Recommend your sleep strategy... what worked?

dunvilles

The past three weeks have been horrible as far as sleep goes in my house. DS used to sleep 8-3, nurse, sleep 3:30-6. Now he is up every 2 hours & screams if I try to put him in his own bed. As soon as he's in my arms he's happy & falls asleep... but I don't want him sleeping in our bed because DH is a very sound sleeper & I wouldn't want anything to happen to DS. I also don't sleep well when he is beside me bc I worry about him non stop....

 Help! I am so tired!! I've always said I'd never do CIO... but at this point I'm willing to try anything...

first-time-mama

We did CIO .. it worked for us..But not for everyone..But at somepoint you just get burnt out and need to do something else.  Noah woke up a few times in the night..but I let him cry (not hard hard) but he fell back to sleep within 5-6 mins.  GL

dunvilles

I tried the CIO all day yesterday for naps/bedtime. He eventually cried so hard that he was rigid & red..

StephanieDeanne

I was one who said I'd never CIO.  Well, that is what it came down to.  I read the Sleep Sense Program, and Ferber's book.  I really liked Ferber's book and so we ust gave it a go.  2 nights later and she was putting herself to sleep just fine, she still gets up once to eat (she is tiny and so I am not surprised) but we'll work on getting rid of it eventually, she has gradually moved it later and later too, mostly because I think she can put herself back to sleep at night now and only cries when she is really hungry.  She only cried about 30 min the first night, and 25 min the second night, not sure what happened the third night, like it just clicked, cause she fussed for 2 minutes and was out. 

The thing that I had to realize was that she was crying because she was upset in the change of routine, but that the change of routine was good for her because she had to learn self soothing and be able to put herself to sleep.  She isn't crying because she is hurt, or feeling bad, she is crying because she is ticked that something changed.  She go over it, and your DS will too.

GL!

CJ2008

We did a modified No-Cry to start and then it progressed into a sort of Ferber lol. When we started DD was swaddled and rocked to sleep all the time, Now she goes to sleep awake and STTN. We started by rocking to just barely awake, and laying down, then laying down and wiggling the crib, etc. If he falls asleep in your arms try the same thing, hold him till he's almost out, then put him down barely awake, and progress from there. Yes, he will wake up more in the beginning but it gets better fast! We still check on DD at the least every 5 min, but 90% of the time she goes down without a fight. We are currently phasing out her binky too, and she only gets it once a day or every other day now. GL!!!

jonnygurl76

sleep sense program worked for us, we haven't had a problem at night--really needed it for naps and it is working out great!  she is napping right now!

Tara Ell

All of the strategies work as long as your consistent. For DS the big thing was getting him to stop associating nursing with sleep. We changed his routine to nurse first, then bathtime, story, and into bed awake. He cried a bit for a few nights but after only  nights, he learned to put himself to sleep. His naps got longer and he began sleepin ghtrough the night in 1 week. The CIO was rough, but I am so glad I did it because he really needed to learn how to sleep. He is a much happier, well rested baby now.