Anyone want to join me for a sleep training support thread?

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Hello,

Just starting sleep training my 5 month old DD and thought it would be nice to chart how it goes on here and hope to get some company with fellow sleep trainers.

Hopefully this will give me more tips to try and more confidence to continue.

Yay! Well done Mich!

It's 7.20pm here so just doing the bedtime feed. DS is very drowsy and dozing off. Going to put him down asleep but not go on holding him into deep sleep as I used to. If he wakes its pupd time! Fx

This evening DH did the pupd and I went to the gym, it took him an hour - much harder than with me. I think DS is going through separation anxiety right now. He woke after 10 mins and I was home, just a stroke and he went back to sleep, almost like he was checking whether I was back!

Bless.

Sounds like good progress mich and outnumbered! How did the rest of the night go?

I managed to go out for a quick dinner at the local pub and got back to find DD awake and wailing to our babysitter! Luckily he has two of his own daughters so he is well familiar with non-sleeping babies.

Felt a bit sorry for bewildered DD so fed her back to sleep. She woke again at 1 am and was harder to settle than normal, then I snoozed with from 4am. Hopefully the whole babysitting experience won't be too scarring for her!

Thanks Outnumbered and Bundle. Phew! He slept again until 5.45. I fed him then and he won't get fed from me until bedtime. He napped until 6.30 and we have had breakfast and he's playing. I didn't get much sleep as I was counting down the minutes for him to wake up . Let's hope tonight is ok. I checked the bottle that he'd had in the cot and he'd drunk about an ounce. The downside of early to bed is early rising. This isn't too bad as in 5 weeks time we will have to be up for him to go to nursery, so hopefully he'll stick to this routine. I'm so kidding myself lol

Sounds like some good progress being made! Well done!
We had a better night last night. DS was in his cot except for feeds until 5.15 when he needed a nappy change, which woke him right up. DH took him from 6, as it's the only time they see each other in the week, but he apparently slept much of that. I got to lie in until 7.45 though - bliss!

I'm not sure how much more we can achieve without tackling nightweaning, other than making sure he's only feeding when he really needs to and not for comfort. DS was low birth weight, and is only on the 2nd centile, so I'm not keen on cutting feeds just yet.

After a very long day. Put mine down asleep. He was crackered. He instantly woke up. Took 20 mins of crying, one dummy back in and said 'sleeptime'. Had my Tai Chi music on again. Turned it up when he cried loud. Gradually turned it down as he settled. Fingers crossed. Although the neighbours are making a right racket, so it may not be long. That's it for milk tonight. Just water. It is amazingly hot tho.
Good luck everyone else

Think we may be in for the long haul tonight. DS had reflux so is used to falling asleep on me because we needed to keep him upright for half an hour after a feed to keep the milk down. He is now 8mo and we've dropped that to 10 mins. He has recently learned to self settle.
He slept through on Thursday and we thought we were home and dry. Since then things have been getting progressively worse. He's had a cold, he's teething and last night I totally screwed his routine by taking him to do the race for life at bedtime and he didn't go to bed until 10. He's a boy who likes routine so tonight is clearly revenge.

He went down beautifully at 7. Fed, Gavisconned etc. Fell asleep in my arms but not suckling. I went out.
21:10 woke screaming
Pupd/cuddles had no effect
Taken downstairs. Continued to scream.
22:15 I came home. Cuddle. Taken upstairs. Still shouting a bit.
22:25 bf.
22:40 Wide awake. Climbing off my lap. Bit me. Put in cot. Tried to eat his way out of cot. given bonjela. bit me several times. I left. he Screamed.
23:00 taken for a walk around the village.

DH won't come back until DS is asleep. He can sleep in his pushchair and when he wakes again for a feed I'll take him to bed - normally 3ish, but goodness knows tonight.

This might be my only chance of sleep. Hope you guys have had better evenings than DH!

Mine woke at 3.30. No bf tried to give him water. Having none of it. Cried a bit in protest, but settled down by 4. He is now asleep. I put my music on again very low. Seems to calm him at the mo. will stick with it like this for a bit as it seems to work. Until he starts teething of course

It's a right game of two halves chez bundle! DD is now going down so well at bedtime, just fed burped, make sure she is awake, put her in cot, play ocean sounds and she settles herself to sleep, hooray.

BUT then last night she woke at 10.30 then midnight (she went mental so I had to feed her) then 2am then 4 am....gah. The only good bit was that she actually stayed in her bed from 4am until nearly seven when my giggling boys woke her up.

We have made tons of progress but just wish we could have more! Off on holiday on Saturday so am prepared for it all to go wrong :(

This thread is hopefully going to change my life. DS is 11 mths and he wakes every 2 hours, yelling his head off. Only thing to settle him has been the boob which he will happily suck for up to an hour (not feeding). I have been at my wits end, can't leave him to cry for long as the other DCs will wake. I do feel like an utter failure and that I just completely dread nights

Am going to try no boob and the shush pat/pupd method tonight for as long as possible. He doesn't actually feed until about 5 or 6am but will not take a dummy at all during the night. He goes down fine at 7/8 pm, semi awake and just cannot seem to sleep beyond 2 hours. Sometimes he yells his head off or just wants to chat (loudly). I have felt so alone in this and am utterly wrung out as I'm sure many of you have been. Fingers crossed.

Hi everyone,

I've read through and want to congratulate everyone on your successes so far and your perseverance!

I am hoping you can help me out too. My daughter is 16 weeks old. I have been very lucky with night sleeping. Atm she goes down awake in her cot at 8pm and falls asleep quickly til somewhere between 4.30-5.30 when she wakes for feed (bf) and then sleeps til 7ish. I KNOW this is amazing for this age and I am so grateful.

My problem is daytime naps! At the mo she only has decent naps on me. If I put her in her cot she wakes after 30mins everytime! I think this usually explained by overtiredness so maybe I am getting it wrong for her.

This morning she woke at 7.20 and fed at 7.30. At 8.40 she started yawning so I brought her up stairs, changed nappy etc... After some fussing she fell asleep at 9. woke at 9.30! Was still yawning etc... So after half hour of soothing fell back to sleep at 10. Woke at 10.30!

Am feeding her now but she keeps falling asleep.
I have 9 weeks mat leave left and she is going to nursery 4 days a week. Would like to get naps sorted by then as she is SO cranky when overtired.

Whenever I ask for advice people keep saying just be grateful for good nightimes which I am but want to help my baby girl have happier days!

Hope everyone had good nights last night and are in for good days today

I remember my DS only sleeping shirt bursts at that age and again at about 20 weeks and so on. Major changes/milestones cause them to be restless I think. It does pass and then something else crops up. I tried not to get too worried about it and let my lo find his own way and routine. Eventually they crack it. My ethos for the last 8.5 months has been to generally go with the flow and I have been far less stressed than my friend, who has a baby of a similar age, and I have a far less stressed baby too as he picks up on my chilled out attitude. Enjoy your nights while you can, coz that will probably change soon too

'short' bursts. Slightly sleep deprived

Thanks Mich!

You are right about baby getting stressed. When I let her sleep on me and not worry about putting her in her cot she sleeps for good stretches, wakes happy and is full of smiles and giggles. When I try to put her in her cot she wakes too quickly, is progressively more grouchy throughout day and I get less patient.

She has been like this since she grew out of newborn sleep all day at 6 weeks. I keep thinking, go with the flow and she'll get there but feel like I'm running out of time. Do you think I should keep putting her down for 1 or more naps a day or keep holding her for naps for now?

Oh and yes, I am making the most of the lovely night sleep. The few times that she has regressed for a few days have made me appreciate how good I've got it!
Xx

Perhaps try to knock back the morning nap to 9.30. Your lo may sleep a bit longer. Aim for about 2 hours from feeding for nap. 30 mins at a time is not so bad as they have short bursts of light and deep sleep anyway. One nap a day on you isn't going to hurt and you can nap too . Do what is best. Travel cot in your living room. In their own cot. In there bouncer/rocker.
I go back in 9 weeks and although mine is older than yours I love it when he falls asleep on me, coz in a few weeks it won't be able to happen anymore
At the nursery, my lo is going to in five weeks, they put the little ones to sleep when they are ready. Some are nursed, some are put in the cots and some fall asleep anywhere. Each child is different and the nursery allows for this. Have you checked your nursery out for nap times and what they do?
Again don't stress. Enjoy your last full time 9 weeks. You will never get it back. We all catch up with one another eventually

After doing pupd all week, sometimes taking just under 15 mins, sometimes up to an hour, tonight was amazing. DS was tired as we were out for dinner and back late. I managed to bf without him falling asleep though, got him in sleeping bag and then we had a dance to a couple of songs. I lay him down and he was peaceful, closed his eyes and fell asleep! He has never done this in his whole life and I'm so happy I could wake him up to kiss him! Well almost

Great news Outnumbered!
I took mine off to bed as he was rubbing his eyes. This was around 7.15. He went down awake after feeding, but had a crying session for almost an hour. However in that time he decided he would pull himself up to standing for the first time. I resisted the urge to jump around cheering and just laid him back down. He did this about five times even though he was clearly almost asleep. He stayed asleep until 4. I fed him then as I think 9 hours after feeding is enough. Slept until now. So all in all getting a bit better. Hopefully we'll have this sorted before he starts teething so that he won't want food thru the night for comfort.

9 hours is great! I'm still waking a lot and feeding DS, I was hoping he would start going longer once he can self soothe but last night he was up 5 times.

And well done to your DS for standing

Sounds like lots of progress going on, so hooray for that!

I am off on holiday for a week tomorrow so am expecting this to throw things out of the window a bit but I will persevere and hope for the best.

Really hope everyone has lots of success while I'm away so I can read lots of good news and tips when I get back!:)

I stuck to the same routine in holiday, no matter what the time. Bath, then bed. He slept the same as at home. Depends what you normally do.
Yesterday we were out later past his normal bedtime. I knew this would happen, so I gave my DS a later bigger than normal lunch. When we got in around 7.45, he had a light dinner, (he had had milk from a bottle and snacks whilst we were out). He had his bath and story time and off to bed around 8.45. Slept until now. No different to the last few nights iyswim.
Have a lovely holiday.

Hello All, we are making a bit of progress here too! Last night DS didn't fall asleep on my shoulder after a feed as he usually does, and I was shattered and couldn't face the walking up and down rocking, so I put him in his cot and lay down beside him. He seemed happy enough, and rolled onto his side facing away from me to play with the bars. Usually I would stay in with him but thought I'd try leaving him to it so I snuck out. It took 40 mins of babbling and rolling around, but he finally fell asleep on his own in his bed for the first time ever! I wanted to run into the street and tell everyone but restrained myself...

Oh, and WeGotThere, now it seems to be coming together for us (finally) I'm feeling better about all the "bad habits" we got into - holding for naps etc. I think it's what my DS needed, and certainly a happy rested baby is a lot easier to deal with than a grumpy overtired one.
I find that if I make sure that the first nap of the day is a good one i.e. holding him, then I can try to put him down for the others and he doesn't get so overtired even if he wakes early. Choosing my battles I guess!

Good news for some of us then. I'm relieved. My lo went down awake at 7.45 and settled himself, with no crying, and was asleep in 30mins. He faffed quite a bit, but that's fine. He woke up at 12, had a drink of water, moaned a bit, but was asleep again in 30 mins. Unfortunately he was properly awake at 4.45, so bf him. Put him in bed with me and at around 6 we fell asleep until 8. He seems to be getting better. Just need him to wake a bit later, but that's my only complaint.

Sleep training has gone well in that DS now goes down into cot awake and self soothes. But this has had no impact on night waking which I hoped it would. Last night he woke to feed every 2 hours from midnight. I'm not ready to force the issue right now but we'll see how desperate things get!

Well done to you all for the hard work and improvements!