STTN (rant)
My baby girl is 8 months old and I have a secret...she still doesn't sleep through the night. I feel like some awful failure as a parent...so much so that I don't tell this little tidbit to people! Really because all everyone ever tells me is that we have to let her cry it out. Well, my husband and I don't want to do that. Are we freaks? It seems that is the only solution that people have that works. We're not really dedicated AP'ing but we do share a lot of AP thinking. For instance, I'm still BF'ing and DD sleeps in our bed usually after she wakes up the first time in the night. I know that I've become a human pacifier for her in the night. I'm THAT story from the 12 hour sleep solution book that the author uses as a horribly bad example. I'm what the Baby Whisperer refers to as an "accidental parent"! How awful is that! I've read book after book and they just make me feel like inadequate crap...then my friends all tell me that I have to let her CIO.
Am I alone? Will a baby learn to STTN on her own? What are other options than CIO? I mean she has to get to a point where she'll sleep longer right? My mom said that she never did CIO with my sister or me (we are 32 and 28) and we LOVE sleep!
Re: STTN (rant)
Mine just started last week. He's 15 months old. Sorry.
ETA: CIO didn't work for DS. He just learned to sleep through on his own.
Also, STTN is considered anything over 5 consecutive hours.
none of my babies (so far) slept through the night before 9 months. They were all between 9 and 11 months when they slept through the night. I would get up and feed them a bottle in the middle of the night. Their pedi would always tell me not to . . . but I did anyway. Who was I to tell them they weren't hungry - LOL
My friend's daugher didn't sleep through the night until she was two. My poor friend was exhausted all the time.
GL - she may do it soon - or in a few months.
Thanks! I know it's not great but I think I'm ok if it takes that long. Our baby wasn't exactly a preemie but she was taken out before she was ready due to some unsafe issues. I really think that has made her a more "clingy" baby. We've attempted less strict CIO techniques and they only make her more upset to the point that there would be no sleep in sight for anyone and then we usually abandon it.
At one point she was getting 5 consecutive hours but she's recently (in the past few weeks) reverted and is waking every 2-3 hours in the night.
I disagree with letting them CIO, I think they need peace and security to feel confident about sleeping. DD still wakes in the night some nights, usually tells me she had a nightmare and needs mom or dad to help her get back to sleep.
When she was tiny to keep her from crying alone we would stay in her room with her till she was back to sleep or close to it. Started out holding her and slowly moved to the other side of the room and out in the hall till she was comfortable in her room alone.
Have you read "Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child"? Dr. Weissbluth is a sleep expert and even if you don't agree with CIO, it's an amazing book about the biology of sleep. He suggests that many babies aren't ready to wean from night nursing until after 9 months- I had the same problem with my baby- and it did get better with age, I defintely second the suggestion for a lovely and music machine- we still use them with my now 2 year old if she wakes up at night.