Sleep Training At 8 Months ..

ChargersLove · February 2011

Anyone done it or doing it right now?

DD used to sleep through the night .. Well, not anymore and this Mama can't be spending two hours getting her to sleep and then spend a few more hours getting up all night with her. I'm tired.

I have read it's best to start between 4 and 6 months though ..

anvloveskme · February 2011

We did it around 5 1/2, but I have a friend that did it at 12 months. I think it is just about getting them into the routine.

ChargersLove · February 2011

anvloveskme:
We did it around 5 1/2, but I have a friend that did it at 12 months. I think it is just about getting them into the routine.

Has it worked for you so far? I'm a little worried I am not going to be able to handle her crying

anvloveskme · February 2011

Yeah it worked great for us, we were lucky and she never cried/fussed any more than 10 minutes. I will try to find my nights 1-3 from a prior post b/c I provided a pretty long explanation. She has been doing great and it has been about 7 weeks. She is sleeping from approx 8:30 pm to 6 am regularly and will then nurse in bed with me and sometimes go back to sleep until around 7:30 am.

anvloveskme · February 2011

Here it is:

We had a terrible time around 4 1/2 - 5 months where DD's sleeping went back to only about 2-3 hour stretches and I was a zombie. I couldn't stand it any more so we tried CIO two separate nights around 5 1/2 months, and both times I wussed out and picked her up and ended up rocking her to sleep. Just before she turned 6 months, I woke up when I heard DD on the monitor, and waited for a few minutes and watched her as she tried to soothe herself back to sleep - she was gently rubbing her little hand on the sheet back and forth and lightly humming to herself, so I felt like it was time to give CIO a real try.

Night 1: Rocked and sang to her in her room for 10 minutes until she seemed drowsy, put her down in crib, she started to cry almost immediately when I put her in the crib, not crying hard, more just fussing, so I waited about 10 min before I went in to soothe her, went in and gave her paci back to her, patted/soothed her and left the room. She cried worse than the first time and it was my plan to go 15 minutes if I could stand it. At about 10 minutes she was calming down and she was asleep by 12 minutes. So, a total of 22 minutes after I put her in her crib she was asleep. She slept almost 9 hours straight, woke up around 5:00 am to nurse and went back to sleep until 8 am.

Night 2: Rocked and sang to her in her room for only 5 minutes because she was starting to fall asleep. Put her in the crib and she started crying immediately, after 2 minutes of crying she calmed down and she was asleep within 10 minutes total. She slept 8.5 hours straight, woke up to nurse and went back to sleep until 7:45 am.

Night 3: Rocked and sang to her in her room for only 5 minutes because she was starting to fall asleep. Put her in the crib and she started crying immediately, after about 30 seconds of crying she calmed down and she was asleep within 8 minutes total. Slept until around 6 am.

We are at about the 4 week mark now. She has pretty much gone to sleep without crying (or just fussing when I leave the room) with the exception of two nights. She wasn't feeling well either night. She has made it all night in her own room with the exception of one night, I went in and rocked her and got her back to sleep, but she woke up both times I tried to put her back down.

For the CIO first few nights, I found it helpful for DH and I to be in separate rooms - we were more likely to wuss out and go pick her up if we were together.

Good luck!

ChargersLove · February 2011

Thank you!! This is so helpful!!

aurore22j · February 2011

I wanted to try it a couple weeks ago because DS was waking up at 2:30 every night. I knew he didn't need to eat because he was sttn previously.

So our first night of doing it he cried on and off for 45 mins. I tried everything to soothe him besides picking him up. Finally I just picked him up and rocked him back to sleep, which only took about 5 mins.

After that he didn't wake up at 2:30 anymore. I think I just got lucky. He has on occasion woken up in the night, but I think now it's from teething pain because he is cutting 2 teeth.

Good luck.

Dreamsicle23 · February 2011

I think in general, the sooner you do it the easier it is. If you're considering it, I'd do it now. It's harder when they're actually yelling "Mommy!" instead of just crying.

T1andT2 · February 2011

I tried it last week. DS has been waking every 1-2 hours for the last month and I am beyond pooped! He always falls asleep nursing so I decided to try the ferber technique on his first wake up. Well all week he cried for 2 hours (with the checks every 10-15min) and he didn't go to sleep on his own, he went to sleep with me in the chair across the room shhhhing very loudly. So now I don't know what to do.

Court0026 · February 2011

It hasn't worked on DD yet (8 months), but I recall this was when DS was "ready" to learn to put himself to sleep. We did CIO with him 7-8ish months and it worked by the book. DD is a nightmare. Up 3-4 times a night, used to nurse to sleep, and now she hits the crib and screams. 1 nap for 30 minutes. I am losing it. ANYWAY, she is atypical. She will scream as long as we leave her in her crib.

CityGirl07 · February 2011

My DD is 6 months and we just did sleep training last week. I know she is younger than your LO, so I don't know if it's helpful, but hopefully!

Our doctor recommended it at 4 months. I was not comfortable with doing it so young so we waited...and at this point we were both zombies. DH is away this whole week and I was determined to have her sttn before he left!

We did a modified Ferber...weren't too strict about how long we stayed in to soothe. The most DD cried was 25 minutes the first night. It was a lot easier than I expected. Our main issue was the paci - she would wake up every 1-2 hrs needing it replaced, so we went cold turkey.

The first night she slept from 7:30-4:30, then cried for 15 min and back to sleep until 7:30 am. Since then she has slept from 7:30-5:30, has a quick bottle at 5:30, and back to sleep until 7:30. After that first night she did not cry AT ALL going to sleep and only a little fussing once during the night (we did not need to get out of bed, that's how fast it was over). We share a room with her so this was huge.

I really wanted to avoid Ferber, but what I realized from reading a lot of books is that the quicker the better. With all of the methods there is some crying/fussing/leaving them, so I figured just get it over with.

Phew, that was long, sorry! LMK if you have any questions.

shirls · February 2011

We just did it about a week or so ago (7.5 months old). DS was ready for it and it's been easier than I thought. He only cried on and off for 30 minutes the first night. Now he never fusses going to bed and puts himself back to sleep at night unless he's hungry.

DS was never a good sleeper, but he was getting worse and worse! I never thought we would sleep train, but we tried other methods and nothing worked until we let him cry. Good luck!

meangene · February 2011

I have no advice, but I'm in the same boat. LO gets up twice a night and takes about 3-4 twenty minute naps during the day. We tried the no cry sleep solution, but didn't make much progress. We tried the sleep lady system, but I can't stomach sitting in the room for more than 10 minutes while she screams.

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