtime routine that we stick to like clockwork every night. I believe this is why she sleeps exactly twelve hours every single night. When I get home from work with her at 5:30, we go for a walk. We have dinner at 6. She has naked tummy time at 6:20. She takes a bath at 6:30. We do massage and PJ's at 6:40. She has her last nursing at 6:45. At 6:55, we read the same short story then sing the same song and she is down at 7. It sounds crazy but we all like the structure. 

Thanks for bringing up this topic. I'm obsessed with talking about her sleep and am always thinking about how to help her get better at it!