Sleep training?

Question

Hi! My daughter will be 6months on the 14th and I hear that’s when you start to sleep train. Currently, we ALWAYS feed her to sleep. She has a bedtime routine and unfortunately from what I’ve read, we shouldn’t be feeding her to sleep. But this is all she knows. We even do it for naps. I feel like this gunna be a hard habit to break. Any advice or thoughts. Have any of you done sleep training? What were your experiences with it? She wakes 1-2 times a night and again, we feed her a little to go back to sleep. Haaaalp! I hope I didn’t screw myself here

Answer

I also did the ABCs of sleep. He was waking every 2 hours! Now he sleeps through the night, made all the difference in the world!

Answer

We are on night 9 of Taking Cara babies ABCs of Sleep. Look her up on Instagram. We go to his room at 7:20. Put his sleep suit on. I feed him. We then read a book and I put him in his crib awake. 
If he cries we go in 5 minutes later and say shh for about 15 seconds. If he continues crying we go in 10 minutes later. If he cries beyond that then we go in every 15 minutes until he falls asleep. If he wakes in the night we go back to the 5-10-15 minute pop ins. We do not get him out of the crib. 
I only nurse (dream feed) him at 10:30pm and 3:30 am. She suggest weaning both night feeds by night 5, but my guy is small and my pediatrician doesn’t want me to cut night feeds. He must be asleep when I feed him. If he is crying at those times we do 5-10-15 minute pops in until he’s asleep for 5-10 minutes then I go in and nurse. This is to break the association of crying = getting out of crib = food. 
We are on day 9 and he’s pretty much sleeping through the night now. He is now putting himself to sleep.  This is huge because he use to wake multiple times a night and I was constantly nursing him back to sleep. I am getting my sanity back. The first two nights were hard, but crying pretty much stopped by night 3.

Answer

We used to do the same, fed her most nights to sleep, sometimes during naps. Before moving her to her own room and crib she used to sleep through the night but once we transitioned, she was up once a night to eat for about an hour.
Our pediatrician recommended the Ferber method at her 6 months appointment last week. We started it on Friday night so so far three nights in. The first night was hardest but she only needed two check ins. And only woke up once more with one check in and fell asleep for the rest of the night. She’s never needed more than two check ins and she’s been sleeping 9.5-10.5 hours a night. 
When we had her, I didn’t want to sleep train. As a mom, I felt like she cried because she needed something. But I realized that walking a 20lb baby around and around her room for 30minutes with a bottle wasn’t ideal. I love her more than anything and it’s heartbreaking to see her cry but it’s getting better. Like another mom said, I probably will limit the longest check in because I can’t watch her cry for more than 10 minutes.
I suggest reading up on different methods and coming up with a plan with your other half. It’s important that your both on the same page!

Answer

We sleep trained at 5.5 months! Did the Ferber method. It took 3 nights but so worth it. He was waking every 2-3 hours and now only wakes once but is able to put himself back to sleep and is sleeps in his crib 7-7

Answer

I also used the Ferber method...modified it a little to make it a bit more “gentle” for my son. Ferber method starts out with check ins after 3, 5, then 10 minutes. And you increase those time allotments each night. I did check ins after 3, 5, 7, then 10 minutes. And I didn’t change from that schedule because I couldn’t stand to hear him cry longer than 10 minutes. 
We had been bed sharing prior to trying it and I thought I had ruined everything for myself because my son wouldn’t sleep without being held. He was also waking 3-4 times a night.
First couple nights were ROUGH, I’m not gonna lie. It took him 40-50 minutes to fall asleep and I cried the whole time because he was crying. But I stuck with it and by night 3, we saw a significant improvement. He fell asleep in 20 minutes and it got better every night from there. It’s now been a week and a half and I can lay him down in his crib, drowsy but awake, and he’ll put himself to sleep...both at night and for naps. Every once in awhile he will cry, but he usually stops before I have to go in for a check in at the 3 minute mark. He is also only waking 1 or 2 times a night to eat. He was premature and so his pediatrician said it might take him a little longer to work out the 1 or 2 night feedings. His doctor said I could use Ferber to wean him off of those too, but I have decided not to push that right now due to his prematurity. We have had two nights in the last 5 days where he’s slept 7 hours straight, which is the longest he had ever gone and I felt like a whole new person the next day 🤣

Answer

I am going to begin sleep training this weekend, but I think I am going to do the 3 day sleep solution. You do not check in for an hour (but almost all babies fall asleep before this time). My son seems to get more riled up if he’s crying and I check in, and will not calm unless I pick him up, so he’s basically starting all over. This method might have more crying short term but it looks like in many cases there is less crying in the long run. The way they explain the crying makes a lot of sense too if you read the book. There is a Facebook group called “respectful sleep training/learning” that has soooo many files on different sleep training methods and information which I found extremely helpful!

Answer

I follow Taking Cara Babies on Instagram and she has great tips. The program was a bit too pricey for my budget. I instead read the book Precious little sleep, $10 on Amazon. There are no cry methods, as well as a modified COI. We did the modified COI and it has worked great!

Sleep training?

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