The SleepEasy Thread

nunzchucks · November 2014

frenchchocolate611 said:
When will the naps get better? I am getting so frustrated

Naps took a couple weeks.

Jazznit1984 · November 2014

I just wanted to say that last night LO went down with no tears and slept straight throughout the night. I am in shock and aww. Thanks for all of your support and help especially @nunzchucks‌

nunzchucks · November 2014

Awesome @Jazznit1984‌! You and LO did all the hard work!

mamalindsayof3 · November 2014

Currently on night #4- these early morning waxings have been our only issue so far. For N1, she went down at 7p and had an early waking at 356a, and it took her 75 minutes to go back down. N2 and N3 she slept the full 11 hours but now, on N4, we've got and early waking at 515a when she's supposed to be in bed till 7a. Gah.

frenchchocolate611 · November 2014

Good point @meg2j. I just wish he would sleep longer. He used to take a 1-2 hour nap at least once a day but now all we are getting is 20 or 30 minutes. I feel so bad because I can tell the lack of sleep is catching up with him. Night time has been SO much better though - which I am incredibly grateful for!

Mhensley1991 · November 2014

@jenn111211 we did the same thing as we tried transitioning from RnP to crib, it worked wonders for us:)

wareagle1220 · November 2014

How are everyone's littles doing with the sleep training during leaps? We're in the middle of leap 5 and may be starting soon.

HakunaMatata04 · November 2014

I found this thread a couple nights ago during yet another motn feeding session and I am so so thankful I did! First night baby slept 13 hours getting up a few times but self soothed and I fed once. Next day naps were 2 hours, 1.5 hours, and half an hour then down for the night for 13 hours again, no feeding! Yesterday his naps were both about an hour, then 40 mins and in bed for 10.5, again no feeds and no crying all night.
My problem is he can't stay awake for 2 hours between naps! By 1.5 hours he's rubbing his eyes. I try switching activities and keeping entertained but he has to go down earlier and still cries for around 10 mins. I never have to do checks though because it's not constant crying. Any ideas on how to stretch his awake time?

SarahS11 · November 2014

I need some advice! LO had been STTN for a couple of months now... As of a little over a week ago, she still goes down really easy... but wakes up every hour once midnight hits fussing, then crying. She has had a cold, but is now over it. I wanted to blame the crappy sleep on the cold, but now I'm not so sure. Could it be teething? She's also desperately trying to roll over in the middle of the night without success... She will fall right back to sleep if I just sneak in and stick the paci back in (which I know the book says not to do, but I didn't want to sleep train with her cold). She used to be able to fall asleep with the paci, spit it out, and continue with a solid night of sleep. I've read the book, but I am not sure we need to try it yet? Do I wait it out another week or two? Do I see if a tooth pops through? Or do I start the process? WWYD?

nunzchucks · November 2014

@HakunaMatata04‌ I'm so happy you've got great results! It's like a totally different life!A few things:

1. LO should only be sleeping a MAX of 12 hrs.

2. LO needs to stay in the crib a minimum of 11 hrs.

As far as stretching out wake times go, I struggle, too. Sometimes DS goes down 15 min early. Usually walking around with him is the only thing that gets us thru those last 10 min. He really is getting better the older he gets as he can do more things and play with more interesting toys.

nunzchucks · November 2014

@SarahS11‌ This is a judgement call. If you really think LO is teething, don't start. If you feel like you won't be able to have a consistent response to crying all night long, I wouldn't begin until you are confident you can handle a little crying. It's hard for me to comment on training while teeth come in because my kids are both late teethers and had good sleep habits before teeth started coming in. Waiting for the cold to pass was smart!

HakunaMatata04 · November 2014

@nunzchucks‌ it amazing! I'll make sure to to wake him at 11 hours then I didn't know if you just let them sleep or wake them up! And I'll try just walking around and going outside or something for next nap. Thanks!

nunzchucks · November 2014

@HakunaMatata04‌ No need to wake after 11, just no longer than 12 hrs of sleep. (In case that wasn't a typo). Good luck with naps today!

tbmadeamistake · November 2014

There is a deep, deep flaw to this sleep training business....if baby isn't falling asleep on me anymore, how the hell am I supposed to clip nails?

nunzchucks · November 2014

@lilygrace48 I've found it a lot easier to clip if I set DS in my lap facing out and clip that way. I feel like I have a lot more control and I can hug him to keep him still.

nicolemcm · November 2014

nunzchucks said:

@lilygrace48 I've found it a lot easier to clip if I set DS in my lap facing out and clip that way. I feel like I have a lot more control and I can hug him to keep him still.

I was going to say pretty much the same thing. I also mentioned this to DH the other day.
Sometimes I can catch him when he's nursing and relaxed, but sometimes not.

katekat8721 · November 2014

Still having issues with making it a full hour sometimes during naps. It's been a month now and they sleep 30-45 mins before they wake up. Gah. We still make them stay in the crib a full hour but it's hard. In the beginning I could handle the crying a lot more than I can now.

katekat8721 · November 2014

@CAMag - with the 45 min nap, do you notice they they are then getting up even earlier? I think I remember the book saying that if you get them up in the morning (early morning wake up) that they'll just get up earlier and earlier if you don't make them stay in their crib 11 hours. I'm wondering if it's the same for naps, they'll take shorter and shorter naps unless you make them stay in there an hour.... but we've been doing the hour for about a month and they're just not making it!

nunzchucks · November 2014

@katekat8721‌ Have you tried topping them off before nap? DS nurses 3-4 min before he goes down and his first two naps are solid 1.5 hr

nicolemcm · December 2014

We also shortened nap times where necessary. DS consistently sleeps 12 hours at night and tends to take a 1.5-2hr nap at some point during the day, so we just give or take the difference instead of leaving him and making him mad.

katekat8721 · December 2014

Thanks guys! @nunzchunks yeah we top them off usually within 15-30 mins of nap time. I think they're just programmed to be ok with 45 min naps sometimes!

I have to tell you guys .... we went camping (ok, motor homing, glamping? Lol) this weekend and the girls stuck to their routine awesomely. Even though on our hikes they would take a 30 min catnap, we just pushed naptime up an hour and all was still well. Both slept through the night in their car seats in a motor home with 4 adults. They still had their "pre nap protesting", but they were generally so happy and pleasant. People thought we were nuts but it was surprisingly very easy!

We NEVER would have been able to do this if they weren't sleep trained! Yay!

frenchchocolate611 · December 2014

@katekat8721 wow that is awesome - I am so impressed!

nunzchucks · December 2014

Amazing @katekat8721‌!

flojo973 · December 2014

Okay, I'm really going to pull the trigger on this on Friday night now that DD is finally over 14 lbs. I've read through the thread but I wanted to see if people could post how long the crying was the first night. I'm scared that DD is going to work herself up so much that she pukes or something. ::off to go buy a case of wine for Friday::

nunzchucks · December 2014

@flojo973 DD: 58 min; DS: 7 min. I think I read that an hour is the average for the first night. Stay strong; be consistent.

babygabe614 · December 2014

If this has already been discussed, forgive me - but how are you guys handling the nap training if someone other than you or your DH/SO watches LO during the day? We are going to start training soon and I can get DH on board for nighttime but my mom watches LO during the day. I know she won't read through the book so I'm thinking of leaving her a printed schedule with instructions on what to do if/when LO cries, at what time, and how long to leave her, etc. Any advice??

nunzchucks · December 2014

@babygabe14 I think there is a section on caregivers. Basically, your mom needs to be on board, too with the consistency. However you can get her to stay consistent is what you should do. I think your printed schedule works perfectly. Could she come over on a weekend and spend two naps time at your house to see what you do?

flojo973 · December 2014

Thanks! I want to be as prepared as possible and prepare DH.

cinnamonsmiles · December 2014

CAMag said:

Still having issues with making it a full hour sometimes during naps. It's been a month now and they sleep 30-45 mins before they wake up. Gah. We still make them stay in the crib a full hour but it's hard. In the beginning I could handle the crying a lot more than I can now.
We made the criteria 45mins & essentially eliminated the nap time crying. The book doesn't talk about naps, but does talk about those babies that don't need a full 11hrs of sleep at night. We applied the same thought process to naps. They both usually sleep for 45 mins for at least one of their daily naps & we leave the other one to sleep longer if needed. When putting them back down for the next nap, I've been splitting the difference and they both seem to go down just fine. I kept reading that it's common for 6mo olds to nap 30-45mins, so it seemed to strict to push it to the hour. Just my 2 cents. We had a crap night last night. Each had a crying jag of almost an hour. I'm guessing over tired and over stimulated though out the day, but it's also possible that their sleep was thrown off bc DH had pulled the boys into bed to put them back to sleep yesterday morning. Either way, I'm hoping he learned his lesson about messing with their sleep schedule/routine!

I'm so glad you guys posted about the shorter naps. LO consistently takes one long nap with the other two being 30-45min and I felt horrible making him cry the rest of the hour when I knew full well he wodnt go back to sleep. DH said that he does this when he watches him anyway, so it's nice to know we aren't the only ones

@flojo974 Bedtime went smoothly for us until night 4 when he cried for a full 58 minutes. DH and I switched turns with the monitor/checkins and that was extremely helpful. Naps were a different story - for he first 3 days he cried the entire hour for at least one nap. Now it's 5min so it gets better

Jenn111211 · December 2014

18 minutes the first night and 10 the second, but she cried the entire hour for nap #3 for the first two days. That was the hardest part since I was home alone. Now she usually goes right down. Sometimes she whines for a minute or two.

@babygabe614‌ - I think your printed schedule is a great idea. I would just make sure she understands why consistency is so important. Maybe highlight some key passages from the book for her to read.

Jazznit1984 · December 2014

Ugg LO has been waking at 3,4,5 am for the last few nights. What the heck?!

Edit: LO has her first cold. Booooo. Kid won't eat, trying to get rid of boogers is like trying to bath a cat. Uggggggggggg

babygabe614 · December 2014

@CaMAG Ugh, that would be hard to deal with (all the offerings to "help")! I think my mom is on board, she's just more of a "oh this little tweak won't make much of a difference..." person whereas I am strictly by the book, and especially with this. I know letting LO CIO would be hard for her, but she says she did it with me so hopefully she'll see that the good outweighs the bad.

@CharSamm Unfortunately I can't take any time off to ease her into it with me, but I will talk to her about it some more before we officially start, and if it seems like it'll be an issue I might just wait until closer to Christmas because I'll have a 5 day weekend to get us started.

lest12 · December 2014

Our sleep training has gone to shit since I started at work a week ago.

LO had been sleeping through the night for months and was doing OK with naps.

Now we are screaming at bedtime and waking up 3-4x a night. Naps are a joke (for DH, who is home in the day).

I know what I need to do but right now I just feel so bad - the transition seems to be really hard on him.

Anyone else go through this? Any thoughts?

frenchchocolate611 · December 2014

@lest I was going to post almost the same thing!

DS was sleeping through the night with no (audible) wake ups until about a month ago. We started the sleep training a couple of weeks ago and it seemed to be working for about a week or so. Now he is doing the screaming at bed time and wakes crying many times during the night (usually 6-7 time). I think he is getting mad now because he still doesn't like to sleep on his tummy and when he wakes up he tries to get his pacifier to put it back in but sometimes he throws it out of the bed by accident. If we go in there and give it to him, he will usually go right back to sleep but I know we are not supposed to do that. Do we need to cut the pacifier? I will feel so bad if we have to do that.

ETA: I am just so frustrated because he seems to have regressed so much sleep wise. I can't figure out the reason for it and it is really stressing me out. I thought something might have been going on like teething or a big developmental milestone, but it has been weeks now and it is not getting any better!

nunzchucks · December 2014

@lest12 I'm really sad to hear LO is having a rough time with the transition. My only advice is to keep being consistent. I hope he gets thru this quickly!

nunzchucks · December 2014

@frenchchocolate611‌ According to the book, if they can't replace the pacifier, you should drop it. Can you sprinkle pacis around the crib in case he loses one?

lest12 · December 2014

Thanks @nunzchucks! Aside from the wakefulness, he is handling everything else about the transition pretty OK, which is good at least. We are all just a bit tired!

nunzchucks · December 2014

CharSamm said:
Babbling!! She wakes some nights at around 1:30 am or 5:30 am to coo and babble. Usually this only lasts 15-20 minutes but it's very disruptive and as cute as it is, I would like it to end. Anyone else facing this? She puts herself back to sleep on her own. Is this a method of babies putting themselves to sleep?

Yup. DS is 2 mo into sleep learning and still wakes nearly every day between 3 and 4:30 to chat or screech happily. It's mystifying. I have no idea why he does it. We don't go in, he's just up for 20 min or so. I hate it, too. Every night while we cuddle before bed, I say, "OK, J, tonight's the night we sleep until 5:30".

I'm hoping once he's more mobile, he will be a bit more tired and stop this.

mamalindsayof3 · December 2014

I just want to share our success with sleep training on the sleepeasy method for anyone questioning it. My DH was off for the thanksgiving week so it was a great time to get started, highly recommend starting when you've got some help to get through the tough parts. The first night my DD did cry for about 45 minutes, but then night 2, it was closer to 20 minutes. Since night 3 it's only been taking her an average of 10 minutes to go to sleep. Most nights that is without any crying.

To top it off, she's sleeping a full 11 hours a night and that makes for one happy baby and some very happy and well rested parents!

Good luck and stick with it! Totally worth it!

And thank you to those who offered and gave advice to me going into it! I hope you all are still doing well with this!

nunzchucks · December 2014

Awesome @lindsaynewbride10‌!

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