Sleep poll

sistrkate

I'm curious how many people have done some form of sleep training.
[Poll]

hannah&ben

I wasn't sure how to answer.  Henry is a crummy sleeper but we've not done any 'sleep training'.  We just try to stick to a routine and trust he'll sleep longer when he's ready to sleep longer through the night.  He goes down easy, he just likes to wake up a whole bunch

curlypie1

Around 9 months, I started semi-training. I was having issues putting Nora down for the night. She'd nurse to sleep and be up a half hour later. That's the only time during the night where I tried not to respond so quickly to her. She eventually grew out of that but didn't grow out of waking every 2 or 3 hours until 14 months. I knew she'd start needing more sleep eventually so I just waited it out. It was really rough though.

KristenBtobe

We Ferbered (and still follow the plan when needed) when Maggie was close to 7 months.We were at the end of our rope and we didn't feel like we were doing her any favors by not being consistent with our approach to dealing with night wakings. If you haven't, read the book in its entirety.  I think there's a lot of misconceptions out there about Ferber and understanding sleep patterns.

All of you with older kiddos were very supportive of me when Maggie was at her worst sleep-wise. I know you're struggling right now...I hope you can find a plan that you feel comfortable with.

MelissaMc22

You are not a broken record, sleep issues take over everything!!

I say this as S is upstairs screaming right now and we have done absolutely everything possible tonite. uggg...

Praying it's not such a long night for both of us!

Oh, and we are DEFINITELY considering sleep training as well.

 

Moesten

Luckily we didn't have too many issues with bedtime which I credit to strict adherence to a simple routine and the fact that I never allowed her to nurse to sleep. That is what worked for us at least.

Our problem was night wakings. We Ferbered at 7.5 months for night wakings and it was a pretty quick process. 

cops_wife

I'm an "other." Ellie didn't STTN for forever, but we did not Ferber or do any other sleep training, although I did read No-Cry Sleep Solution and try some of that. CIO would not have worked for the kind of kid she is. I worked with her slowly to get her first in her crib, then sleeping better. She now STTN most nights (knock on wood).

To be perfectly honest, I don't think any of us deserve credit or blame for how our kids sleep. It's just like everything else. Ellie's a great eater, and I'd love to take credit for her love of green veggies and the fact that she'll eat just about anything, but it's nothing I did. We just got lucky in that respect. She's a crap sleeper, and it's just because that's who she is. We joke that our next kid will probably sleep wonderfully, be a horribly picky eater, walk early and not talk until they're 2. I think it's the luck of the draw.

JLPT830

I also wanted to just throw out there that sometimes you can do all the "right" things and still have sleep issues and sometimes you can do all the "wrong" things and have a great sleeper.  I really have no advice on sleep training.  I answered "no" because I have a pretty decent sleeper, but it's definitely not because of anything I've done.  I nursed DS to sleep every night.  If he didn't fall asleep nursing, I rocked him to sleep.  I continued to rock him to drowsy until the last few months when he started requesting to get in his crib.  But I know that my parents rock him to sleep at naptime at their house still.  He does well either way.  We have always stuck to a bedtime routine, and we started that pretty early on.  I just wanted to throw this out there because I know it's easy to jump to try something new that you don't totally feel is the right path for you and your family just because it worked for someone else.  I can't imagine what it would feel like to get little sleep night after night, but I do know how it feels to try to "force" something on my DC because I thought it was the "right" thing to do.  I hope you find something that works for you and Tyler soon!!

cat81305

I voted special snowflake b/c both my kids are different and I have never followed one specific model.  With DS we did not do anything with him til we moved him into the twin bed and then we just did the progressively leaving the room to get him comfortable.  WIth that said, he has never slept all the way thru the night (woke to eat when younger and now to find paci (or get us in there - as you can tell from my FB statuses).  With DD, she has slept thru the night since she was 4weeks or so, so no sleep training there either.  UGH!!  I just need my sleep right now b/c DS has been waking constantly which in turn wakes DD.  Good luck with whatever you choose and know that you are an amazing mommy and you need to do what you feel is the right thing to do!!

kel716

I voted Special Snowflake.  I read a tiny amount of Ferber + info on these boards.  Essentially we sort of did Ferber...  in the sense that we let him CIO a little, went in and checked on him, etc.... We never really timed it.  B's room is next door to our office, so I'd put him down at night and piddle a bit on the computer.  If he fussed for what seemed like too long, I went in there.  We started this semi ferber thing around 8-9 mos. 

However- and this is a big one- we let him fall asleep with a bottle until about 2 weeks ago (so almost 18 mos).  If he started screaming after we put him down, and it carried on for a while, we just refilled his milk.  I know, bad habit, but for the most part it worked and most nights he didn't need a refill.   We had a hard time breaking ourselves of this habit because it just worked for us.  We actually stopped doing this about 2 weeks ago (see earlier posts).  It took DH a long time to let go of the bottle; I think because he's afraid of dehydration issues.  That first week of his life when B was severely dehydrated still has us living with fear of it happening again, so it took a long time to work through that and I had to convince dh that B really wasn't thirsty... just needed the bottle for comfort.  Anyway, I digress.  The point is that while we kind of did Ferber, we used a huge crutch.  While I think it's ok before age 1, it really needed to stop around that point in time.  So while it might work for you now, be warned that it's kind of like breaking the carseat habit if you let it go too long, kwim?   And for those interested- we have now been bottle free for 48 hrs and haven't needed a bottle at bedtime for a few weeks (YAY!)

MrsMoher

We sorta did Ferber... we let him CIO to get him to sleep (and he picked it up within a week), but we did not do that in the middle of the night.  He just eventually got it overnight, but it wasn't consistent until about 9 or 10 months that he would STTN.

KristenBtobe

Oh and I totally agree with the idea that none of us deserve too much credit for having good or difficult sleepers. While there certainly are some things we do to enhance it (or build bad habits) either way depending on the personality of our child, it's really a function of the genetic pool, I guess.

If I were you (and not knowing his temperament) I would go cold turkey from the carseat for bed time and gradually wean out for naps. I found naps the hardest to wean Maggie off the swing.

adamsbabble

Well you're poll results will be a little off b/c of me b/c I intended to vote once for each child, and didn't know it wasn't going to let me vote again.  So anyway... I voted "no I have a wonderful child" for Ava and had intended to vote for vampire baby for Charlotte (lol!). 

Really she is not that bad, but she's just so inconsistent whereas Ava just naturally desires a routine (she's always been this way) and likes her sleep.  Charlotte may give me some good nights here and there and I get excited and hopeful about it, but to date she has never STTN.  She has had some nights where she has only woke up once (compared to what a fantastic sleeper Ava was and still is, that is not STTN in my book, lol).  More often she wakes at least twice and will go back to bed right after nursing (or sometimes just latching on and snuggling a bit).  Then there are some nights that are just terrible.  We were at a point a couple months ago where she was waking every.freaking.hour.  She's an inconsistent napper as well. 

What I do try to do is have a pretty consistent nighttime routine, but other than that I'm not into sleep training.  Call me crazy, because I could really use some decent all night sleep, but I just can't let her cry.  If she were miserable during the day because of her crappy sleep, I may consider some type of gentle sleep training b/c I wouldn't want her to be miserable.  However, she is generally in a good mood so I believe she is getting what she needs.  Also, since she is at least making some progress (even if it's slow) at sleeping in longer stretches and is starting to sleep part-time in her own room, I am still willing to just go with the flow and follow her lead about what she needs.  I don't have her on a timeline or have any expectations like "you need to be STTN and in your own crib all night by 12 months" or anything.  She is making some progress, and I know we'll get there eventually, but no we don't do any sleep training.