ferber method

foreverapartofme · February 2013

Has anyone tried the ferber method? My LO never had sleep difficulties until the past two-three months! My pediatrician suggested that I purchase the book and implement the method. I just finished the book and my DH is going to read it as well. Really, we are just having problems with her falling asleep on her own, and once she falls asleep we are fine until I wake her up in the morning.

Did you like the ferber method? Did you find it challenging to listen to your LO cry? What are some pros and cons?

Thanks for the feedback!

vaohara · February 2013

We did Ferber when LO was 5 ish months and it worked great. It was very hard to listen to LO cry and fuss but it had to be done. Night 1 was the worse and better each night for a couple nights then STTN for 12 hours and has been since. Once you decide to do it just stick with it, it gets better and may take a little longer since your LO is older than my LO when we did it. Also, I ended up doing complete extinction bc the check ins were making my LO much more upset. Good luck! Sleeping is an important skill to learn and your baby will love you all the same in the morning but everyone will be happier bc they will be well rested.

gracefulruby33 · February 2013

vaohara:
We did Ferber when LO was 5 ish months and it worked great. It was very hard to listen to LO cry and fuss but it had to be done. Night 1 was the worse and better each night for a couple nights then STTN for 12 hours and has been since. Once you decide to do it just stick with it, it gets better and may take a little longer since your LO is older than my LO when we did it. Also, I ended up doing complete extinction bc the check ins were making my LO much more upset. Good luck! Sleeping is an important skill to learn and your baby will love you all the same in the morning but everyone will be happier bc they will be well rested.

Basically all of this. We trained DD at 4.5 months when we made the crib transition. We did check-ins and they worked well for us. Just don't make eye contact, don't pick up your LO (!), and stick with it. It is so hard listening to your baby cry, but walk away from the room, watch tv and get away from the crying or else you will cave. Good luck!

BriDaily · February 2013

Have you implemented a bed time routine? What time are you putting her down and waking her up? She may just need some serious wearing out before bedtime. Our DS gets worn out with tickling or a pillow fight (he thinks it's fun to get bumped in the head by a pillow and tries to do it back to us), we read a night time book... he normally has a bath beforehand, eats a snack, gets his night time cloth diaper on, and gets his teeth brushed. He has actually been getting upset if we try to go to bed without brushing his teeth! Yay for us! There were a couple weeks where he just wanted to chew on the brush, so I cut it out for a little while. Glad we are back to it!

JenK1108 · February 2013

We did this at just under 6 months, and for the same reason as you. We just needed help in getting DS to sleep, he did fine once he was sleeping. The first night he cried for a total of 45 minutes, in between the various check ins. The second night I think it was a total of 10 minutes of crying. For him, it took about a week where I had to check-in. Since then, it's a very rare occurence that I have to go back in there - usually he is sick or something is wrong. We follow simple bedtime routine: bath, PJ's, stories and then into the crib he goes with his paci and blanket. I do keep 3 or 4 pacifiers in his crib (not sure if your LO uses one)...if they do, I would recommend doing this. Otherwise we were going in to pick it up because he would cry if he threw it out. It totally works - just know that it will be so much better for you and for DD!

WheeLinTheSky3 · February 2013

DS was 4 months old when we started sleep training. He was waking every 45 min for no reason. We didnt follow the ferber method exactly, we just let him cry it out. The first night he cried for 5 minutes and STTN. The next night was much longer (about 30-45 min). It was hard to listen to but I have a video monitor so I was able to watch him and make sure he was safe. It took about a week but he has slept through the night ever since. He is now 18 months old and sleeps from 6pm to 730/8 am every day. The key is once you decide to do it, to stick with it. I fyou give in you will teach LO that they can cry long enough and you will come do what they want. I used The Baby Sleep Site. It has a lot of free PDFs and it was very helpful to me. Good luck

quietlyexpecting · February 2013

We did this. Eventually we had to do full extinction because the checkins were making things worse. I honestly had to take the listening to her cry to fall asleep as my first hard challenge as a Mom. There were tears on both ends and arguments with my husband about going in to get her (though he wasn't the one putting her down all the time).

As parents we have to teach them things that are difficult and this was the hardest so far for me. It is our job to teach them things and for us that was falling asleep on her own. I never thought the day would come where I wasn't sneaking her into her bed half out cold. Now she points to her bed when I take her in there to say prayers before putting her down. She gets it. It will feel great once it starts working.

(Not sure how old your LO is) I sometimes will tell her as we are going to bed that I hope she sleeps well, that is time for a nap/bedtime and when she wakes she'll feel so ready to play and I'll be there to get her so we can have fun. Maybe people say she doesn't understand but I swear she gets it. We do still have hiccups here and there and those times are usually tied with her being sick and having to "relearn" to fall asleep on her own.

GL!

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