Talk to me about sleep training.

[ExcitingTimes2023]

What did you do? How old was Little one?how long did it take etc?

My baby 4 months old and an awful sleeper day and night. I have a toddler who was also an awful sleeper and I just can’t do it anymore. I basically waited it out for my toddlers sleep to improve and it finally did around 2 years. I paid a sleep consultant for a bespoke package that would improve her sleep but it just wasn’t working and I couldn’t cope with the tears night after night.

Well I can’t do that again… not while caring for two of them! I just can’t do it. I spend most of my mornings in tears as I’m just so tired and depressed that I’m going through this again.

he just won’t be put down at all, all day naps are in the sling or in the car seat on the go. Nights are just a joke. When put down the max he will last is 30 mins, more often then Not he wakes up within minutes. Even when we hold him all night he is awake every hour or so. It’s just getting beyond a joke. And it’s not the 4 months regression coz he has been like this since about 5 weeks old.

so yes. While previously I was against sleep training I just feel like I can’t do this anymore and I have to change something. Anything to get an amount of sleep that it actually survivable.

thanks

Look up DozeSleepCoaching on Instagram, there's no need to have crying, I personally couldn't do it as it ripped my insides out. I didn't 'sleep train' as such but followed wake windows and her tips about habit stacking.

We did sleep training days after DS turned 4 months as he suddenly went from sleeping well and needing dummy put back in once or twice a night to literally every 1-2 hours and he would be full on crying.

We used Ferber method and it worked amazingly in 4 nights. First and second night he cried for about 10 mins in total with the relevant check ins, third night 5 mins and fourth night was 2 mins of mild fussing.

He now goes down awake every night and puts himself to sleep in minutes without a peep. Most nights we don't hear a thing from him, other times he stirred and wakes and can cry/whine for a couple mins and then puts himself back to sleep. He now does nights completely without the dummy as he leant to suck his hand instead.

We still do one night feed and just make sure he's put down awake after and he gets himself to sleep in 5 mins.

Best thing we've ever done. We do not rush to him if he cries out (unless he sounds clearly distressed) and always give him a minimum of 5 mins to settle himself before we establish if a check in is needed, but we've never even gotten to that point now.

We are working on self settling on naps now and he can do first nap of the day pretty much everyday, the others are work in progress but there is defo progress.

@Sagittarius25 see my baby, just like my first, starts crying inconsolably even as you start to lower them down. There isn’t a fussing stages. It’s 0 to 100 before their back even hits the mattress x