If you sleep trained

[Nellephant]

If you sleep trained your baby to settle in their cot at the start of naps and bedtime, did it naturally reduce overnight waking?

Dd is 6 months and has been waking every 1-2 hours (occasionally 3) since the 4 month sleep regression hit. We've been having some success with sleep training (we still stay in the room till she's asleep and settle/ comfort her in the cot but it's a big step forward from feeding her to sleep and then gingerly putting her down in constant fear of waking her!). I had hoped that the night wakings would naturally reduce and she's learn how to link sleep cycles but it hasn't happened so far . I don't want to night wean and I'd be totally happy with her waking every 4 hours or even 3 but the current level of sleep deprivation is killing me

And thoughts/tips?

Bump .

Unfortunately not for me. I did still need to night wean.

Nope! Stopped feeding to sleep at bedtime at 6m but still fed in the night til 10m as she was small.

BUT even though i was still waking 4 times a night, teaching her to self settle for naps and bedtimes was basically lifechanging.

Thanks.

@Ohalrightthen - once you had taught them to self settle at the start of bedtime did they go back in the cot easily after a feed? One of my big problems is that she won't go down after waking. I'll pick her up and feed her and she'll fall asleep on me but as soon as I put her down she wakes up

Nope, my 12 month old now goes to sleep in his cot after a story rather than being fed/rocked to sleep, but he still wakes up eleventy billion times a night demanding cuddles and boob.

Didn't make a bit of difference to night wakings. But did mean that someone else could put him down for naps or put him to bed.

She needs to go back into the cot awake and learn to fall asleep in there and then this should start to help with night wakings. That's what worked for us.

waking every 1-2 hours

Are you feeding at every night wake?

If yes, this will be your problem. You need to be able to settle her without feeding. That doesn't mean night weaning (although you could night wean, if you wanted).

DD continued to have a dream feed til she was about 9 months. I did CC at 6 months and she has always slept like a dream.

She's nearly 8 now and I'm getting the opposite problem of trying to get her up in the morning!

I did pick up put down method of sleep training at about 7 months. The first few days were rough. We went from 45 min of faffing in and out the room for the first few days, to maybe 5 minutes within a couple of weeks. We focused on just daytime naps initially, until she got the hang of it, before tackling the bedtime. I do still feed last thing before her night sleep, but even if she falls asleep on the boob, I can now move her to her crib easily. She'll wake but happily goes back to sleep.
With night waking, I did the same pick up put down method. I knew she couldn't be hungry 2 hours after her marathon bedtime feed. I basically cut down to offering a feed every other waking event. She quickly got the idea and soon only woke 2 times a night for milk, but she was weaning well by this point, which I do think helps. Now she's 10 months she usually only wakes once a night for milk. She does stir more than this but will self settle.

She fed to sleep most of the time, and then i put her down, but on the odd occasion that she didnt fall asleep on the boob she went off by herself pretty easily.

I sleep trained. My baby woke every hour from 16 weeks to 7.5 months until I cracked.

First thing was I knew the feeding was the problem and I was a human dummy all night. So I decided, a feed before bed (expressed so I knew she’s had plenty) and then any waking before 1am would be met with the sleep training method. After that - expressed milk or formula but no boob. I had to break the association between my breasts and her ability to sleep. It worked and it stopped night waking. (It worked in 3 nights btw). She’s slept 11 hours a night ever since (and she’s 5 now)...

I sleep trained my DD after she’d stopped waking for feeds but as I remember it only really worked on the night wakings once I got to the point where she fell asleep without me in the room.

@FATEdestiny yeah, each waking I put her on the boob. She falls asleep almost instantly but continues "sleep feeding" for anywhere from 10 mins to half an hour, then I gingerly lift her back into her cot without waking her. If she does wake then it starts over..

The advice seems pretty conclusive.. maybe I'll try only feeding if it's been more than 3 hours from the previous feed, and see if I can jiggle her back to sleep instead.

That’s exactly what happens to me. I think a really solid bedtime routine helps with sleep training too.

I sleep trained (Ferber) at 6mo so she would nap and go down for bed in her cot - self-settling. It was a game changer after months or endlessly rocking/bobbing/driving her to sleep! But unfortunately it didn't stop the night wakings, and she was waking for a feed 1/2 times every night. In the end I nightweaned at 8mo by adding extra formula in during the day. Not ideal because I was bfing and wanted to continue, but she just wouldn't feed for long enough to get the calories in, so she was genuinely hungry at night. Once we had fixed the calorie balance, it only took 2 nights of not offering a feed at night wakings and she got the idea that she could settle herself back off again. Now she sleeps right through (9mo).
I was 100% a human dummy at night and totally exhausted! So it was the right thing to do for us.
I guess ideally you can comfort a baby at night without feeding them back to sleep but my DD was not having it - if I was there, she would get furious until offered boob!