Has anyone done sleep training?

Re: Has anyone done sleep training?

• MiaMichelle

  July 2009

  you obviously haven't spent much time on this board if you are asking this question!!

  

  A lot of us have done sleep training.  I'm a big fan of the Ferber method.  It teaches kids to fall asleep on their own, without your help.  You go in at timed intervals to reassure them, but you do not pick them up out of the crib.  The book is called "Solve your Child's Sleep Problems."  Another book that I read that employs Ferber's method (for the most part) but is written by two women is called "Sleepeasy"

  Of course, some people on this board are not into the Ferber method.  So to each their own.  That's just what we did and it worked great for us.
  

  Good luck.  Once they start sleeping better your whole world changes.
  

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• ocean71506

  July 2009

  We tried Feber around 5 months but Emma just screamed and threw up everywhere so we knew it was not for us.  So we worked on putting her down drowsy but awake.  We had rocked her to sleep and we rocked her less and less each night.  Around 6 months it clicked for her and she puts herself to sleep, we still rock her a bit but not nearly as much.  She has also been STTN for about 10 days now and we can hear her put herself back to sleep at night.  It took a few weeks but worked for us.  GL!

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• books4brooke member

  July 2009

  We did Ferber at 6 months.  For many kids it isn't very successful before that. 
  

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• dr.girlfriend

  July 2009

  I'll C&P what I've posted before:

  I read "Sleeping Through the Night" by Jodi Mindell (mostly because she's a colleague of mine).? It's a quick read, I borrowed it from a coworker and finished most of it by the train ride home.? She does mix up infant and toddler sleep advice a bit, but I found a lot of it helpful.? Here's what we did.We started sleep training when Kiran was 5 months, after we stopped swaddling him.? First, we changed his bedtime routine.? We used to do bath, nurse, and then story while he got sleepy.? But then he started to fall asleep while nursing, and before I knew it I was nursing him to sleep every night.? We moved nursing before the bath, so it was nursing, bath, and then story.? We also used to read him the story until he was fast asleep, and then put him in the crib.? We introduced a transition object (a small plush toy) that he holds while nursing and during story, and then as soon as he got sleepy during the story (his eyes got droopy) we would stop, each kiss him goodnight, and put him in his crib drowsy but awake.Mindell says that self-soothing is a developmental skill like crawling, so that once a baby learns it he doesn't "un-learn" it.? So, she says that as long as you teach them to self-soothe at bedtime, you can continue to do whatever you do during the middle of the night wakings (e.g., rock them to sleep, nurse them to sleep) and it's okay...once they learn to self-soothe at bedtime they'll automatically do it during the night.? This was a big factor for me in starting the sleep training, because I was still not convinced that he didn't need the middle-of-the-night feedings.? But I felt much better about letting him cry a little right at bedtime when I knew he was fed, dry, and sleepy and didn't need anything.The Mindell book says you can go in at whatever intervals make you comfortable, although longer is better.? She said if you can only last 30 seconds that's fine, if you can last longer, that's great.? Just go in, soothe gently without picking the baby up, and leave.? We never intended to do total CIO but that's how it turned out, because the first night Kiran cried about 20 minutes total (the first 10 min. was more fussing than crying) and it was very cyclical, so just when we thought we would go in he'd start to wind it down and we decided going in would only rev him up again.? He did 20 minutes the first night, 23 the second night, 5 the third night, no crying at all the fourth night, 10 the fifth night, and since then he's never cried more than five minutes.? Usually when we put him in his crib drowsy but awake he just flops over and goes to sleep.

  I did continue with a 10 pm "dream-feed" for the first little while.? Usually if I didn't get him up for that he would wake up then anyway, but at around 6 months he slept right through that so I decided to let him go and he was fine, so we dropped that.? Now he sleeps 7:30 p.m. - 5:30 or 6:00 a.m. without feedings.? Every once in awhile he wakes up for a minute or two but he always puts himself back to sleep.

  Wow, that was a novel!? I'll add that I knew it was time to sleep-train when his sleeping started to get worse rather than better.? He had been sleeping in 4-hour stretches and then some 5-hour stretches, but then he started waking up every two hours, and then every 45 - 90 minutes some nights.? He was also *exhausted* when I picked him up at daycare and would often fall asleep in the car on the way home from daycare, and I had to wake him up some mornings, so I knew he wasn't getting enough sleep.? We couldn't move his bedtime any earlier since we started his routine as soon as he got home and we couldn't let him sleep any later since we have to drop him at daycare at 8 a.m.? Since we did sleep training he's been much better-rested and happier, and he doesn't go to sleep as early (we start the routine at 6:30 p.m. but now we nurse at 6:30, do solids around 6:45, bath around 7, story around 7:15, and he's usually asleep by 7:30 pm) so we have more time with him at night, and he also wakes up naturally in the morning and is happy and perky so I feel like he's getting enough sleep.?

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