Am i too late to Sleep train my 15 months old ?

[Rciha3177]

Hello,

My daughter is 15 months old , has always been terrible sleeper. She has always been Breast-fed. Me and my husband both work , so at night I am so tiered that I co-sleep with her and feed her to sleep , she wakes up literally every 3 hours for comfort feed and have to give her as I am too exhausted to deal with crying at night.
As lack of sleep I am not able to concentrate on my work and my day goes very bad feeling dull and sleepy.
Its high time now and I am planning to ST my daughter with Ferber method. Usually there are posts regarding Ferber ST for under 1 year ... not sure whether will it work on 15 months old.. I am nervous and terrified for Ferber method as my lil one is a very adamant and stubborn.

Any suggestions please ? I am in desperate need for sleep !

I should think Ferber method / controlled crying technique would work, and probably more quickly thank you might think. Certainly worth giving a proper try before the habit becomes more entrenched. Good luck x

Thanks for the suggestion Emptynestermum , I am going to start ST tomorrow night , will keep posted !

Any last minute tip , she goes to day care so she usually has her dinner around 7:00ish , she does not take bottle or milk in cup.

My plan is after she finishes her dinner , upstairs , bath ,change her to pj's and some singing and rocking and to the bed .

Be prepared for it to be awful for the first few nights. Keep checking on her, with slightly lengthening intervals, and when you do give slightly less attention each time. Do it gradually.

I did it with my DS1 and was amazed at how quickly things improved, which helped us all. Keep us posted.

Yes, I am planning to go by the Ferber chart 2-5-7-10-15 and so on. ...

Glad to hear it worked for you ...just keeping my fingers crossed that I will be strong enough to deal with awful nights.

It was the 'controlled crying technique' that I followed which was recommended to me by friends and I read about it in the 'Toddler Taming' book by Dr Christopher Green.

As far as I can tell it's the same idea as Ferber. I hope it helps you.

Hello,
Yes you are right 'controlled crying' and 'Ferber method' are pretty much similar..
So here is what happened last night..
I put her in her Cot saying 'mummy , loves you ..see you in the morning' and she started crying ... at around 8:10
I went in to check after 2 minutes and then after 5 minutes .. I observed she is becoming more upset when I am entering and leaving the room ... so after that I stopped going inside .. she cried for good 44 minutes !! and then slept off around 9:00...

She did woke up at night couple of times (12:10 and 1.30) but cried for a a sec and slept ...again she woke up around 3:10 and cried till 3:20 (I did not go in) ...slept and was up in the morning around 7:10 all good and fresh.

This is the hardest thing I have to do .. not sure how did I do .. leaving her crying and hearing it was killing me .. not sure she had complete night sleep or not ..

Oh well done! It it really hard, I know. I can remember being in tears downstairs while he was crying upstairs! But a few nights later we were sorted!

It sounds like the bedtime was worse than the night itself, which is only to be expected.

Stick with it and hopefully you will be past the worst of it very soon. x

Hello,

Recap of last 3 days

Day 2 - .put her in cot around 7:50 ..cried for 4 min and slept ..woke up only once and then slept off...though I was going every 3 hours to check on her ..in monitor too .. she was up at 7 :00 in the morning all fresh

Day 3 - After following routine of Bath, brush , pj's and some singing ...put her to bed ..cried for 4 min ..slept off ..woke up once or twice with very little crying and slept off ..she was up around 7:00 in the morning all fresh

Day 4 - put her to bed around 8:10 , cried for 10 min (hard crying) slept off...woke up very often and crying real hard every time.. I ended up crying myself as I did not go and calm her down ...sent my husband to settle her down and give her some water ..
she was up around 7:30 .. al fresh ..don't know what happened last night.. I almost felt as tough I am punishing her :(

It sounds like you, and she, are doing really well. Just crying for 4 minutes before falling asleep is really good, and a fairly undisturbed night. Also sleeping till 7am all fresh is great.

Shame about Day 4, and very upsetting for you. But good your husband settled her down, and she obviously had another good night, waking all fresh at 7.30.

Just to have a good night most of the time is a success. Much better than 3 hourly comfort feeds throughout the night.

Do you feel pleased with it (apart from Day 4)? Hopefully you can relax and have a good night's sleep yourself soon. xx

Hello,

Day 5 - Last night was better than expected - Put her in bed around 8:00 , cried On & Off for about 5- 7 minutes , I went inside after 2 minutes to calm her , patted on her back , sang to her and came out ...cried for next 5 minutes or so and slept off , she did wake up once around 3:00 o clock ,cried for a minute then slept off.. last night was not bad compared to day 4 ..

Yes I am feeling very happy with the result and I am waiting when I will past the worst phase. I think she is teething so I gave her Calpol to settle her pain.

Yes definitely this is much better than comfort feeding her every 3 hour , she is not waking also that much since she is in ST.I am also having good night sleep which is making me happy and fresh next day at work :)

That's great, well done you! :)

Definitely good to give Calpol for her teething and generally check she's not in pain or unwell.

She's doing really well though, and I'm guessing it's benefitting her as she is waking in the morning all fresh from a good night.

Great for you to get a good night sleep too, it makes all the difference! :)

Day 6 - Put her in cot around 7:30 after the routine.
When I was bathing her , she started crying as I think she knew what's coming up next , followed the routine .. sang to her and put her in bed. She cried for a 5 - 10 minutes ..slept off.. no night waking !!!! :)

I was on other hand waking up every 3 hours (out of habit) and checking on her ...she was fast asleep..

Looking forward to get sorted completely .. thank you for your supportive comments Emptynestermum

You're welcome. :) Sleeping right through the night is amazing, and it's not even been a week since you've been doing this! :)

Before long you will relax enough to sleep through yourself ...although mums always have half an ear out for their little ones don't they. Mine are in their 20s now but when they are out in the evening I'm half waiting in the night for them to come back safe and sound!!

Day 7 - When I picked her from day care ..she was coughing ..tot its something minor.. after we came home .. we had as normal ..routine.. she was very teary and crying for every other thing...I tot she is tried (as she had nap only for 1.30 hours in day) that's why she must be acting tis way ...anyway...had her dinner ..played for a bit..

Then I took her upstairs for bathing. She as crying while bathing also..i was feeling very bad. Seeing her crying like that ..also when I put her to bed. She was crying very hard and also when I left she was crying for a bit. And slept off..

she woke up quite often and crying hard... I did go once for calming her down but I was able to hear in monitor that she was coughing also ...I was feeling very bad but I did not go after that ..morning she was fine but clingy ..

Usually my DH drops her to day care and she is fine, but today she crying badly .. don't know what is bothering her ..I feeling so bad that I am not being helpful her :(

Hopefully tonight things are under control and she is feeling better.