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.

Well mine went a bit 'Pete Tong'. Cried himself to the point if being sick. I picked him up to calm him down, then he went straight back down. Took an hour. He is getting a cold, so perhaps this is why it took him longer. Fingers crossed for the rest of the night.
Good luck to everyone

Forgot to add - my 8.5 mth DS has no breast milk during the day. Feeds before bed, has no milk during the night, and his last feed is around 6am in the morning. Twice a day! my body is almost my own again. Burning me nursing bras! He goes to nursery full time in 4 weeks and I go back to work in 9 weeks, so this gradual withdrawal works for me. Hope to drop night feeds altogether soon. I use the cartons of SMA or C&G milk at the mo during the day or water. He is still thriving and HV was pleased with him. Just sort out the sleep through and I'll be laughing.

At the end of my rope tonight. Been sat with him crying for almost an hour. It has been on and off. I've left the room now as I'm getting quite angry. He was rubbing his eyes, so I brought him to bed. He's had naps as usual, so no problems there. I feel a bit alone. My DH doesn't do any of this ad he gets up normally at 5 am for work and had to drive for 45 mins to get there. However, he is on days off for the next two days. Not once has he come up to ask how I am or offer to take over. What happens when I'm back at work?!

Gave up. DH came ups. I decided to take our ds downs where he stayed awake until 11pm. Brought him to bed after i finally 'made' him go to sleep. Took me another 10mins to settle him into his cot. Stayed there until about 15 mins ago. Again won't let me leave him or put him down. Now feeding him.
We will start again tonight.

Sorry mich good luck tomorrow!

Nights are still dreadful here - waking every 2 hours. So tonight I am going to try to push him to 4. It feels wrong to wean completely from such frequency so thinking gradual might be better.

Ok. So last night went horribly wrong.

He was fed, put down awake, screamed, picked up and fed to sleep at 7. Woke at 10 and screamed for 4 hours. Woke for a feed at 4 and came into bed with us at 6.

Tonight he fed, fell asleep in my arms, I woke him, put him down and he screamed for 20 mins and I fed him some more. We then had 45 mins of him rampaging around his cot screaming with me going in to cuddle him every 2 minutes. Once he began to calm down I sat next to his cot talking to him and stroking his tummy for 15 minutes until he fell asleep.

Only took an hour. Much better than I expected. Let's see what happens when he wakes up next.

Well mine went better. Up to bed at 8 ish. Very small feed, then in his cot. Moaned a bit, but half hour later settled himself and still there now. Wonder how the night will go.

I'm here again. Fed DS to sleep (oops). Didn't mean to, was scrolling through Ailidh's thread and suddenly realised he'd dropped off.

Just about to finish putting his sleeping bag on and put him down. I guess he'll probably wake at 4. Will try not to feed to sleep then!

Urgh. So we are on our 3rd night of waking every hour... feel like a zombie.
Have no idea what's causing this - the only thing I can think of is that we've started BLW.
DS is remarkably chipper though. Just as well he doesn't know how close I have come to murdering him...

Night 2. Whilst I'm in his room DS is happy to stand in his cot and chatter, play with his projector and generally crawl about. He complains loudly if I leave. I've been leaving him for 2 minute intervals but don't know whether I'm better to leave him to scream for short intervals, sit here and ignore him or engage with him. The yawned and eye rubs we had at tea have all gone and he's playing with his teddies.

Yesterday I kept leaving until there were yawned and then I talked him down to sleep which seemed to work.

Oh, and this morning he woke at 05:30 which was a pleasant surprise. Took hum in to bed and co slept/smacked for an hour which was lovely.

So. Night 2.
Took an hour ten to get him settled. Longer than night 1 but only 10 mins after he started yawning again.
He slept until 11 when I fed him and put him down mostly asleep.
And then he slept through!!! Woke at 5 for a feed. Tried to put him down but he wanted to play. I kept trying to get him down but then he was sick so by the time I changed his bed we agreed it was actually morning. I'm stunned. And chuffed.
We're away tonight so not expecting great things because I can't see how I can stack his naps in given travel times etc and he'll be in a strange bed but will be trying hard on Sunday.

Mine went a bit wrong. He went to bed fine at 8.15. Woke at 12.30 and where I normally put dummy in and lay him down, he was having none of it. Screamed the house down. In the end I had to pick him up. Fell asleep in me, but wouldn't let me put him down. After three attempts and 1.5 hours later he finally went down. Woke again at 4.45. Fed him. Fell asleep in my bed around 5.35 and still here.
He is starting to learn to cruise and I think this may be why he is waking more. He will not self settle. I may have to face the fact it's not working and go with the flow again, so as not to stress us both out about it. We are probably moving into a brand new house in the next couple of months, detached, so I'll start then I think. I won't feel so guilty about the neighbours being kept awake then, coz this doesn't help my stress levels. By then he may have teeth too.
Good luck golemmings.
I will say that he does not change his habit even when in a strange bed and place I think this is because his bedtime routine stays the same wherever we are. Bath, stories, fed, bed.

Hi all,

Glad to see some signs of progress! Sounds like you are all having similar ebbs and flows to us. Holiday was fab and we stuck to usual routine where possible so DD was still settling herself to sleep at bedtime but from then on was pretty random! Some nights she slept for big chunks and only fed once or twice, other nights I was up and down like a yo yo! Gah!

Just wish we could find some consistency! Think I might start weaning a week or two early as DD is pretty big and seems really hungry again. Am really hoping that'll make a difference as it is what made my sons sleep through.

Happy sleeping!

Last night was hideous! DD woke up every hour. I suppose that is because we spent all day in the car and DD's naps were ruined by her brothers constantly squabbling and waking her up.

I can't believe DD is five months and still sometimes sleeps like a newborn.

I let DH have a lie in too as I had promised but I feel like a zombie and now have to deal with a washing pile the size of mount Everest.

Zzzzzzzzzzz.

Last night was bloody awful here too. Routine was the same, and its not like he's not stayed at my dad's regularly but I tried to put him down following his normal routine. he went through the yawny, eye rubby sleepy phase and was still fighting and screaming an hour later. Eventually we needed to eat so we took him downstairs and stuffed him in a pushchair and ignored him until he fell asleep at about 21:15. Took him upstairs to bed with us about half 11, fed him, put him down, he woke again at half 1; fed him again and fell asleep. Woke at 3 and put him down, he woke at 5 when I fed him again and dh took him downstairs and he slept in his pushchair for another couple of hours.
Ratbag boy.
Tonight has been much better. It took about 40 mins but I eventually got him lying in his cot with my hand on his tummy pinning him down and he finally went to sleep about quarter to 9. So 40 minutes is better than over an hour so I guess it's moving in the right direction.

Sounds awful, but I'm glad I'm not the only one whose baby is not playing ball! We have the evenings sorted still, but once it gets to about 3am (sometime earlier) he's waking constantly. I haven't slept for more than 3 hours in a row (realistically 2 and half if you factor in settling down myself) in over 6 months! Argh!).
I was hopeful last night as he had a long late nap and so went to bed later than usual. Had absolutely no effect, still wide awake at 5...
I don't know how you lot have the energy to put yours back to sleep at that hour. I tend to wimp out and chuck him on his play mat to wear himself out while I lie on the couch wondering if this will ever get better...

Aw moxxie it is rubbish when despite your best efforts things just keep going pear shaped. I wonder if I have had unrealistic expectations as when I look at how far we have come I do feel really proud, but I just wish it wasn't so random.

Two nights ago was really good, DD self settled and only woke at 12.30 and 5 am for feeds, but then last night she woke up tons of times from 11 pm onwards.

On the plus side I tried putting her in her cot for her last nap of the day cos it only needs to be 30mins and I just lay her down with her ocean sounds and she actually just went to sleep!!! I was so chuffed! Will try it again today to see if it was just a fluke!

Wow that's really good news on the nap! It can be done! Those little victories are amazing aren't they? And you're right, it's not that long ago that DS was sleeping on our chests all evening. At least now he's in his cot all evening and most of the night.

He has had a good nap this morning, but not sure that makes much difference to his nighttime sleep. I have a nagging feeling that he might actually be sleeping too much in the day, but am dreading the grumbling if I try to keep him awake!
I'm going back to work in October, and he'll be starting nursery, so I want to get things into as good a shape as possible. I'm hoping the magic nursery people will be able to wear him out a bit too...

moxxie I wouldn't worry too much about nursery, I found that nursery staff are very experienced so can get anyone to nap, also it really tires them out so they tend to sleep better.

Okay, so last night my lo went to bed a little later than usual. We came ups around 7.50. Fed him and, despite rubbing his eyes for over an hour before bed, he decided he really didn't want to go to sleep. I put him into his cot and sat in my chair next to him. After about 30 mind of him faffing and a bit of grumbling, I began to keep laying him down saying 'goodnight' and sitting back in my chair. After about 20 mins and five or six lay downs he settled himself off to sleep. Again I used my tai chi music, gradually stopped saying anything to him when I laid him back down. 7 hours later, and 6 solid hours sleep for me, he awoke. I've now just fed him. He is crawling around his room now. I am just waiting for his dad to get up for work in a mo and then he will get into bed with me as usual where he will fall asleep in about 30 mins for a couple more hours. I'm chuffed to bits. I feel almost human and am not minding him playing. Next stop breakfast at 8ish. Result!
Wonder how it will go tonight. I had stopped with the training as such as it was getting a bit stressful and I was getting annoyed. So let's see how it goes
Good luck everyone else and hope its gone ok so far.

Wow! What brilliant news! Congratulations!!
We had a rubbish night on Monday but that was my fault not his. No pm nap so he fell asleep on me and I put him down asleep at 7.30. Fed him at 10.30. Put him down to sleep. Fed him at 12.30 and put him down awake which took 20mins. Then he woke at half 3 and I fell asleep so put him in his cot at 5 and he woke again just after 6. Grrr.

Last night was much better. He went down asleep (bad mummy) at 7.30 and 10.15 and woke again at half 11 - about 6 minutes after I'd gone to sleep. DH settled him - it took 20mins and he went down until just after 4. Put down awake, took 10 mins to settle and slept until 7, thus making it really tight for us to be out at half 8 this morning. I really expected a baby alarm...

Still asleep. My ds went to sleep again at 5.45am until 7.35. Kept rubbing his eyes, and fell asleep again at 8.15 and we're still in my bed. He is snoring his little head off next to me. I almost feel like I've had a lay in. He will be hungry when he wakes, but then I'm starving now too.
I'm going to start to stop bf soon and give him bottles for bedtime and his first thing in a morning feed. He is almost 9 months old and eats very well during the day. I'll try to get sleeps sorted first though

Latest update
For the last five nights my lo has gone up to bed around 8 after usual routine. It's a bit later than I would like, but I'm coaching a friends son for school entrance exams after school. Anyway, twice he went down asleep after I bf him. The other times it has taken from 30 mins to an hour for him to drop off himself. I have laid him down a couple of times and kissed him goodnight. With only a bit of moaning he has fallen asleep. He then sleeps for exactly 7 hours without fail every night. When he wakes I go in, pick him up to calm him down as he always wakes up with a jump, even from daytime naps. He falls asleep on me and I put him back where he sleeps for another 2 hours maximum. This morning I had to put him down drowsy and he kept looking up to see if I was there, but settled himself. He woke at 7.35 and was playing in his cot. I have given him a bottle for the last four days and not boob for his usual morning feed around 7 to 7.30 and he has taken to it fine. He still has porridge at around 8.30 to 9. Just the pre sleep night bf to sort next.
I think as he is 9 months old, he seems to understand things a little more and is certainly learning things quicker. So fingers crossed it keeps this way at least for a bit. No teeth yet, so have that to go through soon.

Yay well done mich, sounds like things are a lot better.

We are still making headway here and DD now settles herself to sleep every night but still wakes at least twice, which is masses of progress but I am still vaguely hoping we might manage to get to sleeping through in a few months.