Anyone else trying to gently sleep train?

[MrsIH]

Dd2 is 13 months old and always been a crap sleeper. The longest stretch of sleep (up until very recently) I’ve had is 3 hours and that is on a good night. Generally I think she was waking 2 hourly but I’ve had nights of every 45 minutes. I have a dd1 who is 3 but who is thankfully a good sleeper.

I’m not at work atm luckily and I have no tolerance really for the crying methods. They’re just not for me so I’m not looking for suggestions or justifications of them.

What I’m trying is getting her to fall asleep in the cot and also trying to reduce feeds (she is breast fed) over night.

Anyway the falling asleep in the cot is going well. She did last night but some nights I’m still putting her down asleep as I pick her up and cuddle her if she cries. Frustratingly last night she woke up after 2 hours even though she’d fallen asleep in the cot. I think I got her back down ok but then she woke after another 2 hours. Then I was up for 2 hours trying to settle her. I gave in and fed her in the end although she still didn’t go back to sleep! DH managed to get her down in the end. So I’ve had about 5 hours broken sleep which isn’t great.

Basically looking for anyone else trying to do a similar thing and some moral support. I’m desperate to improve sleep as it’s so hard having her and her sister all day on my own on broken shit sleep!

Thank you @MrsIH.. last night was good too. Just one wake up and I didnt feed him he just settled himself. Hes going to sleep at night time much easier. After bath and story I put him in his cot and hes asleep within a couple of minutes last couple of nights. He seems to have cut his 2nd nap down though I've noticed in the last two days.

That's brilliant @MrsIH sounds so much better. Is she feeling better now?
Maybe try the snore app. Its interesting to see results in the morning. I wouldnt have even known a few times that hes woken up because hes quite quiet and has clearly settled himself. They wake up more than we realise!

I hope everyone has a good night. I'm off up for the dreamfeed soon.

That’s amazing! Well done!!

I have white noise playing in dd2 room so I wonder whether the snore app would work?

Yes she seems better thanks just still a bit of a blocked nose but not too bad.

@MrsIH thank you. Yes it would work. We have White noise in our room too! Ahh good I'm so glad. Horrible when they're poorly

Morning everyone. Illnesses aside, it sounds like you are making real progress @MrsIH and @HakunaMatataa Really pleased you are getting more sleep!

We are making some progress but it’s still very frustrating. On the positive side DS is settling really fast at bedtime and going until about 10. We’ve stopped feeding him if he wakes before that time, which he wasn’t happy about but he seems to have stopped waking earlier, for now at least. For the last couple of nights he’s also only woken two more times, at around 1 and then at around 5. That’s exactly what I wanted, which is great.

However, he seems to have lost the ability to settle himself after his feeds at night. Even though he can settle himself quite easily at bedtime, it’s taking up to an hour to get him back down when he wakes later in the night. He’ll seem to be asleep but then wake crying 5 or 10 mins later, when I’ve just drifted off to sleep again Then I have to start the whole rocking and shushing process again. I think I did it about 8 times between 1 and 2 this morning!

Honestly @Colinthedog I still think that sounds great. 2 feeds a night at 6 months and the settling quickly at bedtime are great points to be at now.

I had a couple of weird nights with quite long stretches but also hours of unsettledness: but last night she slept from 7-7 woke at 11 but I shushed, sung and buy patted back to sleep. Then she slept till 5! Fed her then and she slept till 7. So it definitely is working!

Hope everyone else doing well!

That's great @MrsIH that it's definitely working for you guys!

I had hoped the silence was because everyone was sleeping well!

We've not been quite as successful as teeth are becoming a big issue but I've gotten more used to using my night vision and I keep my eyes more or less closed when he's up and so I'm still sleepy going back to bed at least even if he is up hourly!

Admittedly I am still breastfeeding a lot through the night but given he's at nursery full time I just don't feel like it's fair to withhold it from him if the only time he gets milk is during the night! He'll come to it in his own time :)