**Eitak82**

LuckyMissus

Hey, you asked what we did for sleep training, and I never answered you because I just saw it now: Sorry!

Anyway, we basically used Ferber's progressive waiting approach. I haven't read Weissbluth, but from what I've read about it, it makes sense, too.

The reason we went with Ferber was that our guy wasn't so much having trouble putting himself down as he was having trouble tranisitioning from one cycle to the next. So I liked the idea of teaching him to self soothe to transition.

So, when he would wake up crying at 45 min. I did progressive waiting until he went back down. (For him, I would just go in after whatever interval and say "it's ok, go to sleepytime" and maybe give him a brief pat on the back/belly or rub his head for a second or whatever.) The first few days we'd get him up if he hadn't gone back down by the one hour mark, so that's fifteen min. of crying after waking up. But we really only had to do that a few times. After a few days he was able to transition, by either crying himself back to sleep, or just not making a peep if he woke up at all, and things have gotten better ever since.  He now does not wake up at 45 min. regularly, and if he does I usually don't have to go in to shush him at all, he'll just go back down after a few min.

He now naps for about 1.5h in the morning, 1.5 to 2.25h around lunchtime, and usually just a quick cat nap still before bed time. I think he may be about to drop his 3d nap, but we'll see...

I know some people wait to do Ferber for naps after night sleeping is under control, but we just went for it all at once to be consistent.

Here's a great blog post on Ferber, but I really do recommend reading the whole book, too:

https://noobmommy.com/2008/11/to-ferberize-or-not-to-ferberize.html

GL!!

Eitak82

Thank you so much! DS's night time sleep is pretty fantastic - he typically does 8.5-9.5 hour stretches, but they are getting longer (he occasionally wakes 1-2 times per night and takes less than 5 min to soothe - so we will tackle those small wake ups with sleep training when the time comes).

DS's naps are the issue with us too, so I'm especially glad to hear how well things have gone for you with the nap training. I am working my way through both books, hopefully in the next couple of weeks (cause, you know, I have nothing else to do during the day haha).

Just out of curiosity, how old is your LO and how old was he when you did the sleep training? DS is 14 weeks and I am thinking of starting right at the 4 month mark.

LuckyMissus

That's great nighttime sleep!! We're still eating once MOTN, which is totally manageable for us. So, I'm kind of jealous.

F is just 6mo now.  We started using Ferber at 5mo and 2wks.  I was ready to start at 5mo, but DH was not on board at first.  It took a little while for him to warm up to the idea, or maybe he finally just got totally desperate for a good night's sleep!

If I had it to do over again, I would have started earlier, probably around 4mo. We hit the "four month wakeful" hard.  F's nighttime sleep deteriorated badly, and he was even worse about napping. I think at that point he was ready to learn to shut out all the exciting new things he was discovering around him so that he could get some sleep!

LuckyMissus

One more thing, I read in Ferber that you should allow like two weeks for the approach to work.  But, after talking to a lot of people, I think that if it's working for your baby you should see dramatic improvement in a few days.  If you aren't seeing strong, steady improvement then I would maybe wait a few weeks and give it another shot.

 I struggled with thinking it was too soon to start, but I could have just gone for it and backed off if it wasn't working.

Eitak82

Thanks for all of the helpful information! DS really has the ability to sleep great, but last night, for example, he woke up on 3 different occasions (prior to his 5:30 am feeding) for no apparent reason, so I think that may have something to do with heading into the 4 month wakeful period (which is why I think I will try right at 4 months provided my pedi has no major concerns).

DS is also still swaddled for sleep, so I am thinking of dropping that at the same time as his big issue with sleeping without the swaddle is that he wakes himself up and then can't go back down. I'm hoping that it's not too much at once, but I figured it's probably best to do it all at once as he is super close to rolling back to front and I'd like him out of the swaddle when that happens.