Sleep training methods - poll and info gathering

gymnst1013

I need to start researching sleep training methods and there has been a bit of talk about it - CIO at least - here today.  And I thought what better place to start researching than by asking my June Mom friends!

So tell me, what different methods of sleep training have you found?  How do they work?  What do you plan on using, if you plan on using anything at all?  2+ moms, have you found any method to be more successful than another?

bt3701

So far I'm liking Ferber. It's CIO, but he lays out a schedule on which you check on/reassure baby. The idea is each night you go for longer periods of time that the baby cries, until they finally get it that some self-soothing is in order. I'm hoping we won't have to do much CIO... But I'm not opposed to it once the baby is old enough-at minimum 4 months. Well, I say that now, let's see what happens when it's my own child! I also looked af Weissbluth's book, but found it harder to read. It's a similar method to Ferber (CIO) but less checking on baby. Pretty much I've looked into these two because they came highly recommended in Baby 411.

skidunks

I guess we did CIO with G, it's a bit foggy right now. I know he put him to bed and would check on him after 5 minutes, then 10 minutes, then 15 minutes if it got that long, which it rarely did. I know I had to turn the monitor off so I couldn't hear him crying because it made me want to run in there but the kid is a great sleeper now so it worked.

mari_gold

We did Ferber with DS at 5 months. It's letting the baby cry while you check on them in gradually lengthening intervals. I'm not going to lie, it was a miserable experience, but something had to change. DS was waking hourly and I was back at work, so no naps for mommy. Anyway, if I have to, I would do it again, but I hope it's not an issue.

I also read Weissbluth's book but found his method too harsh - he advocates putting the baby to bed and not checking on him, because he says it draws out the period of training.

waterfall11

We still feed/soothe to sleep for bed at night, but we started CIO for naps at 8 weeks. We tried going in and patting DD bottome (she naps on tummy) to calm her, but after day 1 it just upset her more. If she got too upset or just wasnt going down we did just get her up for the first couple days. A week in, she typically goes to sleep within 5 to 15 min and that is always with less than 5 min crying. We found that when she is tired she will either cry in our arms and not go to sleep or she can cry a few minutes in her bed and get the sleep she needs. I decided to try this after talking with several moms who didnt do CIO with their first child but did with their second because they had to soothe the first to sleep every time until they  were 3 or 4 years old. 

I liked Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child. He says CIO is fastest, but also says it is ok to soothe to sleep, just be consistent in what you do.  

DD has gone from basically not napping two weeks ago to napping 4 times a day, two 45 min naps and two hour to two hr naps. writing down what time I put her down helped because a minute of crying seemed like an eternity until I saw how short a time it really ws. 

waterfall11

I don't have DD on a schedule (its too early for that) but we follow a routine of eat, play, sleep. When she shows tired cues we move to quieter play, read a book or two, I sing her a song and then say "ok, its time for your nap. Mommy loves you", kiss her and then lay her in her crib with her blanket in her hand. I talked with a lot of people about what worked for their kids and then tried them out with DD to find what worked best for her.

3Girls3xsTheFun

This is something I have never done. I'm not sure why DD needs a nap schedule and even though she consistently wakes at 3a to feed, I'm nowhere close to letting her CIO so I can sleep. I will feed her for 20 mins & go back to sleep. Maybe if I had an overtired baby during the day or a terrible night sleeper, I might look into it. Right now, and for the next few months, I plan on following her sleep patterns.

hannahruth32

I am such a wuss and could never let DS CIO.  We were lucky though because he started STTN at like 2 months old and DD seems to be following the same pattern.  He slept in the swing til like 6 months because of acid reflux.  I had DD in the RNP and just put her in the swing because she grunted constantly. We keep it right by our bed.  Her acid reflux is worse than DS, and I just don't feel safe putting her anywhere else right now.  We are on meds. but she is still struggling.  We do baths about every other night and don't have a rigid routine.  We just try to start winding both kids down at the same time.  DS is starting Pre-K, so we are going to try to get him to bed earlier. 

kimeve

Lots of moms on the AP board have used The No Cry Sleep Solution. I haven't read it, but it's probably what we'll use since we're more AP.

DaisyJanie

I'm starting to use the Baby Whisperer technique.

pmpkn219

We're planning to Ferberize. Not sure when, and I'm sure we'll modify as needed, but that approach is the "plan"

I don't agree with any CIO that involves letting them cry unattended until they pass out, that seems harsh. But gradual short intervals seems to make sense

march2008

DD is a very good night-time sleeper and I really didn't do a whole lot to get her there. I honestly had never heard of the term sleeping training until reading about it on these forums and when my pediatrician randomly asked about it at our last check-up. All I do is just watch for DD's tired cues and respond accordingly. I guess we kind of tweaked what time she goes down for the night by transitioning her last nap of the night to her actual bed-time.

DD used to have a period of fussiness every evening between 9-11:30 pm. We realized that she was probably over-tired and decided to try something different one night. We previously interacted with her after her last nap of the late evening, but we found that she was always terribly fussy that late.

What we started doing differently was, when she awoke from her last nap of the evening, we brought her into her bedroom and turned on only the red light (supposed to not stimulate the baby at all like white/yellow lights do) and without talking, I fed her, changed her, swaddled her and soothed her back to sleep. We put her down in the crib for the night and she just started sleeping longer stretches all on her own with time.

We followed her own natural rhythm and it totally worked. She is SO much less fussy at night with the additional sleep she's getting. We were clued in about really watching for LO's natural rhythm by the sleep chapter of the American Academy of Pediatric's baby book. They said around 6-8 weeks, maybe babies would need to start going to bed between 6-8 pm, and that's what made us decide to make her last nap the actual start of bedtime.

egpitt22

mari_gold:

We did Ferber with DS at 5 months. It's letting the baby cry while you check on them in gradually lengthening intervals. I'm not going to lie, it was a miserable experience, but something had to change. DS was waking hourly and I was back at work, so no naps for mommy. Anyway, if I have to, I would do it again, but I hope it's not an issue.

I could have written this myself; DS 1 was a horrible sleeper and went from bad to worse as time went on.  No one was sleeping, we were all miserable, so we did Ferber.  The book is helpful to read, but essentially, you're just building up increments of time and going in to check on them. 

I was breastfeeding and found that it worked best if DH did all of the "checks"; if Jake saw me in the room, he would absolutely freak out, thinking that the all-night buffet was re-opening.  DH could soothe him much better than I could. 

Liam is 12 weeks old now & only getting up once/night to nurse, which I can handle.  but if he regresses into the once every hour business like his older brother, I wouldn't hesitate to use Ferber again down the road.

Magenta728

The Sleep Lady! https://www.amazon.com/Sleep-Ladys-Good-Night-Tight/dp/1593155581/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313530383&sr=8-1

During the day, I put DD down in a swaddler with her pacifier when I see her "tired" cues. I put her down "drowsy but awake." She has learned to fall asleep on her own. The case is the same at night. If she starts to fuss or cry, I'll rub her belly and let her know I'm there without picking her up.

The trick is not creating the habit of always rocking the baby to sleep. Follow LO's tired cues and put her/him drowsy but awake to fall asleep on his/her own.

My results: she falls asleep on her own. During the day, she takes really short naps, but at night, for the past week and a half, she STTN for about 8 hours