XP Ferber working 75% of the time

dmhrn13

XP: 6-9 mos.

Its day 7. And when I say "working" I mean we put her down & she's alseep without blood curdling screams in under 5 minutes. So that is happening 75% of the time.

But still for some naps its 25 minutes of screaming bloody murder & sometimes in the MOTN same thing. I've been very consistent with it & have not picked her up.

Everyone I talk to us like, "yeah, 3 days & every is fixed". So I'm like, how much more screaming is going to happen?

nickschick!

We used Ferber with ds. It didn't work for naps. Naps were a fight until he was 18 months or so, this is why I haven't done Ferber with DD as naps are the only time she fights us...

dmhrn13

Yeah I guess because its only been a week I've been experimenting with timing of naps. I mean, I have seen a lot of improvement in the length of them & overall.

As for MOTN I should include that she sleeps in a crib in our room. I am sure this complicates things because we might waker her up going to the bathroom, etc. And I just got the things to keep her limbs in the crib because she's all over the crib since sleep training started.

JoNi2010

Ferber does not work 100% for us either.  I've done it now for about 6 weeks.  Putting him down for the night is great - no crying at all most nights.  I still will feed him MOTN - I was able to wean him down to one feeding most nights.  Once a night I am okay with, but he seems to have a lot of setbacks with teething, etc. 

Naps are still tough.  For the longest time, I just had to give up a lot of his naps because he constantly cried more than 30min.  And if he cried for "only" 20min, then he would only sleep for 15min!  Like PP said, you just have to play with the timing of the naps for your baby.  If I laid him down "drowsy but awake," forget it - there is not going to be a nap because he will cry forever.  I have to tire him out to the point where all he CAN do is sleep, and even then he will wail for 5-10min until he suddenly is out like a light.  And like another PP, the last nap is usually the hardest so I will usually take him out for a stroll and let him sleep then.  However it is getting too hot to do that now so I will have to figure something else out.

Overall, I really do like the Ferber method.  It has helped with the bedtime sleeping and for the most part, significantly reduced his MOTN most nights.  Naps are getting slightly better and I hope that they will continue to improve.  But again, it's also trying to figure out what works best for your LO and not just following Ferber to the letter.  Good luck!

JoNi2010

dmhrn13:

Yeah I guess because its only been a week I've been experimenting with timing of naps. I mean, I have seen a lot of improvement in the length of them & overall.

As for MOTN I should include that she sleeps in a crib in our room. I am sure this complicates things because we might waker her up going to the bathroom, etc. And I just got the things to keep her limbs in the crib because she's all over the crib since sleep training started.

Oh, I just saw this post.  I got to say, when I moved my LO's crib to his own bedroom, that helped A LOT!  Could you try this?

pb_bride

Just want to echo what others have said so far.  Naps are tough.  We did sleep training at 4 months, and DS is almost 7 months now.  Even now, we still get bad days when he will cry for 10-15 minutes before falling asleep for naps.  

But also like PPs said, timing for naps and watching for you LO's sleep cues are key.  For DS, some days he can go for 2.5-3hrs awake times, whereas a day like today he was ready for a nap after 2 hours.  If I put him down too soon, he'll cry and cry.  The only reliable way I can tell these days is when I nurse him before his naps.  If he dozes off while eating, that means he's tired enough.  If he doesn't doze off, he isn't ready.

I can't really help with MOTN; but can you move her to her own room?  

Anyway, hang in there.  It does get better but expect setbacks as well (eg, illness, teething etc). 

NoelBird

I had a lot of success with Ferber at night but our naps are still not perfect. I agree with everyone who said to figure out the timing. I typically put him down about 2.5 hours after he woke up. Most of the time he goes to sleep with little to no crying. If he does cry I give him 5 minutes of full on crying. If he still isn't asleep I pick him up and we try again in 30 minutes. I know this goes against the true Ferber regimen. If I were to just let him cry he will cry until he truly gets tired, not because he can't put himself to sleep. 

Also, It took longer than 3 nights for us. There was improvement everyday but it was about 2 weeks for him to go down at night without crying and stay asleep all night and about a month before his naps were consistent.