What was your sleep training method and did it work?

[Me2Me2]

I'm getting a bit desperate. Dd is 6 months and wakes up a lot during the night. Sometimes to feed, sometimes to grizzle, and sometimes she'll start playing. Her sleep was fine up to 4 months but since we stopped gro-bagging her she has gradually started waking more and more. She definitely used to know the difference between night and day but now I'm beginning to wonder.
I've decided we have to do something about it. DS was not a perfect sleeper but it was a slowly improving picture so I just went with it. One of our problems is that dd never takes more than 3-4 ounces so tends to eat little and often, though I don't actually think she needs that much milk at night anymore (at night wakes she often goes back on 1 ounce or less so it's the sucking thing)

How did you sleep train your babies? (non-leaving them to cry methods) How long did it take? And was it overall a good thing?

We co-sleep, which was the answer with ds but doesn't help dd unfortunately. At this point I think we need to start over with her in the cot

Thanks

[MerryMarigold]

I used a grobag till they could walk.

You don't want to do CC, but she needs to learn how to self settle.

I did CC with ds1 at about 8 months and he slept really well (after 2 nights), stayed in room, never woke up. Next I had twins, and they woke up frequently. I couldn't do CC because they woke each other up. It has taken is till 5yo to get them to sleep in own beds all night! At 6mo they were sometimes up 4x each. I was very, very tired.

[Me2Me2]

purr I know. 'if' and 'of' are always reversed too. arghhh
Hope your dd is enjoying her timmy time

[purrtrillpadpadpad]

Rolling onto her Timmy. Ha. Apple are probably singlehandedly responsible for 90% of the world's gibberish.

[purrtrillpadpadpad]

Yes they can. My DD has just started rolling onto her Timmy to sleep in her sleeping bag.
If you're not too fussed about second hand, you can get grobags (grobag is a brand) or sleeping bags on eBay for buttons.

[Me2Me2]

No we don't use sleeping bags but will look for some today.
We did have a few for DS but were in a hot country so never used them.
They can still move about and sleep on their tummies, right?

[mrsmalcolmreynolds]

Ah - no grobags as a PP said are baby sleeping bags. Enclosed but loose around them. I agree you can't use a swaddling bag at her age. Do you use a sleeping bag? Worth considering if not as they keep them nice and snug and do have a bit of that enclosed secure feeling which many babies like.

[Me2Me2]

if grobags are swaddlers

[Me2Me2]

On wait a second, just realised that grobags are sleeping bags. I meant swaddle bags - the things that make it look like your baby is sleeping in a condom. I just reread all the posts, amazed at the idea of toddlers being swaddled, and someone has clarified it. Ha ha I did think it was odd, the widespread use of grobags

[Me2Me2]

This is a revelation re grobags!
I'm feeling quite pumped after reading all your success stories, esp with gradual withdrawal, which is the kind of approach I think would suit

Funny to think I thought DS was a bad sleeper. They're opposites. He was impossible to put down (3 hour bedtimes at its worst) but ok from midnight. Ds is kind of ok til 11pm but from then on its messy. DS is a great sleeper now tho so I know there is hope.

[muddylettuce]

Oh and she does still sleep in a grobag. X

[muddylettuce]

A wee bit befor dd turned 6 months and after her first teeth which was pure hell at night she went through a sleep wobble. Her issue was going down in her cot, having slept perfectly in there since she was 3 months. I learned there is a 6 month growth spurt and they can start feeling attachment anxiety. Anyhoo, I have no advice for the 4am play hour, I generally scoop her up and go to the spare bed so I can snooze while she coos...any other ideas please send them my way. For all other times I highly recommend the pick up put down / gradual retreat methods. I do a combination. If she wakes I go in, put a hand on her or if she's particularly upset pick her up for a cuddle, when she stops crying I put her down, tuck her in and sit by the cot. She falls asleep in seconds now, I don't even have to sit by the cot but in the beginning I'd be sat there a while...I used to read a book! We're only a couple of weeks in aswell. Good luck! X

[Handbagsonnhold]

Hi Op I think also maybe she was cosy in her Gro bag....my dd stayed in hers until over 2....also fab for the budding young escape artist....

[CoteDAzur]

Re sleep training method: Yes, ours worked. We did a modified CC, where night feedings stopped cold turkey and DH went if baby woke in the night. He waited a bit to see if baby would go back to sleep. If not, he went in and tried to put baby back to sleep by rocking, singing, walking about, shh/pat whatever.

We did this when DD was 4 months old and it worked in 2 nights. She slept through on the 3rd night and continued to sleep through except for the occasional illness/teething.

We did it again when DS was 5 months old. It took quite a bit longer with him, but I think that had to do with the fact that he was sleeping right next to DH who is a very light sleeper. One night DH went away on business and DS slept through or so I thought because I don't really hear a baby's grizzling. And he still sleeps through every night.

[girliefriend]

My dd was in her sleeping bag/gro bag til she went into a big bed around 2yo!!!

[girliefriend]

Routine and some cc, yy to putting her in a cot. Some babies need to have their own space to sleep well, my dd was def one of them!!

I found a bedtime routine, which involved a bath, milk, cuddles, darkened room, soothing music and putting into a baby sleeping bag worked well. My dd would need her dummy to help her settle, if she cried I would reassure but if just grizzling would leave and let her try to self settle.

Yes I would say it worked, she slept well generally and still does 7 years on

[CoteDAzur]

DD slept in grobags at the age of 3. There are quite large ones.

DS, on the other hand, would strip his grobag off, along with his nappy so we had to take off the grobag when he was about 2. Now 4.5, he still kicks off his cover and sleeps without a blanket. I wish we had kept the grobag for longer.

[minipie]

When you said gro bag I assumed you meant swaddle.

gro bags (like sleeping bags with bits over the shoulders) can definitely go much longer, dd is still in hers aged 1 and no plans to stop any time soon. rolling isn't a problem as the bag rolls with her.

[mrsmalcolmreynolds]

Can definitely use grobags for longer! DD was in hers until just over two and we only encouraged her out because she was going into a bed. I have seen others on here though who even kept them after DC went into beds rather than cots - I was just a bit worried she'd fallover trying to walk in them.

[Me2Me2]

I stopped grobag when she started rolling over. It hadn't occurred to me that she could stay in for longer. Worth a try!

[homeaway]

Would you consider putting her back in the grobag and see what happens? People abroad put their children in them until they are quite big. You can buy them for 2 year olds !

[mrsmalcolmreynolds]

We did gradual retreat which had some success but had to escalate to short CC (going in after no more than 5 mins rather than longer stretches). The combination worked after about three weeks. DD was about 7mo and we plan to do the same with DS when he gets over 6mo.

Out of curiosity, why did you stop putting her in grobags?

[stopgap]

We did gradual retreat at 15 months. It took forty minutes of rocking to get DS to sleep, although he STTN from six months, so it was just a case of teaching him to self-settle in a gentle way. He's now 2.3 and has a natter to himself for ten minutes, then proceeds to sleep for 11-12 hours at night.

[rubyslippers]

i night weaned at 6.5 months old (breast) by reducing the time of each feed every other night - took 2 weeks and worked

then gradual retreat and rapid return when DD was nearly 4 years old - took nearly 3 weeks and worked

[minipie]

ah right. yes self settling made a massive difference to us - she went from multiple wakes a night - for no reason just needed putting back to sleep - to just one or two wakes when she was genuinely hungry.

starting with cuddling and putting her back into cot at each wake sounds like a good start. then next step could be not picking her up but stroking/shhing her back to sleep instead. then just standing by cot and shhing. then standing by door and shhing. etc. till hopefully she can go back to sleep by herself. this would be a sort of gradual withdrawal method of sleep training. I never tried it as I used CC - didn't have the energy for gradual withdrawal!

I think after a certain age it is actually counterproductive to do too much soothing, it means they think you are there to play and you are a distraction from sleep - at least this seemed to be the case with my dd who will never sleep if there is something more fun to do!

[Me2Me2]

ps I know 6 months is young, but at the same time I feel we're on a newborn pattern which is more about habit than need

self soothing is the key isn't it. DS began to sleep well once he could find his dummy and put it in himself.