Sleep training?

SmallyMcSmall · August 2016

So at my sons check up with his pedi today, he said that sleep training should be started. Any other moms here start sleep training their LO's yet? If so, how did you do it? What do you do when your baby wakes up in the MOTN? Diaper change or anything, or do you just try to soothe back to sleep without feeding or something?

Uscdrea05 · August 2016

We did CIO with N when he was about four months. It was horrible but in the end it's been best for all of us. We followed Ferber and did progressive checks. We did naps and night sleep plus pacifier simultaneously. Naps improved within a day and night time was done in about five days.

We we are very lucky that N is "healthy" and hasn't needed a middle of the night feeding since about three months. When he does wake up MOTN, I let him go unless he starts crying. Last night, he woke up at 3:15 and just hung out and played in his crib until about 4:30. That is really rare, though, and he generally sleeps about 11 hours straight through.

I know CIO isn't for everyone, but it works. And when you see him smile at you the next day, you know it's all going to be ok!

jhsoontobe3 · August 2016

We have not started yet. But we are as soon as we get moved out of our apartment into our new house!
Right now we have a set night routine which we start around 7 or 7:30. She gets fed, bath, jammies, book and bed. Then I lay her down in her crib and most of the time she difts off to sleep. However this is sometimes not the case. We are going to soothe her (pacifier, talk to her, pat her belly) and once she's calm we leave. If she cried for longer than a set amour of time (we plan to start with 10 minutes) we will go back in and soothe her (we will not pick her up). And repeat. If she wakes up during the night we do not change her unless she has pooped. She still has one MOTN feeding about 3am (i don't care to try and wean her. She will do that herself when shes ready) I feed her. We give her the bottle but once again we don't plan on picking her up. Then back to sleep. Any other time she wakes we just soothe like stated above and walk away once quiet.

Even though we haven't started completely (don't want to disturb the apartment neighbors with CIO) we have been working on little things like not picking her up every time she cries and not rocking her to sleep, etc.

Everything sounds easy in theory. But it will test you. Good luck! And stick with whatever you choose. It's always hard at first!

SmallyMcSmall · August 2016

Thank you for the input ladies! The very night I posted this, I put my LO to bed as soon as he started to fall asleep (I used to let him hit a deep sleep while holding him before putting him to bed). He slept straight through from 830-6 without waking up. Last night I put him in bed the same way and achieved similar results as he didn't wake me until 7 this time, but he did wake once because his father had woken him accidentally by being a bit too loud. Overall things are already improving without much change at all!

kaitkisses · August 2016

I know others feel differently, and I respect that each parent will do what works for their family, but personally I think the CIO method is a little archaic and mean. I don't care whether it works or not, I could not stand to let my son cry for even 10 minutes thinking his parents had abandoned him. They are too young to understand why mommy or daddy are not answering their cries. We have had great success with our son just by being strict with a night time routine since he was 6 weeks. He gets a bath, fed, a song and a book. Then I rock him til he is asleep and put him in his crib. He sleeps from 7pm - 3am and then gets a diaper change and feeding and goes back in his crib until 7. Once in a while he will wake up from gas pains or a dream and cry, so I will go in and pick him up to soothe him then put him back down. I don't know if he is just different then some babies or what, but we have never had problems with rocking him to sleep or picking him up and then putting him back in his crib. They are only this little for such a short time in their life, I wouldn't give up the middle of the night cuddles no matter how tired I might be. Best of luck with your little one!

CecilB93 · September 2016

Just had our six month appointment. Our ped suggested shortening the night time feeds little by little. If you're not BFing then I imagine you could lessen the amount given? He said this should hopefully get the hunger cues to go away and he'll start sleeping more.

Ive also noticed lately that LO will actually calm down if I give his paci and rub his back/tummy (depending on how he's laying). I don't have to pick him up or feed him all the time when he wakes up.

cataleya82 · September 2016

Luckily for me with my daughter she's been sleeping 10-11 hours every night since 3 months. However, my 2nd born child did not do this. When he was 6.5 months old he was literally waking up every 15 to 20 minutes bc his pacifier would fall out. I was a zombie, and had a 4 yr old as well as I worked full time plus I was single. I decided to let him cry it out. It sucked. I sat in the hallway next to his room and balled my eyes out. The first night was the worst and it got better each night. It took maybe 4 nights total and he was sleeping 10 hours straight. He's almost 10 now and I'm still bothered by the fact that I let him do that but at the same time I needed my sleep and sanity. With my oldest son I used to co sleep and he slept just fine as long as he was in my bed. I don't have experience with any other sleep training methods but wanted to add what worked for me. Good luck and hopefully little one will be sleeping through the night soon!

4N6s · September 2016

I don't think what I'm doing is considered sleep training. She's always gone to sleep easily for bed time, but I feed her and put her to sleep awake. She falls asleep on her own with her binkie. If she does cry, I just pick her up. Haha. Get her calm and put her back down.
We just put her in her own room in her crib. If she cries at night, we give her a couple minutes to go back to sleep, if she doesn't, I go put her binkie in.
Last night she slept from 7:45-6am.
I haven't changed her diaper at night for months now.

Synnovus · September 2016

No sleep training here. I nurse DD to sleep around 8pm (same time DS goes to bed so figured it's nice with both kids sleeping at the same time) and will either sit with her in my lap or put her in the bassinet until I go to bed. We co-sleep and I still feed on demand. We'll just see when and how sleep training will go later on. For now this is easy and work for us.

tmblickley · September 2016

When we hit the 4 mo. sleep regression we tried sleep training. 10 minutes of her crying and I gave in. So we tried a sleep routine. We start at 7 pm with a walk or bath. Then pjs, a book, snuggles, and a feed if she's hungry. We rocked to sleep but she would wake up when we put her in the crib or the passy fell out. She was getting up several times a night and only getting around 10 hours of sleep per day. Everyone was exhausted. At 6 mo. pedi said to try CIO again. Day 1 = 45 min. crying (we were in the room talking to her for 20 and then checked on her every 5 min til she slept), 20 min sleep, 20 min CIO, and 4 hours of sleep, feed, slept til morning. Day 2= 20 min CIO, 35 min sleep, feed, 10 min CIO, 4 hours sleep, feed, slept til morning. Tonight is day 3. It's horrible as a parent to watch and hear her CIO, but she needs more sleep than 10 hrs a day (pedi said avg. of 14 is good) so we will try a few more days and hope she learns to put herself to sleep.

Want a personalized experience?

Sleep training?

Re: Sleep training?

Choose Another Board

Search Boards