Yes, another sleep training thread

[namasteak]

We went from swaddled in the swing to the magic sleep suit in the crib. He had been putting himself to sleep in the swing so we put him down awake in the crib. He cried for about 10min and fussed for another 10 before falling asleep. Instead of 4 wake ups a night we had 3 that night. 1 he went back to sleep after 5min of fussing and I fed him the other 2. The next night was 2 wake ups and now we are down to 1.

[humpforfree]

Would do both at once. We made the mistake of doing CIO at the same time as moving her from the rnp to the PNP BUT kept her in the swaddle. Last week was a nightmare of trying to get her to sleep without a swaddle. I would tear the band aid off and do it all at once.

[soozy87]

We did sleep training earlier with our second. We dropped the swaddle, overnight feeds before 2:00 a.m. and swing at the same time. It was bad for 3 nights with the second (4.75 months). Now at 5.25 months he sleeps much better. He wakes up 2 times for quick pacifier replacements but then is good to go. We have had to feed him 2 times overnight over the past couple of weeks.

Just remember everyone is happier when everyone is getting better sleep. I hope it goes well for you!

[Muddled]

We all sleep better with DD in her crib at night. We kept her swaddled maybe for a week before switching her into the sleep sack. Her wake-ups (or at least her wake-me-ups) immediately decreased in frequency. She was breaking out of her swaddle and was really fighting it. Otherwise, I would have left her in it a while longer.

[turtlegirl]

I'm a big fan of the whole rip the band aid off and get rid of as many sleep associations as possible at once plan. I think doing CIO while swaddled is hard because they can't move around, get comfy or use their hands to self soothe.

It's never fun listending to your baby cry. But everyone has been much happier since we started getting more solid sleep at night. We did sleep training with DD right at 4 months and she quickly got to just one night feeding and then about 2 weeks later was totally STTN.

Her naps are still really hit or miss with lots of cat napping. It's driving me crazy. But she's had a nasty cold the past week and a half and she's getting her 6 month shots tomorrow, so I'm trying to be patient and hold off on nap training for a bit longer.

She also has some early morning wake-ups (late 5am hour) where she poops and then thinks it's a good time to be up for the day. But I can't really do anything about those. But at least she is STTN up until that point. I just try not to go in and get her until at least 6am (usually she's just rolling around and fussing, but not full on crying until after 6am).

[countthestars]

jumping in - how did you "know" your baby was ready for sleep training? DS is almost 5 months and he is really trying to kill us, I think. I really don't need him to STTN but stretches longer than.. .45 minutes would be nice. He just seems so little to me

[soozy87]

Mar 2, 2016 15:49:22 GMT -5 countthestars said:

jumping in - how did you "know" your baby was ready for sleep training? DS is almost 5 months and he is really trying to kill us, I think. I really don't need him to STTN but stretches longer than.. .45 minutes would be nice. He just seems so little to me

We just did it when we couldn't take the wake ups anymore. We knew he could STTN because he had before he just couldn't put himself to sleep or back to sleep after a wake up.

[Myrrhine]

Mar 2, 2016 15:49:22 GMT -5 countthestars said:

jumping in - how did you "know" your baby was ready for sleep training? DS is almost 5 months and he is really trying to kill us, I think. I really don't need him to STTN but stretches longer than.. .45 minutes would be nice. He just seems so little to me

I am no expert, but we did it when he was 5 months and change. He was also waking up every 45-90 minutes. I felt like that couldn't be very restful at that age (I know it wasn't for me!).

[jewel]

Mar 2, 2016 15:49:22 GMT -5 countthestars said:

jumping in - how did you "know" your baby was ready for sleep training? DS is almost 5 months and he is really trying to kill us, I think. I really don't need him to STTN but stretches longer than.. .45 minutes would be nice. He just seems so little to me

I didn't know. But I had to do something for my own sanity. My kid was rarely sleeping longer an 45 minutes in a row, and often in bed with me, so, at best, I was sort of just dozing, on and off all night. At worst, I was up for many hours at a time. And then I was dropping him off at day care, where he also wouldn't sleep, and going to work in a fog. It was complete hell for both of us.

I made my H be the initial STing person, because I physically could not handle the crying. It went so remarkably well, my only regret was not doing it a month earlier.

[turtlegirl]

countthestars, after reading a few sleep books (Ferber, HSHHC) and talking to our pedi (who I love and absolutely trust) at DS1's 4 month appointment I realized that it was truly an inability to self soothe and connect sleep cycles and having "bad" sleep associations in the MOTN. The quickest way to "fix" those problems was to try CIO and it has basically worked pretty well with all 3 of my kids (I know not all kids respond to CIO).

Once we got through it with DS1 and he became a champion sleeping, we just automatically sleep trained kids #2 and #3 right at 4 months even though their sleep wasn't as "bad" as DS1's was at that age. I just wanted to give them the ability to self soothe and learn how to put themselves to sleep, which I think is a very important thing.

All my kids are pretty happy and healthy. I don't think any permanent or long term damage has been done.

In my mind, a baby to be waking up every 45-90 mins isn't getting restful sleep and neither are the parents.

[Muddled]

Mar 2, 2016 15:49:22 GMT -5 countthestars said:

jumping in - how did you "know" your baby was ready for sleep training? DS is almost 5 months and he is really trying to kill us, I think. I really don't need him to STTN but stretches longer than.. .45 minutes would be nice. He just seems so little to me

Disclaimer: I haven't sleep trained per se- just changed a few things as she gets older.

What is the longest he has ever slept? 
What is the longest he has ever gone without eating? 
How do you currently handle the wake-ups?

[humpforfree]

Mar 2, 2016 16:24:01 GMT -5 @starry said:

Mar 2, 2016 15:49:22 GMT -5 countthestars said:

jumping in - how did you "know" your baby was ready for sleep training? DS is almost 5 months and he is really trying to kill us, I think. I really don't need him to STTN but stretches longer than.. .45 minutes would be nice. He just seems so little to me

My opinion is if they are waking every sleep cycle something needs to change. If you can get them chaining together 45 minute cycles you have something to work with.

DD2 can put herself to sleep and will sleep stretches so it's harder for me to choose to CIO because my gut is she needs us. My game plan is to get her to start spacing feedings gently pretty soon.

This. We were in the same spot countthestars. She was waking up every half hour for a couple of weeks. I was about ready to sleep train and the pedi told me to just do it, so at 4 months, 1 week we did CIO. After the very first (1.5 hour long) crying session, she put herself to sleep and then connected all of her sleep cycles and only woke up once to nurse. It's been the same for a month since (except when we took away the swaddle). She is a completely different baby now- so so happy and giggly and she naps!

[countthestars]

Mar 2, 2016 16:40:19 GMT -5 Muddled said:

Mar 2, 2016 15:49:22 GMT -5 countthestars said:

jumping in - how did you "know" your baby was ready for sleep training? DS is almost 5 months and he is really trying to kill us, I think. I really don't need him to STTN but stretches longer than.. .45 minutes would be nice. He just seems so little to me

Disclaimer: I haven't sleep trained per se- just changed a few things as she gets older.

What is the longest he has ever slept? 
What is the longest he has ever gone without eating? 
How do you currently handle the wake-ups?

7 hours (twice, a while ago - he was probably 2 or 3 months), more recently up to 5 hours
6-7 hours (including those two 7 hour stretches)
As soon as I pick him up he falls asleep (rage) but then wakes as soon as I put him down. So I usually either just let him sleep on me or nurse him until he is really really asleep and then put him down. That usually buys me about 45 minutes.

He will sometimes give us a 3 hour stretch at the beginning of the night but that's usually like 7:30-10:30 so we are not asleep or barely asleep before the shenanigans begin.

[Muddled]

Mar 2, 2016 16:46:39 GMT -5 countthestars said:

Mar 2, 2016 16:40:19 GMT -5 Muddled said:

Disclaimer: I haven't sleep trained per se- just changed a few things as she gets older.

What is the longest he has ever slept? 
What is the longest he has ever gone without eating? 
How do you currently handle the wake-ups?

7 hours (twice, a while ago - he was probably 2 or 3 months), more recently up to 5 hours
6-7 hours (including those two 7 hour stretches)
As soon as I pick him up he falls asleep (rage) but then wakes as soon as I put him down. So I usually either just let him sleep on me or nurse him until he is really really asleep and then put him down. That usually buys me about 45 minutes.

He will sometimes give us a 3 hour stretch at the beginning of the night but that's usually like 7:30-10:30 so we are not asleep or barely asleep before the shenanigans begin.

Ok, so you know what he is capable of. Every thing I have read regarding transitioning from one sleep cycle to the next says not to even touch them, but just to talk or sing while they work it out on their own. Luckily, it is rare for DD to experience this after the first transition, so this has been enough for us. It is really really hard for me not to pick her up. I don't go in there immediately. Sometimes she gets through it on her own.
I don't know how you get through the day on so little sleep. Hugs.

[soozy87]

Mar 3, 2016 13:39:04 GMT -5 @invino said:

R was up every 2 hours last night which means he is connecting some sleep cycles but not all. I don't know what to do now because he also ate 16 ounces between 6 pm- 4 am.

Can you try to push more oz to the day time?