Sleep training books

[SnuggyBuggy]

I don't want to waste loads of money buying book after book so I'm curious to know what's worked for other people.

My DD is 4 months and a combination of sleep regression and a stuffy nose has made her very difficult to settle. She struggles to nap and certainly won't be put down to nap and although we have an evening routine there still isn't a consistent pattern to her sleep.

She is still breastfed on demand and according to wonder weeks is in leap 4 so I'm reluctant to stop this while her brain is developing. I also don't see much point in starting anything until she is 6 months and could sleep alone.

I'm not expecting her to start sleeping through (apparently I was over a year before I did) but it would be nice to be able to settle her in her cot without multiple attempts over several hours.

I'm also reluctant to leave her crying. I don't want to start a debate on this but with my DD I think she would just scream for hours on end, I don't think it would work.

Sorry for length (sure I could come with a drip feed 😁) just curious as to what others in a similar situation may have done.

Why would you stop breastfeeding on demand? It’s totally normal. Everything your baby is doing is totally normal behaviour for an infant.

It's on my mind because several other people I know with babies her age are trying to stop feeding to sleep. My response was as it's all I have ever done at night.

I guess I'm just thinking ahead as we have been a bit lax with her sleep and in the longer term we are hoping to move her to her own room.

I honestly think you’re overthinking it. Feeding to sleep works and is easy, I’m still feeding to sleep at 19 months, I was never prepared to battle over this when it’s totally biologically normal and what baby wants! It’s not going to be forever, you don’t even need to do it for as long as I have but 4 months is a tiny age to be worrying about it. Just enjoy your babe.

It's just reading about other people's civilised sounding 7pm bedtimes for much younger babies that makes me feel guilty. DD didn't even have a bedtime routine until recently as she would cluster feed until late.

The No Cry Sleep Solution is an easy read. Even if following it's advice doesn't get you more sleep, at least you'll be keeping yourself busy whilst nature takes it's course and your baby begins to sleep longer like it will eventually! 4 month old babies can be utterly dementing, it will pass.

My DD is 5 months. She currently waking 1-2 times a night to BF
She is BF on demand
I top her last breastfeed with some formula around 7:30pm after her bath and she will settle her self to sleep in the next to me cot. Usually chats away and whines a touch but doesn't cry. Sometimes she wants a cuddle. But she will fall asleep very quick.
Around midnight she will wake and ill bring her into the bed and BF her till we both fall asleep. Then she will wake again around 4am

It works. I dont think ill ever have a baby who will sleep through. Its takes months and months to stop beating myself up and just do what works and stop comparing to the mums with babies that sleep through 12 hours and have 3 naps a day that last 2 hours.
Co sleeping has saved my life. And i LOVE waking up to a smiling face and little feet kicking me.

To add i just cant for the life of me deal with CC or crying it out. I just cant bear the thought of her crying. So yes ill just mollycoddle her till shes 18 lol

I'm cosleeping a lot. Sometimes breastfeeding has a sedative effect on me and I figure it's better than falling asleep accidentally. I actually had a really lovely nap with her this afternoon.

My arms are starting to get a bit cold though.

I breastfed and coslept a lot (had a Snuzpod but he often ended up staying in the bed with me rather than the Snuzpod) and was very anti sleep training, anti crying etc although did have to do some sleep training in the end because my son was a terrible sleeper. My approach has been mostly gentle but we eventually had to get strict and endure a bit of crying, he was older at that point though.

I second the recommendation of the ‘No Cry Sleep Solution’. I also recommend this website: www.babysleepscience.com
They have free blog posts which are useful and a downloadable guide to the 4 month sleep regression which is about $10 I think.
I like the authors’ approach because I find them very balanced whereas a lot of other sleep advice seems to be one extreme or the other.

I'm guessing there is no technique that works for everyone. I'm also not expecting some sort of method that would have her doing things she isn't developmentally ready for. I just worry I'm taking the easy route sometimes.

I don’t think you have too much to worry about just now, as it’s early days, but you can certainly gently encourage her towards “good” sleep habits (ie the ability to sleep independently, which is what you want eventually - not that feeding/rocking are “bad” habits! Some sleep books refer to them as such which made me feel crap!)

I was also about to recommend:

www.babysleepscience.com/resource-blog

It is a great factual blog on infant sleep maintained by a team of medical professionals. Their recommendations on newborn sleep were very consistent with the advice I got from my maternity nurse.

Another sleep training website I like that includes practical information is:

www.mybabysleepguide.com/p/sleep-index.html

Would you agree that every week is different? Sometimes you feel like she's always up and won't sleep and others she's settling earlier?

Well those people who say their baby is asleep by 7 and sleeping through are the same. They may be like this now but lasts week they were screaming and next week they'll wake twice.

Nothing is forever! Enjoy your cuddles and bf her to sleep because one day she'll stop wanting it!

It's odd, in this last week or so I seem to have lost my ability to transfer her to her cot. I can feed her to sleep and hold her until she seems more deeply asleep but she inevitably wakes when put down. I'm guessing it's part of the sleep regression.