Sleep training advice

lovemyminions

To follow my last post, suggestions for eliminating the 1pm wake up and bottle.  Last night we tried letting her cry.  She cried hard for about 45 mins, was quiet for 10min than cried again for like 20 more minutes.  At that point I got a bottle and went to her.  As soon as I opened her door she stopped crying.  I tried rubbing her back and stepped away from the crib but she started fussing again.  I gave her the bottle and she went back to sleep.  Did I give up too soon?  How long should you let a baby cry?

 Thanks for your help ladies!

Athena0809

I'm by nO means an expert, and my child wakes up 3-4 times a night but, I posted this question on the AP board and someone suggested the sleep lady shuffle, and it's working! I'm not comfortable with CIO only because ( IMHO) I believe it teaches them that you are not coming or that if you cave in, they just have to cry harder for you to come in...anyway, with the sleep lady shuffle he cried the first night, with me by his side, for about 20 min, second night no crying and now I'm able to place him in bed I don't even have to soothe him ( I just have to be near) and he falls asleep on his own. All kids are different and parents have a different level of tolerance as well but in our case it's working. 

jg_girl1

We kind of did our own modified sleep training method. I never really let DD cry very hard. If she is just pouting and appears like she is tired (laying down etc) I will let her cry for a bit. If she full on screams and stands up we get her out of the crib. The first thing we did was move her last feeding to before bedtime routine. This broke her association with eating and going to sleep (made a very big difference). If she woke up during the night and wanted to eat we would rock her back to sleep (even if it took an hour of rocking) eventually she started eating more at her last feeding and not wanting any food at night. I think the key to whatever method you decide is just being consistent. Our pedi told us it was important to not give her the bottle when she wakes otherwise we would never break the waking cycle.

Also as a side note I got her the musical seahorse toy. She has become really attached to it and uses it to put herself back to sleep. Every once in a while I hear the music playing and she is calming herself back to sleep. I know she is ready to get out of bed in the morning because she stands up and throws the toy out of the crib.

urbanflowerpot

We did a modified version, too. We did bedsharing and currently co-sleep (same room) - every time something stops working we just move onto a new method. DS kept waking 45 min after putting him down, insisting it was time to eat. I had to shut it down. It was obv habbitual and he wasn't hungry. I let him cry/pout and would go in to reassure him saying, "I'll be back." and eventually he got the point. I don't think for a second he knew what my words meant but he caught the gist of it.

I really think he's just a bad sleeper, though. H and and I are. He would wake 3-4 times a night after we'd go to bed...then one day it stopped and unless he's sick he sleeps from 9-6, wakes to nurse, then down again til around 7:30/8. We just had to wait for him to come around. 

He was terrified of the seahorse and gloworm!!!!! but most kids aren't so that is a good idea. I found a crib soother at a second hand store that he learned to work and that's been like magic for us here!