sttn - is it really such a big deal?

[butternutforbreakfast]

Or to put it another way: sleep training - is it worth it?

We've been doing some gentle sleep training and now my 7 mo Ds will self settle at bedtime (with a lot of help from me) but he still wakes for feeds 5 times in the night.

I would dearly like to get at least two hrs of sleep in one go, but on the other hand we both seem to cope pretty well with the broken nights. If we get a decent morning nap then we function fine.

DS is thriving and doesn't complain much (well he has boob and cuddles permanently on tap) and I have niggles in the back of my mind - he's not ready for sleep training, he's hungry in the night, umpteen reasons why he needs me...

I don't know whether to plough on with the training or just wait for him to grow out of it. Cd be a long slog since am using no cry methods.

So, some reassurance needed: when your LO finally sttn did it change your life? Was it really amazing and worth every second of the back breaking shushing and stroking? Do you now have a new world filled with stimulating activity and adventure?

Or was it pretty much the same?

Nope. If people only added up the time they spend worrying about self settling and trying to get their baby to self settle, and the stress it produces, I am prepared to bet half my overdraft that it's more time and more stress than the time spent cuddling or feeding a baby to sleep.

And it's so much nicer for everyone in the house.

Oh bugger - thread virgin posting from phone. Didn't mean to post three times!!!

i tried with the first and it was stressful and didn't work. Didn't bother with the second. They both slept through eventually but the second was a less frustrating.

I got to 10 months with DS2, when he was still waking every 2 - 3 hours in the night, that I was desperate for sleep.
BUT, by that time, he was on 3 solid meals a day, plus snacks, so my previous reservations as to whether he was hungry were gone. He also had a night at my mums with a bottle of expressed milk, only drank 1 ounce before falling back asleep (he was feeding on me up to 20 minutes), so I think he was using me for comfort.
Yes, him sleeping through made a dramatic difference to us, but I am someone who needs sleep a lot and after 10 months, I was desperate for it and a worse mother for it.
He still wakes at 5am/5.30am every day nearly 3 years later though
I genuinely think sleep 'problems' are not objective. What is a 'problem' for one family isn't a 'problem' for another. You need to do what works for your family and if getting up in the night isn't causing too much heartache, then keep going with it.
I also think 7 months is quite wee, from the point of view of foods, they are still so reliant on milk at that age.

It's mind over matter: if you don't mind, it don't matter