needing reassurance...

maiastar

My Pedi suggested letting LO cry at timed intervals when she wakes from sleep in order for her to learn how to self soothe and get back to sleep on her own. She is 6 months, EBF, and goes to sleep well in her crib. She is nursed and then put down in the crib awake.  She falls asleep well on her own and wakes usually every 2-3 hours to nurse. Around 1:30 or 3:30 am she wakes up babbling and will do this for an hour and then start crying.  It has been taking us between 2 and 3 hours to get her back to sleep (rocking, holding, shushing), and then she wakes for the day at 5.  Nobody is getting much sleep.  Anyways, we are not comfortable with letting her cry (CIO).  Im looking for reassurance that eventually she will get it on her own without having to sleep train...6 months is still little and im not looking for sttn, but did any of you find that your older ones finally slept better on their own without having to let them learn to self soothe or CIO??

danienross

I don't know how reassuring this is but we've never done any kind of sleep training and my 20mos old STTN.  She still nurses to sleep for her nap and bedtime though.  We also had stretches in the past where she would STTN but then teething, an illness, or daddy being away (we're preparing for a deployment so he's had some training) has messed us up.  I probably need to work on her being able to self soothe since we're expecting another LO this October and DH is deploying in September.  But I believe that children will STTN when ready to do so and always ignored the pedi's sleep advice.

anhg80

I'll preface this with saying we still have a long way to go with sleep in this house

If there's one thing I liked from Ferber's book, it was his introduction that acknowledged that when parents ask about sleep, it's often because parents are at their wit's end.  There's a high correlation between how well a child sleeps and the incidence of PPD in mothers for a reason.  Now, if you're ok with how things are, then don't worry about it.

That being said, there are things you can look into before CIO.   Perhaps you LO is getting too stimulated by being picked up and shushed (I've heard this often happens around 6 months), and you need to develop another soothing method.  We've been exploring "wake to sleep" (great success the first day... less so now).  I've heard great things about the No Cry Sleep Solution and the Baby Whisperer.  

Good luck to you!