We just got our Christmas present and it’s the most awaited one - sleep!!! I want to share our experience with those of you extremely sleep deprived and desperate for some answers.

Our baby girl is 8 months and always would wake up to nurse every 1-2 hours at night since she was born. There was no improvement, she never developed ability to sleep for longer stretches. It was a nightmare for me and a night milk fest for her. She would survive on 5-6 oz in daycare during the day and catch up on food during the night.

She has 7 teeth already, 5 came in within last 4 weeks and it’s been super hard to manage her already bad sleep.

I’ve always been so against sleep training and specifically CIO. I read 2 books on baby sleep when she was 3-4 months old - Little Precious Sleep and The No-cry sleep solution. Great books, great tips but nothing worked for us, no gentle methods made any difference - she still could fall and stay asleep only nursing or in a car. I knew that at some point I’ll possibly have to sleep train with some crying involved but I wasn’t ready. Until I was.

This Sunday after her not being able to go to bed and her dad having to drive her around at 2am just to give me a couple hours of sleep I said enough is enough.

I put her down, hugged her, kissed her and said it’s time to go to bed on her own. I left the room and she cried for 3 min before I went back in. I came in, held her for a minute, let her calm down and put her down. I did it 2-3 times before she fell asleep. I let her cry for 5-7 min the longest. I wasn’t looking at time but rather was listening to how she was crying. That night she was waking up crying every 30 min for first 2 hours, then every hour for 3 hours and then 1.5h for the rest of the night. The biggest dilemma was what to do with feedings and when to go in. I recognized her hungry cries twice and fed her, it was 3 and 3.5h stretches - already better than 1-2h usual. I didn’t go in for other times when she cried because she wasn’t even awake and self-soothed within 1-2 min.

In the next 2 days we didn’t have daycare (dec break) and stayed to work from home to watch her. The timing of it was perfect because we continued the sleep quest during day naps too. Every time it was getting a bit better than previous. Last night it was our 3rd night, she went to bed super early after an eventful day at 5.30pm, she woke up only once to be fed - at 11.30 pm and then slept till 5.30am. It is 5h and 6.5h stretches without food or any comforting whatsoever. We woke up on Christmas morning feeling like we have superpowers. It is an amazing feeling after 8 months of running on fumes. I don’t regret not doing it earlier because i feel like it was important that she was old enough to understand what we want from her and us knowing her different cries and knowing that she’s not desperate and scared but just demanding attention and complaining. I can’t imagine doing it when she was 3-4 or even 5-6 months and then 7 when she was constantly teething for weeks. But I’m happy we did it now.

One last thing I’ll share for those of you struggling with sleep and not feeling good about any sleep training methods - remember that falling sleep is a skill just like crawling, walking, chewing etc. You have to let your baby learn it on their own, you can’t learn it for them. They will not outgrow the need to learn it, it will have to happen sooner or later. Choose the method you’re the most comfortable with and go for it. You know your baby best and you’ll know what to do.