What age did you start sleep training for bedtime?

[snipsnsnails]

So, yeah, the subject line summed it up.

[speckledfrog]

4 months. We didn't have much of a bedtime routine until then because we didn't really need one. I think he just became so much more aware of his surroundings and also started trying to bust out of the swaddle. We did a kind of modified CIO and it worked very well for us.

[Deleted]

12-13 months for both kids.

[eb777888]

12 months but only because we didn't need it until then. He was a great sleeper. It took like 3 nights of sleep training and he was good.

[persa]

5 months for making bedtime easier. Again at 7 months to sleep through the night

[softspot]

6 months

[Deleted]

We tried CIO at 5 months and she was going to sleep on her own within 2 nights. BEST THING EVER.

[nursewife]

I'm not sure if it was really sleep training, but since they were 2 months, we always got them ready at the same time, and that's always when they wanted to settle. They go to bed around 9 with a bottle. Since they nap for 2-3 hours between 2-5, they are almost always ready for bed, especially DS. He is a parents dream in that regards, never fussy to go to bed, and settles quick.

[snipsnsnails]

Speckled-did you drop the swaddle then?

[gretchenindisguise]

6 months.

It's still a battle.

[ndolehan]

Em had a sleep schedule/routine by the time she was 2.5 / 3 months. She's been sleeping 8+ hours since she was about two months. We're super lucky with our baby! Right now she sleeps 11pm to 9am (roughly). Right now we're working on a nap time schedule/routine. We followed her ques - she tends to do the same things and the same time of day, so we just went with it.

[Jermys]

Four months with Edith and like 9 months with Freddie because he was STTN when he came home. But he was STTN in the bassinet in our room, and when we went to put him down in the crib, he did. not. like. So he had to cry that shit out. And now he just goes into his crib and goes to sleep or plays with his toys.

[nannersp]

5 1/2 months. We did the Sleep Easy Solution (CIO with gradual check-ins), and it worked in just a few nights.

[stephm0188]

8 or 9 months. He had pretty nasty reflux up until then.

[game blouses]

Pretty early, like 8 weeks or so. He went insane after 7 pm or so, so we just started putting him down then instead of when we went to bed. Now he can't keep his eyes open past 7. He's 9 months now.

He didn't STTN till 7 months though.

[daisybuchannan]

4 months and it worked very well. Let me know if you want details!

[snipsnsnails]

Daisy-was your kiddo swaddled prior & you dropped it then?

[daisybuchannan]

He was swaddled at 4 months and we did Ferber at bedtime and throughout the night to break him from having to be rocked to sleep. We ditched the swaddle at around 5 months when I got a merlin magic sleep suit. I love it, it is really cozy and warm too but isn't a swaddle.

Ferber got us to a point where we could just put him in the crib awake (drowsy still) and he would doze off. After middle of the night feedings, same thing, I'd put him back in awake (wake him up a little by changing his diaper if necessary) and he would go right to sleep.

I didn't stop feeding him in the middle of the night, but would only feed him if it had been 3 hours. My pedi encouraged me to do that. I know some people say "but they're SO hungry at night" but unless you're talking about a real newborn, they can go 3 hours.

Good luck, let me know if you have any other q's!

[Deleted]

I started letting him cry for 10 mins before soothing at 2 months.

With dd I can't even remember. There wasn't enough organization for training. Lol

[eddy]

4 months I start letting them fuss and put themselves to sleep. If it got to hysterical crying then I intervened but my goal was to put them down sleepy and let them take care of putting themselves to sleep. This was just for bedtime though. I didn't ever do CIO to drop the night waking. They both did it on their own with time.

I believe very strongly in giving your babies the tools early to learn how to put themselves to sleep. I have two amazing sleepers.

It is also easier to start the habit early rather than break a bad habit later.

[melodramatic26]

Just wanted to throw in my 2 cents because with DD1, we didn't have to break the swaddle habit. She was in a harness and pretty much out of the swaddle by 3 months. Around 5 months we did gradual CIO and she had it down by night 3.

This baby. Swaddle addict. We started breaking the swaddle around 4 months. I did it very slowly. Started with one arm out for a couple of weeks, then both arms and still swaddling around the chest. It probably took a good month or so for her to be ok without anything around her.

We haven't had to do CIO with her. Now that she's good without the swaddle, she puts herself to sleep amazingly well. A few times in the middle night she might fuss for her pacifier, but those are random and easy quick fixes. A couple of weeks ago we started on baby food and when we did that, she dropped any middle of the night feedings. She's 6 months next week.

[Deleted]

We rock Andy to sleep at night and always have. Its very easy to put him to bed. Sometimes he falls asleep during his bottle.

Not sure if this is the wrong answer, but it works for us and I don't see a need yet to change course.

[snipsnsnails]

Thanks, all!

And nope, missusbee, not wrong. If it's working for you, more power to you!

[sunshineluv]

Ferber at 7 months. He took to it like a champ and still sleeps great! We would have at 6 months, but sickness and teeth held us up for a month.

[fizz7678]

We did CIO at about 10 months, but I wish we had done it earlier.  Took just 3 nights and life is so much better now for all of us!  DS is happier overall now that he sleeps consistently and so are DH and I!

[partiallysunny]

We had a routine from the beginning and started sleep training at around 4 or 5 months.

[Deleted]

I will say that we aren't yet STTN, so maybe by that definition it isn't "working".

We've done a lot of smaller transitions: RnP to crib, swaddle to off swaddle, and most recently, back to tummy. The night wakings are getting more infrequent (at most, its once now) and sometimes I hear put himself back to sleep. When the night waking gets really bad, I know its because of a cold or teething. Training just hasn't felt necessary or appropriate for us yet. But I'm not opposed to it.

[Tacocat]

I have a question related to swaddling. DD is almost 4 months and is starting to hate being swaddled. It keeps her asleep longer once she actually settles and goes to sleep. She still moves her arms a lot, so if we stopped swaddling, she would wake up a million times. I'm not sure when to stop swaddling her. Any thoughts?

As far as sleep training, DD has had an 8-8:30 bedtime since she was about 2-3 months. She gets cranky if we keep her up later than that. She sometimes STTN and sometimes gets up once to eat and goes right back to sleep. We've been lucky that she been a good sleeper for a month or so. Next we have to move her to her crib from the RnP.

[karmasabiotch]

3 years old. I suck.

[speckledfrog]

snips, we tried to stop the swaddle at 4 months but he still needed it. We ended up swaddling until 6 months, at which point he was rolling over and wanted to sleep on his belly. He started breaking out of the swaddle around 4 months but slept better with it than without.