Sleep training?

Knottie32807305 · April 2016

Is your little one sleeping through the night? Is so, what's their bedtime and what time do they sleep until? Did you sleep train? What method did you use? There are so many methods and so many things out there on the Web! Need some help sorting through what worked for other moms and what didnt.

Thanks guys!

SweetnSassy23 · April 2016

We're up every two hours and we have no plans to sleep train because LO eats every time. You know your baby best, so perhaps research each method thoroughly and do what works best for you. Many moms pick a method and alter it for their needs.

midge519 · April 2016

We've been consistent with a 730/8 bedtime after cuddles and a feeding. From the beginning he was up every 1-3 hours to eat with a random 4-6 hour stretch thrown in maybe once a week. The last month has been quite exhausting with a routine of waking every hour to eat. We try to do without crying, he's a cranky baby all the time. Just two nights ago I decided to try something new after hours of fighting bedtime. I fed him and then laid him down on his belly and just patted his back. His noise machine was on like normal and I'd gently push his head back to laying down when he fought. Fifteen minutes later he crashed. He slept almost 7 hours!! Last night it just took laying him down on his belly and he slept 5 hours straight. This may be a fluke but I'm sticking with this new bedtime routine.

TL;DR. Find what's best for you and your baby. It may take a few tries but you know what soothes your baby best.

amwright33 · April 2016

We start bedtime after 7 pm. Bath/ story time, pjs, easy play. When she yawns we do a last feeding and she goes right to sleep around 9 pm. She sleeps til 6 am.

How easy she goes to sleep depends on her naps. Lately when she yawns we put her down she cries for 10 min and goes to sleep. I didn't realize that crying was her way of self soothing. Since we let her cry she takes real naps. Yay.

FatPony · April 2016

Our guy went from feeding twice a night (ff) down to sleeping through the night within a week! It was glorious, he did it himself. And that lasted about a week until he went through a crazy growth spurt, when we went back to 2 feedings. Now he fluctuates between 1-2 feedings per night.

He goes down at ~7-8 and likes to wake up around 6:45 (with the 1-2 feedings in btwn). I just put him in his crib and he goes to sleep by himself and his soother.

Louisl · April 2016

We sleep trained, nothing fancy just CIO. By the third night there was only 8 mins of crying total. We were doing bedtime at 730-830 depending on when DH got home, but recently we moved up bedtime to 630 (after reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child) and he actually sleeps til the same time each morning as before (6am) but goes down MUCH easier and im not keeping a cranky baby awake that last hour. He sleeps so much better and isn't gassy in the morning from eating all night. Personally, if I was still waking up every few hours I would probably have jumped off a bridge by now.

KristynLee15 · April 2016

We also had to move up bedtime to 630!! I was afraid it was way to early, but seems to work for us!

Louisl · April 2016

@KristynLee15 I was afraid it was too early too! And now if for done reason I delay the start of bedtime routine, he won't go down til much later....like now...:/

amwright33 · April 2016

@LouislMaybe I should move up her bedtime too. Was it hard the first day to move her bedtime to 6:30 pm? Do you start the bedtime routine at 6:30 pm or actually put the in the crib a 6:30 pm?

ERININSYDNEY · April 2016

When LO was 4.5mos old, we did the 3 night CIO (please no lectures on how that is too young- it's done and he's FINE). That first night I only got 90 minutes of sleep total! It's been one month+ since we did CIO sleep coaching and LO goes to sleep at 8pm, completely on his own (i.e. he goes down awake, will babble to himself or sometimes fuss cry for 5-10 minutes) and doesn't wake up until 5am although sometimes it's 6am, occasionally it's 4:30am.

We start quiet time at 7:30 when we dim all the lights. We carry him around the house and whisper good night to rooms and objects as we make our way to his nursery. We lay him in the crib and gently massage him while he gets the last of his energy out by thumping his legs around and rolling (we don't do baths at night time). Singing softly, we slowly change his diaper, dress him, read a short story then breast feed. He is put back in his crib for the night awake with only a lovey and a pacifier. The CIO was a LIFE SAVER for us because he was waking up every 2-3 hours every single night, since birth. I found myself in a very dark place. The CIO was tough, but only for 2 nights. LO is unscarred by the experience and continues to be a happy boy. We realized the best benefit for our son was for him to have healthy, sane and well rested parents, which just wasn't the case at all until we did CIO.

CIO is a very polarizing topic and I just hope my experience might help another desperate mother who is considering this method.

ERININSYDNEY · April 2016

ERININSYDNEY said:

When LO was 4.5mos old, we did the 3 night CIO (please no lectures on how that is too young- it's done and he's FINE). That first night I only got 90 minutes of sleep total! It's been one month+ since we did CIO sleep coaching and LO goes to sleep at 8pm, completely on his own (i.e. he goes down awake, will babble to himself or sometimes fuss cry for 5-10 minutes) and doesn't wake up until 5am although sometimes it's 6am, occasionally it's 4:30am.

We start quiet time at 7:30 when we dim all the lights. We carry him around the house and whisper good night to rooms and objects as we make our way to his nursery. We lay him in the crib and gently massage him while he gets the last of his energy out by thumping his legs around and rolling (we don't do baths at night time). Singing softly, we slowly change his diaper, dress him, read a short story then breast feed. He is put back in his crib for the night awake with only a lovey and a pacifier. The CIO was a LIFE SAVER for us because he was waking up every 2-3 hours every single night, since birth. I found myself in a very dark place. The CIO was tough, but only for 2 nights. LO is unscarred by the experience and continues to be a happy boy. We realized the best benefit for our son was for him to have healthy, sane and well rested parents, which just wasn't the case at all until we did CIO.

CIO is a very polarizing topic and I just hope my experience might help another desperate mother who is considering this method.

Meant to say the 3 night CIO is the method called "Extinction" in the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child.

meganraschke · April 2016

We just bought Merlins Magic Sleep Suit, no sleep training was needed. He went from co-sleeping with us to sleeping in his crib for naps and at night. I can put him in there awake and as long as he is full, has white noise and a pacifier he will fall asleep on his own in a few minutes! It's been great. Before this he needed to either nurse, cuddle, rock, or be walked around to fall asleep. Then the only way he would stay asleep was either in his swig from the constant motion or next to me for comfort. Without it if I put him in his crib even sound asleep he would stamp his feet and wake himself up then cry.

He he still wakes up sometime between 12-2 to eat but goes right back to sleep until 4:30-5 when we get him up for the day (we wake up early around here).

I I wish I had invested in this thing months ago, he hit the 4 month sleep regression and I just started co-sleeping for everyone's sanity. Although I do miss my cuddles with my little guy.

jessrl · April 2016

We did Ferber and I love not having to put her down with fears that she'll wake up and then tip toe out of her room. Sometimes she'll cry for 5-10 minutes but it's been going well.

She's still waking twice a night and I usually feed her, and I try to put her back down awake. Does anyone else still do MOTN feeds that did sleep training? I'm sure it's not technically necessary to do at 6 months old, but I can't bring myself not to feed her. I'm hoping she'll figure that part out by herself.

ERININSYDNEY · April 2016

hobo920 said:

We did Ferber and I love not having to put her down with fears that she'll wake up and then tip toe out of her room. Sometimes she'll cry for 5-10 minutes but it's been going well.

She's still waking twice a night and I usually feed her, and I try to put her back down awake. Does anyone else still do MOTN feeds that did sleep training? I'm sure it's not technically necessary to do at 6 months old, but I can't bring myself not to feed her. I'm hoping she'll figure that part out by herself.

Our guy is put to sleep at 8pm, the last step before bed is nursing him so that he's the fullest for the long night because NO, we don't do MOTN feeds ever since we've sleep trained him. He does wake up any time between 4:30-6AM pretty hungry but that's better than having to feed him MOTN. At first I felt bad for letting him "fast" through the night, but honestly at his age of almost 6 mos he doesn't need to feed metabolically speaking (as you said), it would be more of a comfort thing.

amwright33 · April 2016

I read that some breastfed babies will still wake up to feed 1 to 2 times for a 5 month old. I haven't read the next chapter yet. All babies are different though and depends on their metabolism. Mine has a high one liked her dad. But she is still gaining weight yay, on the low side of normal but normal.

jasmineluke · April 2016

We did CIO at 4.5 months as well and worked out great! She cried for about 30 mins the first night and about 1 min the third night. We do it for naps and bedtime and now she sleeps great through most of the night. We feed her at 645 and asleep by 715. She will sleep through until about 5-6am. At which point I try to finish getting ready for work while she plays by herself in the crib. Some nights she wakes up and plays on her own for about 30-45 mins and puts herself back to sleep but she doesn't cry.... So she's not in distress or asking for milk.
she still has rough nights here and there, for shots, teething, plain no old crankiness and we give her a little extra comfort but we stick to putting her in her crib to sleep, and she's been a champ at it due to consistency.
Shes a much happier, well rested baby and certainly not scarred by it. She engages in playtime and responds more with smiles and laughter then anything else. She just wasn't getting the sleep she desperately needed before CIO (extinction) and you could tell she was a more irritable unhappy baby at that time and now things are way better!

cbolton19 · April 2016

We are still bed-sharing and LO still wakes up 1-2 times to nurse at night. We are on a bit of a reverse cycle though. She is not a huge fan of the bottle so she eats a little at daycare and makes up for the rest in the evenings and nights. She is starting to take the bottle more at daycare so she is nursing a little less at night, but it's been fine for us. We start getting easy for bed around 7-7:30, and she is usually asleep between 8 and 9. At this point we generally just follow her cues. Some nights she'll lay in bed and babble until she falls asleep around 9 and others she'll nurse right to sleep around 8. We tried earlier and she wouldn't stay asleep for longer than 30 min to an hour. So pushing her bedtime back a little worked for us. She'll sleep in 4-6 hour increments.

ColoradoHiker · April 2016

Honestly, we followed baby's lead. Once he finally seemed to have a good sleep pattern (~3.5 mo), we tried to keep it consistent. He starts yawning around 7pm. We change his diaper, put him in jammers, and offer a bottle if he hasn't just eaten. He usually falls asleep while eating. Up until Easter he had an 11pm dream feed, but now he wakes up around two am, gets a bottle, then sleeps until five or six am.

DS starting to tummy sleep made a huge difference in how long his sleep stretches are now. We put him down on his back, but leave him on his stomach if he lands there while sleeping.

onlyonealejandra · April 2016

Lo just started sleeping in his crib , he's a good sleeee but I had some trouble
myslef. Most of the night I was just watching the baby monitor

Anyways , it's seems as he regressed a bit. Used to sleep from 7pm , then wake up at 5am for a bottle and back to sleep until 8 sometimes 9 am. But now (last 3 days) he sleeps at 7pm , wakes up at midnight , I feed him , then back to sleep until 5 when he wakes again for another feeding. I think he's going through a growth spurt. Who knows , i tried cio but I know the hungry cry when I hear it. Feeding him at midnight is no big deal for me anyways since I'm still awake. Feeding him at that hour is my cue to go to bed!

Do do whatever makes you feel comfortable.

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