Ferber ladies....what about in the middle of the night?

JayandJack

We are going to start sleep training Jack probably in the next couple of days. We've gotten into a bad habit of rocking him to sleep. The inital put down I don't think will be that bad because he usually falls asleep pretty quickly and we've put him down with out rocking him but what did you do for the middle of the night ones? Is it easier to start on the weekends because of the middle of the night ones?

DH has been waking up with Jack so I could get use to my routine of going back to work full time. He says it takes him about an hour to get him back to sleep and it's starting to take it's toll on him. It never took me that long while I was out of work so I'm not sure what's changed.

JayandJack

MrsRosie:

Have you read the book?  Middle of the night is the same routine/intervals as bedtime.

ETA: That sounded snarky.  Totally didn't mean it that way.  I mean the book has all the info in there about middle of the night.

Yeah, I read the book and DH is reading it now. I guess I probably asked the wrong way. I should have asked how the middle of the night one went and how long did it take for them to catch on for that one?

ali-1411

Layna was similar - by 6-7 months old, she went right to sleep at bedtime.  But she would wake up constantly throughout the night and it would take forever to get her back down.

CIO worked very quickly for her.  I read Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child and its an extinction method.  There's no intervals to check on them, you just let them cry.  It worked immediately, those first few nights she never cried more than 10-15 minutes.  We would have setbacks, its not a magic cure. More of a lifestyle change.  

ACR

Middle of the night was always our problem. DS could fall asleep easily, but he'd wake and not be able to put himself back to bed. Ferber in the middle of the night was very difficult for us (he could last for several hours without falling back asleep & do that for several nights in a row). So, I would recommend starting on a weekend so that you won't feel so stressed about needing to get back to sleep if Jack decides to take a while.

 

ebat

ACR:

Middle of the night was always our problem. DS could fall asleep easily, but he'd wake and not be able to put himself back to bed. Ferber in the middle of the night was very difficult for us (he could last for several hours without falling back asleep & do that for several nights in a row). So, I would recommend starting on a weekend so that you won't feel so stressed about needing to get back to sleep if Jack decides to take a while.

 

us too, I reccomend putting a pillow outside the bedroom, it's a lot easier than going back to your room and listening to the moniter

kiarox2002

ebat:

ACR:

Middle of the night was always our problem. DS could fall asleep easily, but he'd wake and not be able to put himself back to bed. Ferber in the middle of the night was very difficult for us (he could last for several hours without falling back asleep & do that for several nights in a row). So, I would recommend starting on a weekend so that you won't feel so stressed about needing to get back to sleep if Jack decides to take a while.

 

us too, I reccomend putting a pillow outside the bedroom, it's a lot easier than going back to your room and listening to the moniter

Ditto.  Middle of the night was awful.  It took about 3 nights for initial falling asleep and about 10 days for her to sleep through the night.  She would scream/ cry for about an hour each time she woke up (she woke up several times each night.)  We followed the intervals exactly, but I cheated a tiny bit in the middle of the night and would rub her back for a few minutes if she was really worked up.  It was awful.  She has reverted to waking up one or two times a night again, but I go in there.  I can't listen to her cry like that again.  Of course, once or twice a night I can handle.  I wasn't functioning when she woke up every hour all night long. 

mcurban

middle of the night was easy for us for both boys. it was the getting them down to start w/ that was hard.

i would actually recommend starting on a Thursday night. That way, you might have a crap day on Friday, but you'll already be one day down (and three days in by the time you need to go back to work).