If you sleep trained, how long did it take?

lucylove619

We are on night 8 of Ferber and DD has been crying for over 20 minutes. One night she cried for 12 but every other night she has cried for at least this long. This is at her first waking, around midnight. She is still waking at 4 and I am nursing her then. I feel like this is just not working for us. She is still waking and screaming, does not seem to be improving. Should it take this long? How many more nights do we give it? She is going to sleep fine on her own at bedtime and rarely cries more than 10 minutes for naps. I am wondering if she is just not ready? We can't handle many more nights of this, I feel like if she is still waking up and crying I might as well just keep nursing her so we can all sleep.

oliversmommy32912

Honestly after a week with no improvement I would call it quits. CIO is not for all babies, just like CIO is the only thing that works for other babies. Have you tried any other methods? I hear great things about the No Cry Sleep Solution (although it did not work for us at all). Maybe take a break and try again in a month or two.

We used the Sleepeasy Solution which is pretty much the same as the Ferber method and we were very lucky that it worked overnight. We did not cut night time feedings though. He has never been a big eater so I felt like he needed the extra milk. He eventually started sleeping through the night. We were using the sleep training to get him to fall asleep without our help and to sleep in his own crib (before he would only sleep on me).

I am a firm believer in doing what feels right to you. If you feel good about continuing with Ferber then continue. If you feel like it's not working for your baby then try something else. You know your baby better than anyone else. Trust your instincts.

ktpaladino

How old is your LO? I am on my phone so I can't see your ticker if you have one. I would say try giving her a break and revisiting the method a month or two later. She might not be ready for it yet. What we did with my DS was we slowly introduced him to the Sleepeasy ideas just after 4 months, like putting him down awake and letting him fuss himself to sleep sometimes for naps. This way he got some practice under his belt, and THEN we started the training full on at 5.5 months. It was like a light switch and worked almost immediately since he already knew some self soothing skills. If it doesn't work, then just keep trying other methods. Eventually something will stick!

starswinger

After trying all methods, we did CIO with checking on him at intervals. The first night was 45 minutes but then it was 20 for a few days after an then 10 minutes. Then he got sick and we had to start all over again a couple weeks later.

What I have learned is that if we put him down when he just starts showing tired signs, he is still not tired enough to want to sleep so he will scream a long time. If we do it maybe a half hour later, he will go down after 5 minutes. 

So maybe try putting him down a bit later?

ktpaladino

I agree with the pp, there is like a "magic window" you have to find...put them down when they are really sleepy but not sleeping. I learned how to get him to the perfect amount of tiredness after about a week of trial and error.

lucylove619

Thanks! I feel like such a failure when it comes to sleeping, all my friends babies sleep so well and we are having so many problems! It is so frustrating. I think we may revisit it again in a few weeks and see if we have better luck. I know she is not hungry but I can't figure out why she keeps waking up. But I figure if she was ready to drop the first wake up, she would have done it after 8 nights of crying. The night I posted she cried for an hour, so I finally nursed her and decided to take a training break.

angsmith505

I started to sleep train my baby at 6 weeks and she started sleeping through the night around 13 weeks old.  I used the baby wise book to get her on a schedule I highly recommend baby wise over any other system.  the only thing I did not follow in the book is they are against pacifiers but i gave my daughter hers.   When you are breastfeeding I think its a little harder to sleep train but the key to sleep training is a consistent schedule and the earlier you start to sleep train the easier it is.