So when did non CIO babies actually sleep independently?

[Newsenmum]

I know loads of people do ferber/cio and I really don’t want to get into this discussion here. Im genuinely curious when your babies started sleeping at least semi independently and how?

7-7 from 12ish weeks for both of mine. They just seem to be programmed that way. Both were formula fed.

My son sleeps like the dead but my daughter is a much lighter sleeper and would wake if you went into their room.

First baby 6 months old second baby 10 months old (I consider sleeping through as 8 hours or more). My second has been doing regular 12 hour stretches from 11 months can't remember for my first.

I completely misread this post thought it said sleeping through...

DD started sleeping through occasionally from 10 months (around the time she went into her own room) - reliably sleeping through from 12 months.

DS is 9 weeks old and started sleeping through about 50% of the time from 7 weeks.

No sleep training with either, EBF and both go down/went down with a combination of feeding to sleep or just putting in and settling themselves if they didn’t nod off on the boob.

Sample of 4 even :)

DC1 was sleeping 9-7ish by 6 months. 8-7ish by 8months.
DC2 went to bed 7/8pm a lot earlier but woke regularly in the night until 16 months.

Didn't do anything really in particular.

About 4 months ish. Dts were great night sleepers. Naps on the other hand, were horrendous.

What do you count as gentle sleep training?

My first was formula fed and was sleeping through from 5 weeks, he’d go to bed at 7pm then we’d give him a dream feed at 10pm (he dropped this around 12 weeks) and would have another feed around 3am (he also stopped this around 4-5 months) and then wake up between 6am-6.30. He’s still a great sleeper now at 20 months, goes straight to sleep at 7pm and then sleeps through until 6.30. Occasionally he’ll wake up in the night and we’ll hear him singing the alphabet or counting to 20 and send himself back off to sleep 😂

Mine started sleeping through at 15 months. Before that it was just a case of me lying in his bed with him until he was drowsy and then I'd leave. That started at about 12 months. Before that I had to rock him to sleep. Getting him into a single bed was the best thing I did because he was obviously feeling to constrained in his cot

1st one was about 3 yrs. 2nd two were 11 mths

My oldest didn't start sleeping somewhat independently until she was nearly 6 and prescribed melatonin. Even then she needed audiobooks to fall asleep until around 12.

How are you all putting them in the cot?

I agree it’s normal, just really hard. 18 month old tends to feed to sleep then wake quite frequently to check Im there.

That ok! When independently or semi independently?

And they stayed there after nodding off?

That’s amazing he woke up not panicking you were gone

OMG 😂

I do that with mine but she wakes when notices Im gone. I guess night weaning will help. She loves her milk though!

Age 3! When I could bribe him with a racing car bed.

Mine had milk before bed until very recently, and from a bottle, which I know is extremely frowned upon on here😂 it helped him sleep and he obviously needed it so I did what worked for everyone. That's all you can do really.

DD was always able to go to sleep by herself - from newborn days, I’d either hold her after a feed until she fell asleep, then put her in the Moses basket, or I’d put her in the Moses basket while she looked sleepy and she’d drift off. She still woke every couple of hours for a feed, but it was easy to settle her, and once she was about three months she was sleeping for a fairly long stretch at night - 11pm until around 5am to start with, then it gradually got longer.

She’s ten now, so I don’t remember exactly when she was sleeping through the night, but we moved her into her own room at around six months, so she must have been sleeping a decent length of time then. She was definitely sleeping through by nine months as I went back to work then, and didn’t have the stress of sleepless nights.

I’m well aware of how lucky we were, and this was absolutely nothing to do with our parenting skills and everything to do with her temperament! She’s our only child, and I have wondered if I’d been able to have a second, if they would have been the same or the complete opposite.

We did have two years (from age 3 to age 5) where one of us had to sit in her room until she was asleep, then sneak out, but once she did fall asleep, she stayed asleep unless she had a nightmare (rare) or wasn’t well (also rare).

I’ll be honest mine was an absolute nightmare, still up every 2-3 hours until about 1 years 8 months… and then one night he slept through. He’s been great ever since. He now sleeps 9 - 7:30 (we have to wake him up). Appreciate 9 would be too late for some but it’s really easy if I do it at that time, earlier and he fights it. Bath at 8, books, cuddles and a breastfeed and he’s happily asleep by 9. Seriously questioned my life choices at one point but now I’m really pleased we stuck with what felt right for us.

@Newsenmum to be honest I think we’re just super lucky that he’s always seemed to love his bed (his dad was the same I’ve heard!) he’s slept in his own bedroom since six months, we’ve always had a hug and little song before bed and then he virtually dives into his cot and we leave the room, he then just sings or chatters himself to sleep. My second is proving quite different already though so definitely is just luck of the draw!

I found the most important things for sleep were breaking the feed-sleep association at bed time, and then night weaning.

What you could do with the feeding to sleep is first:
add lots of other sleep associations in. Start playing a particular song or white noise at bedtime. Introduce a comforter or blanket that you snuggle between you and baby while feeding to sleep. Get these established while you are still feeding to sleep.

second:
change your bedtime routine round so you feed earlier, then brush teeth and read a story or rock/snuggle (with all the sleep associations eg music/noise, comforter)

Once your baby is being rocked or cuddled to sleep on you instead of feeding, start rocking/cuddling until almost asleep then lay them down in the cot. I found cuddling while patting their bum worked as you could then lay them in the cot and continue bum-patting until asleep.

If they get upset or get up, cuddle and calm and then lay them down again and bum-pat. Repeat as required, it might take an hour the first night you try but the key aim is that they fall asleep in the cot rather than in your arms.

Once you're in a place where you can put the bedtime music on, give them the comforter, cuddle and put down in the cot awake and pat to sleep - then you just gradually reduce how much patting you do until you're just putting them in and resting a hand on their back til they drop off. Then just putting them down and they fall asleep themselves.