How soon should you start sleep training?

[RCollinge]

Hi. My little girl, Isla, is nearly 3 months old. She sleeps in her own cot and in her own room at night times .

We introduced a routine at six weeks - bath, feed, cuddle - and into her cot for 7-7:30pm. The time that she actually settles is normally around 10pm.

Some nights she is very unsettled and just wants to be cuddled or to play.

Until now we have pretty much been going back up to her and giving her attention or picking her up whenever she cries. If she is just making fussing noises we'll leave her to settle down - or go up to her if she starts getting worked up.

I've read lots contradicting information regarding sleep training. This is my first child and I feel really unsure how to move forward.

Is it ok to leave her to cry?

Is she still too young to start training? How and when do we begin?

Any advice would really be appreciated as I don't want to get into bad habits .

are you still bf? if so your probably doing a feed during this time, so I wouldn't worry too much about it, we did a similar routine with dd, who then needed a feed an hour later, generally she just minded her business in the cot for an hour, before a feed, then she got into dropping off when put back in the cot, so if I were you I'd stick with what your doing and she'll learn to sleep!

My dd is 6 months old and i still ahvent got sleep training cracked! Sorry, i know its not what you want to hear, but my HV says to lead by her, and give her what she needs, saying that, she is touch wood only waking once or twice a night now - HOORAH!

Personally, I think that what you're doing is fine. I did the same thing with DD2, DS and GS (learned my lesson after keeping DD1 with us until we went to bed and vowed to train all others to a sleep routine).

You have to be comfortable with what you are doing. No-one knows your baby better than you. If you're fine leaving her to cry, then as long as she's not obviously distressed - then leave her. If you're more comfortable going to her and settling her - then do that.

At three months, she's still very young to expect her to be totally settled from 7 ish til the next morning and I'm sure that mine were also awake or a bit 'fussy' until around 11ish. But DH and I enjoyed the time that putting them in their rooms from a regular time gave us.

I'm sure that your DD will soon settle into her routine - I think you're doing very well getting her to do it at her age - even if it's not every night.

Most "experts" in this field don't recommend doing anything by way of training until at least 6 months. That means leaving her to cry, etc. If I were you, I'd keep up with the bath, feed, cuddle routine. That's so important, IMO. Going to comfort her or feed her when she cries is fine. Beware of playing with her when you want her to be sleeping, however!

As far as possible, keep "fun" to a miimum during the night. Just feed, change, anything else essential. She'll soon settle into a pattern.

Thank you all for your help.

I feel much more reassured that we're on the right track.

I am still breast feeding. She normally has her last feed at 10pm and this last week she's been sleeping through to about 4am. After her feed at 4am she'll normally sleep through until 7-7:30am.

She does seem happy in her routine - over Christmas it got turned upside down and I noticed that she was quite unsettled for a while until we got back into it.

I think, like you say, I need to go with what feels right and trust that I know what's best rather than getting stressed about what the "experts" say I should do.

As a friend of mine said "no-one gave Isla the manual to read when she was born!"