Tell me about your baby learning to sleep at night

Temp123197812503460 · June 2012

I have two ten month olds and the lack of sleep is getting old. We did some sleep training when they started being really hard to put to sleep at 8 months and they go to bed ok now, but wake as much as three or four times a night - each. So that's getting up 8 times a night. We tried a bit of sleep training at night a while back but it didn't seem to help so we gave up. They will only settle down if I nurse them (then they go right back to sleep). I'm torn between just keeping up with the night wakings or doing some more serious sleep training. Do babies just ever start sleeping more on their own? Or if they are like this at 10 months is it going to be another year? They are too noisy to bedshare so that's not an option.Aso, if you night weaned did it help? What did you do instead of feeding? Dh has back problems and can hold them but not rock them, and with me they just want milk, so we could sit with them while they cry if I don't feed them but I'm not sure if that's any better than just cio.Any adivce or experiences would be great. Thx!

penguinem · June 2012

I can't remember the exact ages but with my DD she started sleeping through the night at 15 months after I night weaned. At ten months I *think* she was waking up only once, and at some point in time she started getting up 2-3 times per night so we decided to night wean. What I did was go in when she woke and rock her without feeding. I remember it was rough at first but we got through it. It had to be me; she was inconsolable with DH although I could see that going both ways. If I was going to night wean a ten month old I'd probably still feed the first time baby wakes and then rock back to sleep any additional wakings. I think it's better than CIO. You are holding and reassuring!!! DD learned quickly waking up at night wasn't for eating and even if she did she didn't cry after she adjusted (but like i said that was at 15 months)

KateLouise · June 2012

I did Jay Gordon's method where you reduce the amount they drink each time they wake, so eventually it's not worth them waking up for. It only took a few days before she didn't bother waking.

Unfortunately night nursing was introduced at various times for different reasons (always comfort essentially) teething; her in hospital, me going back to work.

the last time we night weaned I simply offered her water and then snugged her back in to sleep (we were bed-sharing). She was around 15months. It took 3 nights for her not to bother waking.

alissadg · June 2012

My 4 month old only wakes up once during the night...and sometimes not at all. When I can tell that she's starting to get restless, I put a pacifier in her mouth, and she immediately falls back asleep. How would you feel about doing that instead?

missisue · June 2012

At 8 months, we really started looking for sleeping solutions. She would start the night in her crib, but after 2-3 hours was back in our bed. Getting her down was fairly easy with the same routine and bedtime every night, but staying asleep was a problem. Once she was in bed with us, I started ignoring every other wake-up to nurse. At first she was pretty loud and rambunctious about it, thrashing about and shouting (not crying, but shouting). But, after a few minutes of me pretending to be asleep, she would snuggle up to one of us and fall back asleep. A few weeks ago, we decided to let her fuss for a bit at her first night waking instead of rushing in to bring her to bed. She cried for 3-4 minutes, but went back to sleep. She woke up every couple of hours and made noises, but never really got to hysterics. We decided after almost a year of responding immediately to every cry and whimper that it's OK to let her cry for a few minutes here and there. It seems to be working. Even though she does wake up once or twice a night still, she is able to put herself back to sleep in her own be3d with no more than 5 minutes of crying. Now, with twins, I don't know how that would work, but maybe you can pull something out of my story. Good luck!

jcsumm0 · June 2012

Around 9-10 months was actually a pretty bad time for sleep with DD. She had just learned to go from laying down to sitting up and crawl, and I think that disrupted her sleep. Also, she was hungry. Over the past 3 months she's started eating more solid foods, I offer to nurse her A LOT during the day, and I've been doing the Pantley pull-off. She is gradually working toward putting herself to sleep--sometimes she nurses to sleep, and other times she finishes nursing and I put her down, she rolls around/babbles a while, and then goes to sleep on her own. And, I hesitate to put this in print, but she has STTN all the way through a handful off times, and every other night she only wakes up once, and it is usually before I go to bed! It's great! So I don't think it is true for everyone, but she did seem to grow into sleep maturity on her own.

Temp123197812503460 · June 2012

Thanks for the stories so far! A few things, one won't take a pacifier and the other won't go back to sleep with it.For the J Gordon method and Pantley pull off, were your LO upset when you had them stop nursing? Sometimes if they stop and aren't really done they will scream when we try to put them back (full out scream, I have no problem letting them fuss a bit but it's the hysterics).It's good to hear that there was some growing into better sleep, I feel like I could handle a few more months, it's just the idea of another year of this that has me ready to break down.

3003girl · June 2012

Honestly, I gleaned a lot of useful information from the Ferber book. I didn't do CIO, but I realized that me rocking LO was making her want to be rocked to sleep every time she woke up. I suggest reading it to help you understand what might be going on.

I nightweaned LO at 20 months. Honestly, I'm not sure I could have done it before then without much crying. I think there was a window around 12 months that it could have happened, but after that she got sick, was teething, and we were traveling. She was waking up every 2 hours. Around 12 months she would wake up twice. She had a rough 9 month wakeful also...

I tried the Dr. Gordon method and it didn't really work for us. Neither did the Pantly pull off method. What ended up working was I nursed LO, then DH took her, read to her and did the rest of her bedroom routine. Then he stayed with her all night. If I went in, she would just want to nurse or be held. With DH she was upset the first few nights, but went to sleep. I was fine with her crying because DH was with her.

Good luck!

Birdies08 · June 2012

jcsumm0:
Around 9-10 months was actually a pretty bad time for sleep with DD. She had just learned to go from laying down to sitting up and crawl, and I think that disrupted her sleep. Also, she was hungry. Over the past 3 months she's started eating more solid foods, I offer to nurse her A LOT during the day, and I've been doing the Pantley pull-off. She is gradually working toward putting herself to sleep--sometimes she nurses to sleep, and other times she finishes nursing and I put her down, she rolls around/babbles a while, and then goes to sleep on her own. And, I hesitate to put this in print, but she has STTN all the way through a handful off times, and every other night she only wakes up once, and it is usually before I go to bed! It's great! So I don't think it is true for everyone, but she did seem to grow into sleep maturity on her own.

This sounds like us, too, except the nights she doesn't nurse down are rare (although she seems to be working on it) and she sleeps long chunks every night- I'm not sure what the exact definition of "through the night" is. We get 8ish hours in a block most nights.

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