TTMA Sleep training

[piratecat]

When did you start and what was your strategy? What worked and what didn't? 

H is in favor of CIO but I've been more reluctant to go that route. I think we might compromise and go with Ferber but I am more interested in giving "gentler" methods a try. I would also like to try and set him up for success before we actually start. We've been working on a bedtime routine, which was going pretty well until recently when he would start crying and fighting as soon as I start singing, ugh. I'm also introducing him to a lovey and I try to put him down drowsy (but maybe not as much as I should because sometimes you just don't have it in you to mess around) and if he is in a good mood and not overtired he has some success falling asleep on his own. We are also just now trying to transition from being swaddled at 5 months. He is still such a squirmy baby so sleep has been especially tough, outside of the swing or RnP.

[teachermomtobe]

I’m realizing V is a special snowflake. She wants to go to bed by 6:30, she doesn’t want to fall asleep in our arms, she wants to be in her crib. She still wakes MOTN to eat and is sometimes fussy for no reason but I think we are off to a good start. I liked the book/blog/podcast/FB group called Precious Little Sleep

[hufflepug]

We started at 9 months bc my kid is a special snowflake who spent time on an apnea monitor and then I had crippling anxiety once she graduated from that about her breathing.

I do not recommend waiting that long. I started the no cry sleep solution and the sleep lady shuffle and we're having success now at almost 14 months.

Whatever you do, you both have to be all in on it. And figure out how long you're comfortable with letting LO CIO. I think we'd have had an easier time of training if H had pitched in.

[mikaela20]

I had success when I hired a sleep consultant to help over a 2 week period with DS when he was 4 months.

My son was always fussy, overtired and he only took short naps if I would rock him and keep him in my arms. Sometimes taking 2 hours to get him to nap.

The sleep training i did was similar to ferber where I would go in and comfort him after intervals of crying. I used the pick up/put down method for comforting where i would go in and put him over my shoulder. Pat any burps out and shush him until he was calm up to 3 mins max. Then put him back down and repeat until he was asleep.

It was pretty affective after the first week.

Now at 8 months he is the happiest baby, gets his recommended sleep for his age most days (14 hours includes 3 hours of napping ) and falls asleep on his own.

My night time routine went from a 2 hour start to finish ordeal to a 30 min calm and relaxing routine with my baby sound asleep within 15-20 of being put in his crib awake without crying.

It has been a huge improvement. Everyone that meets ds always says what a happy baby he is. Naps are no struggle either and he is down within 10 mins without crying.

I guard his sleep very heavily now and make it a big priority for him.

We do struggle with the fact that he only sleeps in his crib though. Not in the car, carrier, on walks etc. He has to be in his crib so that's hard right now.

[betches]

We did CIO at 5 months, she had been STTN but was starting wake up in the middle of the night and I really didn't want to go down that road. She was also nursing to sleep and I wanted to break that habit so my H could do bedtimes too. We started with timed checks where we would go in after certain increments of time which would get longer each night, but it would just upset her more when we'd go in and not pick her up. After a few nights we switched to the extinction method and after 1 night she was fine and has no problem going to sleep or putting herself back to sleep if something wakes her up. While we were sleep training, I was still nursing her to sleep for naps and waited until her night time sleep was well established before doing the same thing with naps.

The precious little sleep website was a huge help
www.preciouslittlesleep.com/

[piratecat]

mikaela20 I like the idea of picking up and putting down and I'm glad that that worked for you guys. J is a happy baby already but I know that he is not sleeping enough, both day and night. I can count on one hand the number of times he has slept in his crib.

[piratecat]

Those of you that have sleep trained, do your LOs still use pacifiers? J has never been super into them until recently and they seem to really help him settle down. I don't know if I should embrace it or avoid going down that road.

[mikaela20]

Oct 27, 2017 23:00:43 GMT -6 piratecat said:

Those of you that have sleep trained, do your LOs still use pacifiers? J has never been super into them until recently and they seem to really help him settle down. I don't know if I should embrace it or avoid going down that road.

No pacifier. But we did introduce a thin small a&a muslin security blanket which he likes to rub and chew in his crib.


Eta the consultant suggested removing it because it's something they will need to give up later which can be hard. DS was never really into.

[mikaela20]

Oct 27, 2017 22:56:05 GMT -6 piratecat said:

mikaela20 I like the idea of picking up and putting down and I'm glad that that worked for you guys. J is a happy baby already but I know that he is not sleeping enough, both day and night. I can count on one hand the number of times he has slept in his crib.

DS was a poor sleeper before too. Would never sleep more than 2 hour intervals at night and would barley nap. Sometimes only 20 minutes and only sleeping on me. It was so brutal. Now, many times I have to wake him from his naps because he is sleeping too long.

[teachermomtobe]

We haven’t ST yet but I mentioned how sick of putting her pacifier back in MOTN to the pedi this week. She really encouraged us to continue the paci for now since it’s V’s only way to self soothe really at this age.

[cmb]

Oct 27, 2017 23:00:43 GMT -6 piratecat said:

Those of you that have sleep trained, do your LOs still use pacifiers? J has never been super into them until recently and they seem to really help him settle down. I don't know if I should embrace it or avoid going down that road.

Yes. I will remove it and go cold turkey on his first birthday if he doesn't give it up by then.

[cmb]

We did two different ways. Just note that sleep training doesn't end once it's successful. Toddlerhood has shown me we have to constantly be willing to retrain in different ways

DS1- we did a "fuss but no cry." We'd let him fuss up to 5 minutes, then we'd go in. If he escalated or was crying hard, we'd go in sooner. He was STTN around 5 months. Now, if he cries in the middle of the night, something is wrong (often when he's really sick) and we go to him immediately. The going to bed is the hard part but some of that has to do with toddler independence shinning it's ugly head

DS2- we tried our method with DS1 to no avail. We ended up trying Ferber. It took a week with another week or two of having to play pacifier bitch multiple times MOTN.

A few weeks ago, putting the pacifier in his own mouth finally clicked, so now it's just helping him escape from his belly when he rolls over to sleep 🙄

[lastkiss]

I like the Precious Little Sleep book for general guidance. It's written in a great way that explains why you should do things a certain without making you feel like an idiot.

I also highly recommend the app Huckleberry. You track the sleep patterns for a week or two and then it gives you specific recommendations and a schedule based on it. I did it with L and he's gone from waking up every 3 hours at night and 30 min naps to 2+ hour naps and sleeping from 7 to 3 and 3 to 7ish most nights.

[peacock]

After 6 months I'm extinction all the way. CIO with checks only made my two more upset. With DS after 2 nights he was STTN. With DD it was 1 night. We waited about a week for the nighttime sleep to really take hold and then we did naps.

[peacock]

Oh and the paci and I have mixed feelings.

DS was very attached to it and he used it until a little past 2. Which, imo was way to long.

DD was never really into it and STTN sooner and more consistently. So now I'm team no paci.

[jftb]

We did a modified Ferber method at seven months. It was hard, but one of the best things we've done. Prior to that, DD was waking up every 45 minutes at night. I was a zombie. On the fourth night of sleep training, she went down after 5 minutes and slept until morning. She now sleeps from about 7:00 p.m.-7:30 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. with no wake ups.

[marshian]

We're starting sleep training next week when I'm back from going away for the weekend. Our nights have deteriorated from 2 wakeups between 8pm and 3/4am to 5+. No one is getting enough sleep. We have to rock her for 45+ minutes to get her asleep enough to transfer and stay asleep (maybe - sometimes her eyes fly open and she's wide awake again).

mikaela20 - I like your Ferber/PU-PD combo method. Also like cmb's method of not letting it get to heavy crying. I think we'll do some hybrid of those two.

[piratecat]

cmb, I like the "fuss but no cry". J is pretty easy going and it takes a lot for him to full-on cry so I feel like this could work pretty well for us.

lastkiss, I'm going to try out that app, as soon as I get a new phone without a broken screen I'm worried will give me a million tiny cuts on my finger.

@icedtea, I'm glad your sleep plan is working for you. How is teething and her stomach?

marshian, I really need a free weekend at home to get started.

We are in what I'm guessing is teething hell so we are just trying to survive at the moment.

[piratecat]

I offered a cold washcloth and he wasn't interested but I put some teething toys in the fridge to try today. How long did her teething last? Can you actually feel her teeth coming through?


@icedtea,

[piratecat]

@icedtea, oh dear lord.

[piratecat]

@icedtea, well last night after much crying before bedtime I had to lay in bed with him at 8PM because he would wake up and cry every time we tried to put him down on his own, so no drinking for me.

I have been trying to figure out a nap schedule to stick to so I need to get back on that. Is F able to fall asleep for naps on her own? I can usually put J down on the swing to fall asleep on his own for his first morning nap but the rest of the day is a crapshoot.

[piratecat]

@icedtea, oh gosh, he doesn't nap nearly enough, which I already knew. So I should work on a better nap schedule with him first before starting some kind of sleep training at night time?

[piratecat]

@icedtea, ok I'm gonna get on this. We'll have to see how his teething affects napping...

[marshian]

piratecat - FWIW, my pedi and the internet say they can teeth for months before the teeth finally pop. That just sounds depressing.

[piratecat]

Nov 2, 2017 12:33:58 GMT -6 marshian said:

piratecat - FWIW, my pedi and the internet say they can teeth for months before the teeth finally pop. That just sounds depressing.

I've heard that too and J has been gnawing on stuff for some time but nothing quite like yesterday/last night. I'm hoping this super awful teething phase means the teeth are almost ready to poke through and it will be short lived............... 

[cmb]

Nov 2, 2017 12:53:02 GMT -6 piratecat said:

Nov 2, 2017 12:33:58 GMT -6 marshian said:

piratecat - FWIW, my pedi and the internet say they can teeth for months before the teeth finally pop. That just sounds depressing.

I've heard that too and J has been gnawing on stuff for some time but nothing quite like yesterday/last night. I'm hoping this super awful teething phase means the teeth are almost ready to poke through and it will be short lived............... 

The first tooth takes forever to cut and even longer to come in. Also, at this age, it’s very common for them to chew on every thing like mad and not be teething.

[piratecat]

Nov 2, 2017 13:38:35 GMT -6 cmb said:

Nov 2, 2017 12:53:02 GMT -6 piratecat said:

I've heard that too and J has been gnawing on stuff for some time but nothing quite like yesterday/last night. I'm hoping this super awful teething phase means the teeth are almost ready to poke through and it will be short lived............... 

The first tooth takes forever to cut and even longer to come in. Also, at this age, it’s very common for them to chew on every thing like mad and not be teething.

Don't make me cry. 

[moutonrouge]

I blamed a lot on teething - from 4 months on. Her teeth didn't come in until she was almost 6 months old. The night we felt a tooth she was an absolute demon all day - nothing pleased her, she wanted to be held the whole day.

I'm not convinced she was teething for 2 months. It was probably a lot of different things.

[piratecat]

Well J has been sick so everything has been out of whack - bedsharing and nursing to sleep. And before that we were on vacation so right now I'm feeling like we've gone so far backwards.

[addymac]

How do you sleep train or encourage STTN when Baby is still eating every time he wakes up? Like, he was up at 1am and took 6oz last night- that was after waking up from a nap at 7:30, eating 6oz, then another 2oz at 9:30 and then sleeping til 1am. I’m hesitant to try to force him back to sleep bc I think he’s hungry and I don’t want to leave him hungry. How can I try to make him STTN??