My eight month old won't sleep?

Question

He won't sleep more then three hours at a time at night still how can I get more sleep??

Answer

Are you willing to sleep train? I can only share my experience and hopefully it will help you.

First though - sleep training and night weaning should only be done if baby is healthy and your Dr. agrees baby can go 10-12 hrs without eating. Also be warned that it may take up to 14 days, so pick two weeks without anything going on. Baby should be in bed at the same time each night.

When I first had my son, I said to myself I would never let him CIO (cry it out). I tried every other sleep training methods I found online and none worked. (Not saying they won't for you) so my husband and I decided to attempt the Ferber method. I started our sleep training journey about a month before with weaning him off formula at night. I started by reducing the amount of formula I gave him at each night wake up. Started at 6oz for 3 days, reduced to 4 for 3 days, then down to 2. Once I was at 2oz I would only put a half scoop in for 3 days, then I offered just water. At that point, he would fall back asleep in my arms with just a soother. (If you're breastfeeding - you just reduce the nursing session by a few min every 3 days) My son was still waking at night, every 3-4 hours, because he did not know how to put himself to sleep. This is where the sleep training helps.

The first official night of sleep training was the worst. Not for me, I did surprisingly well. But my son woke up every few hours like normal, so we had to restart. With the Ferber method, you check and console but you have to wait a certain amount of time in between. First night - 3 min, 5 min, 10min then 10 min every interval after that. It took my son 45 min total to fall asleep. Second night was much easier, he fell asleep within 30 min and slept 5 hrs woke up for 20 min then slept another 7! Since the third night, he goes down within 10-20 min, and sleeps 12 hours solid! (With little wake ups, to readjust - no crying)

Answer

(My Comment was too long - lol)

I found some amazing links that really helped me out.  (I know links don't work - so I shortened them so it's easier to type in) 
www.preciouslittlesleep.com - had great articles on sleep/CIO/weaning this is the one I used - http://bit.ly/1UQeTlm

This article was the best in helping me prepare for what was to come - http://bit.ly/2aH0vNp

There are a lot of resources for no-cry sleep training as well. You'll have to search google for those, I don't have any links.

Good luck and if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Oh! We have not started nap training yet. Naps are harder than nights, so we're waiting for my husbands next weekend off to start that. You're able to do them simultaneously, but a baby that doesn't nap well won't sleep well at night. A rested baby sleeps better. So I'd suggest waiting on naps.

Answer

Great comments, @Mirshmir! I am not willing to put in the work 😂 (especially because it is the summer and we are travelling, camping, hosting visitors, etc.), but I admire your dedication, and how cool is it that your baby sleeps for that long now! 👏🏽 Thanks for sharing!

My eight month old won't sleep?

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