Sleep training- when do you give up?

[Pinklilly]

Hi all I have a 6 month old who has been a poor sleeper since she was about 3.5/4 months.
days looked like 30 min naps and waking up very upset. Did not independently sleep and would often wake upon transfer.
Nights were waking 1 hour after putting down and Was again hard to put down. Resorted to co sleeping but it was awful, if I moved she woke up. She never seemed to fall in a deep sleep. And she genuinely seemed chronically tired

3 weeks ago I decided to do some sleep training. I put her down for her night sleep awake after a feed and shushed her patting her every 3 minutes or so. It took her 26 minutes to fall asleep and it was incredible she actually slept for 4 hour stretch and woke up had a feed went back in cot and stayed the whole night. Thereafter each night has been better or about the same but going to sleep easily and naps have improved too.

however 4 days ago it’s like it has stopped working. She now falls asleep independently and is waking 2 hours after and won’t settle with shush and pat. She needs a feed but then that sets a 2 hourly wake up for the rest of the night. But yesterday it was hourly. Nothing has changed and she seems well. Do I need to try another strategy? Is this normal?

if I am to stick with this and stay consistent at what point in a waking do you give up? Eg she woke up at 11 so I fed her but she woke up again at 12 so I shushed and patted her but it took an hour. Should I have given up?
I am not looking to stop night feeds entirely I just want a stretch of sleep before giving one eg 3/4 hours.
I feel so defeated we were doing so well and she seemed so much happier with rest. I am still grateful we haven’t gone back to co sleeping but only because I have been quite stubborn at holding that boundary because it was so bad. My whole body was stiff as she wouldn’t allow me to move an inch in the night. If I so much as attempted to turn she woke up.

Prob a stupid question, but are you burping her enough after the feed?

Hi @Mayflower282 thank you for asking. So she’s always been really difficult to burp but I do try. Sometimes she burps other times she doesn’t but then will burp herself later. The health visitor told me not to worry and that some kids just don’t burp on command! She doesn’t seem uncomfortable at all when lying down.

She's just throwing you a curve ball to check your still on the ball hahaha!! In all honesty though I found this happened throughout the young years, just think you've cracked it then boom they change, you never figure it out but you just figure a new way to cope. Maybe growth spurt and needing increased nutrition if not otherwise upset? Good luck x

I think stick at it for a week or so if you can? It might just be learning lots of new things going round her head. After that...I don't know... We paid a sleep consultant £120 which helped us. They're unregulated though so bear in mind anyone can do it and do they really know best in all cases...
I found stretching day feeds helpful as it encouraged him to take bigger amounts each time. That does depend on the baby and boobs I think though.
We sleep trained young and didn't want to completely cut out night feeds, so I started getting him up for a feed before he woke, apparently this can be helpful as then they don't fully wake/don't learn to demand milk in the night or something. Could try that once she's back asleep? Appreciate it's hard to try different things though especially disturbing a sleeping baby!! But mine, after being the worst sleeper I knew from birth, coped fine with me forcing a feed in the night.

@Haaaaaaan Thank you for posting.

your post reminded me of this thread and really gave me perspective.
my daughter is 11 months now and sleeps well now!
it was quite a slog but I just took a break from the sleep training- wasn’t intentional I just didn’t think it was working. I started feeding every wake up and then after a few weeks I went back to sleep training. I set myself some boundaries no feeds before 2am and no feeds again until 6am. Any wakeups in between I just shushed and patted and sure enough the wakeups stopped.
i think I stopped the sleep training to give myself a break but maybe she needed it to and the hard reset worked for her!

thank you to everyone who responded. I hope for anyone who may see this in future there is a brighter day ahead!

You need to be consistent or it won't work. It can take up to about two weeks

Also to add, don't do it if you can't be consistent as it will be too confusing and fo more harm than good. Do proper research (preferably hite a professional) before undertaking it and make sure you're prepared to stick it out

Apologies I thought I was on a recent thread but no - I have reanimated this one now 🤣 thanks for the update though, I always wish people would come back and update when I Google things and find old threads where someone has had the same problem as me!