Sleep Training- Tell me about your experience!

Caroline422

I've got to start doing some sleep training.

DD is getting up still 1 or 2x a night. Which isn't bad. BUTTT we're in the habbit now of her nursing when she wakes up. She's slept in her crib since about 8 weeks old. And sometimes she will go back to sleep while she's awake in the crib during the middle of the night (rarely). So I think it would be effective, but I'm sure hard at first.

 I just don't know how to go about it exactly. I've read some stuff, but I feel that personal experience speaks louder than an article I read on the internet.

So please tell me about your experience and at what age did you do it?

 

Thanks!

raceyrae

I did sleep training with both girls around 5 mo. old.  We did interval CIO based on what I read in Sleep Easy Solution.  Natalie started STTN the first night we did CIO at 5.5 mo. but still had nights of waking up every so often until around 9 mo old when she was more consistent about it (she's still a vocal sleeper - wakes up, moves around, cries out, goes back to sleep, sometimes needs me to come up, etc.).  We did CIO with Claire at 4.5 mo.  It took much less time for her to settle and go to sleep on her own compared to Natalie (took Claire only about 20-30 min) but she didn't start STTN on her own.  She kept waking up to nurse 1-2 times a night.  About 2 weeks ago, I decided to try CIO during the night since I knew she was only nursing out of habit (she would wake up one night at 11 p.m. and then the next night not till 3 a.m. so I knew she didn't really need to get up at 11 p.m.).  The first two days she dropped her 11 p.m. feeding and then dropped her 3 a.m. on her own.  Only occassionally does she get up now and usually STTN.  If she does wake up, she usually will fall back to sleep on her own with 15 min but sometimes I need to go up to settle her (rock, etc.) -- once in a while I do nurse her but only maybe 4 times in the last 3 weeks.  Good luck.

tracelini

We aren't doing any sleep training (nor do I really plan on it)...so I don't know what this advice is worth, but I'm going to post it anyways!

We've just let DS tell us what he's ready for, and I think this is partially because he's been an incredibly easy baby for the most part. I stressed over the whole sleep thing in the first couple of months, but now I've decided he will get there when he gets there. By letting him guide us at night, we've gone from feeding every 2 hours to now only feeding once or twice a night (most times once) and he barely makes a fuss aside from the feeding times. (granted this is not including while he was teething really horrible last week) But I think for some babies (not all) but some, if you let them tell you, then they will figure it out on their own.

That being said, I'm not sure what you're situation is, so take my advice for what it's worth! GL!

WendyNC

Unfortunately neither of mine were naturally good sleepers and being a working mom I could not wait around for them to eventually get it on their own.  Learning to self soothe and sleep are very important and unfortunately some babies need more help than others with it.  I had to do it around 4 months with my first b/c she was constantly waking up at night, I mean every hour and I was exhausted.  I read multiple sleep books (Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, the Sleep Easy Solution, Ferber's Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems).  We pretty much ended up doing straight up CIO b/c "checking" on her made it way worse.  She was sleeping much much better within one weekend.  I continued to feed her one bottle overnight for just a couple of weeks until she dropped herself.  She started sleeping much better when she learned to roll onto her tummy and also find her passy.  She was pretty much an awesome sleeper by about 6 months.

With my second, it was a little different b/c I nursed her until 9 months.  She was still nursing at 11 pm and again around 3 am for a long time.  I had a harder time figuring out what to do with her and a harder time doing CIO.  With my first, I just felt like she was ready and could handle it (you just have to know your baby).  I finally started letting her cry through that 11 pm feeding and I continued to nurse her sometime overnight until around 7 months when I did more letting her cry.  She's just now in the last month consistently STTN with the exception of sometimes putting the passy back in if she can't find one. 

Honestly, my best advice is pick something and be consistent.  It was a much longer process with my second b/c I couldn't make up my mind what I wanted to do and I was sometimes inconsistent.  You may think straight up CIO is cruel, but it usually works the quickest and equates to much less crying overall than Ferber style "checks."  You can read about that in Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child (extinction vs. graduated extinction). I also think it works better to do it sooner rather than later and that it just gets tougher and tougher as they get older and more aware.  Good luck!