Comments on: How Sleep Training Progress Looks

By: Debbye @ The Baby Sleep Site

Debbye @ The Baby Sleep Site — Tue, 15 Jan 2019 05:04:50 +0000

In reply to Jen. Thanks for sharing your story @Jen! : )

By: Jen

Jen — Fri, 11 Jan 2019 16:30:28 +0000

Sleep training is a marathon, not a sprint. We started ST around 4-5 months. She’s 8 months now and I just had to ST her for early mornings because she was waking at 4:30-5AM and I was having to bring her to bed and nurse her to get her to sleep until 6:30. So we let her cry it out a couple nights and she is now figuring out to go back to sleep when she wakes at 5. And we had to let her cry when we cut out night feeds. As she grows I realize that sleep training is not a “one and done” kind of thing but is more of a lifestyle where you are committed to helping your child learn to sleep independently. And there are always setbacks and things to work through, but I’m so happy I’ve done it as it makes me happier and her as well.

By: Teresa

Teresa — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 04:22:52 +0000

We’ve been sleep training our 11 month old son for four months and he still has his rough nights as well. I, too, thought that after a week or two of sleep training he would go to sleep easily, but not so. He still cries approximately 5-15 minutes every single night when we put him in the crib for bed. We have a good bedtime routine (dinner, nursing, diaper change, pjs, story, song, then into the crib) that we have stuck to faithfully every night and I’ve made sure not to nurse, sing, rock him completely to sleep.
It’s almost funny that I happened to come across this article tonight. After completing the bedtime routine, our son cried for 45 minutes. I did go in to calm him down after 15, then 20 minutes; but put him right back to bed once he was calm. He has never cried this much ever and I was wondering if I had done something to throw off our routine. He is getting closer to walking, is cutting some new teeth, and the rest of the family is getting over some slight sniffles. Perhaps it is one of these things that has thrown a wrench into our routine. We have always been consistent with our routine, so it must be one of these things.

By: Anna

Anna — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 20:57:01 +0000

Our little boy is now 15 months old and usually manages to sleep from 7pm till 6.30am. Whenever he is teething or has a cold he wakes up 2-3 times in the night but usually only for a quick cuddle and then tap gently back to sleep. This wasn’t always the case!!!!
Until he was 4 months old he totally refused to go to sleep at night until he (and I!!) were totally exhausted at about 2am. It was only after a hospital nurse said I had to cut the apron strings and let him cry it out that I had the courage to try it. That first time he cried for over half an hour (it reached that awful fever pitch) but then after popping my head in every 5/10/15 minutes to say soothing words he eventually fell soundly asleep. He then went to bed at 8pm every night once we had his bath/ lullaby/milk routine set in stone to the minute. He still woke for feeds every 3 hours as he was unwell and needed them but he slept soundly in between.
Until I stopped his nightfeeds completely at about 10 months he continued to wake for a feed every 3 hours. It was habit and it had to be broken. Another top tip from a nurse helped with this too – she taught me how to gently pat his body all over while he was in his cot and this settled him to sleep.
Now he gets one visit from me if he wakes up at night and if a quick cuddle and the gentle patting doesn’t settle him to sleep then he crys but usually only for a minute or two – he seems to understand the routine now and generally just puts himself back to sleep.

I hope this helps as I understand how it feels to think you’re never going to sleep again! Consistency is the only answer it seems. Good luck everybody

By: Shelina Govender

Shelina Govender — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 12:55:06 +0000

Hi,
I am a mother of 2 kids, 1 (8yrs old son and the second a 7month) old baby girl and she seems to kick the life out of me at night. She loves to suckle on the breast the entire night and when I break the grip off she starts to scream and cry. I tryed giving her a bottle and a dummy at night but she refuses them and only wants the breast to suckkle on. I love her with all my heart and feel guilty and give into her needs because I am away from her the enteire day. I am up from 4am, leave home at 5:45am and back from work at 5pm. I get up 4 to 5 times for her feeds and by the time it is 9am i am already exhausted at work. Is this normall for her to only want to suckle the breast or does she just find comfort and misses me alot. I feel guilty because i barely have time to spend with my son and this is starting to effect him emotionally as well.

By: Amee

Amee — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 00:29:35 +0000

HELP……although this article did come at a great time…that little boost of encouragement..I am really worried that I am not doing this right. I need suggestions – help – anything – please share your understanding of sleep training and how to go about it.
Our 6month daughter – is eating 3 meals a day and drinking minimum 7-8 oz in her bottles – approx 4-5x a day. She is STILL waking up – no matter how many different “sleep training” techniques we try.

thanks

By: Dianne

Dianne — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 17:49:16 +0000

Very timely article! We started helping our (almost) 12 month old learn to sleep with some great help from you, about 2 or 3 months ago. He had been doing great and was going down at 7pm and not waking up to nurse until 4:00 or 5:00 a.m. but the last 8 days have been a backwards slide. He’s getting a molar (molars at 12 months???) and is back to waking up every two hours. Sigh. Roller coasters are never my favorite 🙂 I’m looking forward to getting some regular sleep again. 🙂

By: Lauren

Lauren — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 17:27:43 +0000

My son is almost 5 months old. We started sleep training with naps at 2 months. All the sleep books say that babies before the age of 3 months just nap when they need to, and frequently. My son did not! He cried all day long, and the doctor thought he might be colic. When I kept track of his naps at 2 months and realized he was taking 2-3 20-30 minutes naps a day on average, I realized I needed help. As soon as I started putting him down for naps every hour and a half, he would sleep about 30-40 minutes and wake up happy! It was the first time he had done that! I now have him napping every 2 hours, and he naps about 30-45 minutes. We started a bed time routine at 3 months, and he still sticks to it. This site has helped so much! Thanks Nicole! We recently started to try and cut out one of his night time feedings, and it has been going pretty well. He still has his rough days (like yesterday… he refused to nap in the morning and was up from 7:30am till 12:30pm) and his rough nights (two weeks ago, he refused to go to bed at 7:30-8pm which he has been doing since 3 months… it was 11pm before he finally drifted off) but he is a much happier kid and we are much happier parents. And when those rough days or nights come around, they are easier to deal with, knowing it is most likely just a set back, and within a few days he will be back to his routine!

By: Dana

Dana — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 16:44:49 +0000

Ok. 2 or 3 days is too short for a baby to learn to fall sleep on their own. What about 5 months??? I started sleep trainning my baby when he was 8 months. I have been VERY consistent, but now, with 1 year old, he still wakes up at 4 am and only naps 30 minutes most of the time. His naptime is 6:45pm, and I have tried to put him down later, but he still wakes up at the same time. Some days he naps longer than a hour, but it’s not common. He still takes 2 or 3 naps a day, depending how long they are. I put him down after 3 hours of being awake, so if he wakes up at 4 am, he goes down at 7 am, and then 3 hours after he wakes up. Some days he goes for a 3rd nap, if it’s before 3 pm.
We have bedtime routines and naptime routines, and I put him down drowsy but ususally awake, cause he cries a little, and then I pat his back, sing his song, and wait until he falls asleep (can be 10 -30 min). I’ve tried 5 different sleep trainning systems and we are still here. Any advice?

By: YULIA

YULIA — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 15:50:39 +0000

My boy is 15 month now and we finally JUST (2weeks ago)have made it to the “other side” . We started very gentle (I was hoping to completely avoid the crying ) when he was….9 month old.
Tried few slightly different approaches, sticking to each for at least 6-8 weeks before making any changes.
Imagine that desparation!Half of his life in sleep training.
He was just not improving.Months after months, my boy was NOT getting what the sources claimed would take between 3 days to 3 weeks.
I am actially traumatized by the whole process.The baby, sure is better than ever:)
Now, what would you call our path? A word “WAR” comes to my mind.
He-he…