Does anyone have tips on gentle sleep training and establishing a schedule?

Question

My 6 month old has been sleeping with me for about two months, which is something I said I would never do, but he is nursing so often at night that it is the only way that I get any sleep. He will sleep in his crib, but he just wakes up constantly and can’t fall back to sleep on his own. I’m looking for some advice on gentle sleep training because I don’t want to resort to crying it out. I have nothing against the method, it’s what my mom did with all of her kids, I just don’t think I could handle it! He also has never been on a really set schedule but I’d like to implement one. He seems to do better when things are structured and I think it would make things easier when I go back to work full time in a few weeks. He is my first baby so I’m not really sure what a schedule looks like for a 6 month old. I won’t be getting off of work until about 6:30 PM so the one thing I know for sure is that I don’t want his bedtime to be until about 9 so we can spend time together every day. Any advice?

Answer

Follow @babysleepguide on Instagram! She has great advice about nightly routines and sleep schedules.

Answer

Literally just came on to write this exact post. Following for tips!

Answer

I’d suggest setting up a good routine and sticking with it and setting bedtime for what works for your family. For instance, ours is this and has been for forever now 😆 dad gets home around 5. We eat around 5:30, then bath, then playtime til 6:45ish. Brush teeth and get ready for bed, then nurse and bedtime, so he’s usually asleep by 7:30. We wake up around 6:30 or so and the guys get up while I snooze as President as possible. Do what works for your family, but routine is good, even on weekends! 
 My kid has always needed to nurse back to sleep. We tried everything except cio and found that the way we all got the most sleep/less stress was for me to go in his room and nurse him even though it was a short amount of time. Sleep is a developmental skill and I’m against cio or withholding the comfort I know my baby needs. It felt really wrong to me. We would have my husband go to him and try to calm him by rocking but if he didn’t calm I’d always go in quickly. To me, it’s just not worth my kid screaming in the middle of the night. No thanks. 
It just clicked one day and his dad went in to comfort him while I got up and he fell right back to sleep in his arms. Then he started sleeping through or just needing us once. I very very rarely have to go in anymore.

Answer

I really liked the book Precious Little Sleep. The author explains several different strategies you can try for sleep training. The methods that work best will differ based on your child’s age and temperament.

Answer

9pm is a pretty late bedtime for a baby that age, so first tip is to be flexible about that. Also I’d recommend focusing more on a routine and less on a schedule. Wake windows are the biggest thing to focus on for good sleep, so rather than being stuck on a certain time for naps and bedtime, do naps and bedtime based on when baby woke up from their previous nap.
Consistency is key. You don’t need to let your baby cry unattended, but there might be some tears. Just know what you’re prepared to deal with and stick with it. So after your bedtime routine, put baby down in the crib, say good night, and walk away. If baby fusses, let them for a certain amount of time (we did 3 minutes) and then go in and give comfort (patting, shushing, gentle quiet words) but don’t pick them up. Once baby is settled, say goodnight and walk away. Lather, rinse, repeat. If baby is distressed, and you want to pick them up, just make sure you put them down again once calm and before they fall asleep.
It took about 3 nights for us to get there with our baby. We had to go in maybe 4 times at first and then each night it got fewer and fewer until we didn’t need to go in anymore and she fell asleep on her own without help.

Answer

Basically, to be gentle about it you have to be very conscious of everything you do to help him and gradually cut back on all of that over the course of a week or too.
Rock less actively, pat and shush less frequently, etc. until you get to the point where you can just hold him in the rocker or swaying by the crib for one song till drowsy and put him down with a pat and a shush and walk out. 
It takes a few weeks when you do it gradually.

Answer

I did a modified version of this. I wanted a gentle cry it out method. The website I found did not have all of this, but basically stayed at Day 1 until baby just quit crying. We did a bedtime routine and then the Day 1 stuff, it took us 4 days but it worked. I also didn’t sleep train until my son was a year old 😊

Answer

I haven’t reached that stage yet but got this recommendation from a friend recently. I must admit I haven’t checked it out myself yet but she said this site really helped her with tips and tricks. In case it’s useful to you: https://sleeplady.com/

Does anyone have tips on gentle sleep training and establishing a schedule?

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