Sleep traning

[kboyet]

I'm not going to think about sleep training until LO is much older- probably 6 mos. right now we are trying to set a routine as far as bedtime and what's considered an okay time to be up for the day but he still ultimately dictates at this point.

[marsava]

I'm all for it - and can't wait really. But yeah, in a couple of months we'll start. For now, him sleeping in his crib and sleeping for 3+ hours are considered huge wins here. Last night it was rocking chair cuddles or nothing at all. Today seems to be heading the same way....
Pray for me - we're driving 2.5 hours to my parents place for a few days while DH is away. I plan on sleeping the whole way and hoping he has the same plan (my father will be driving)

[danisgossipgirl]

I have no idea what my baby will be like in a few weeks, let alone a few months. I've read a handful of the books and I don't think there's a one size fits all approach. I don't have strong feelings on the subject, just an idea of what I'm comfortable implementing in my home. The most recent baby book I read, which was during this pregnancy, was bringing up bebe...I found it fascinating that French babies generally STTN by 4 months and they don't do any formal sleep training, CIO or other methods.

[mlee116]

I agree with danisgossipgirl. I don't know what she'll be like in a few months, so I don't know what we'll do. One thing I learned with DS is that their sleep habits can vary so much in the first year so I'm not going to worry much about it right now.

In these early months I like to see how they do on their own and go from there. Once I went back to work, DS fell into a schedule based on our schedules and DCs schedule, so we didn't have to do any real sleep training. We'll see with this baby. I do think that a bedtime routine and being consistent are important for establishing good habits, so I'm just focusing on that for now.

[kimmie7714]

I think we are are going to start a bedtime routine when LO is older.  He is starting to sleep 4-6 hours at night now.  I know that may be short-lived as he will be 6 weeks on Monday!  I also have been not picking him up everytime he cries or fusses.  Sometimes he just makes a ot of noises while he is sleeping or he will fall back asleep on his own. I am starting to distinguish his cries better (hungry,wet).  I also found that he sleeps a lot better upstairs vs. downstairs.  For now we are planning to work on transitioning him to the crib from the rock and play in the next week or so. 

[rayray007]

The extent of sleep training in this house has been to never nurse them to sleep (EASY schedule) and to give them their soother in the middle of the night when I think they're up too early. That's about all I Did with dd and she was an excellent sleeper (save for a few brief phases).

[gdaniels77]

My pedi's NP told me at LO's 1 month appt that we should already be trying to get her to STTN. She recommended reading Babywise and already implementing some sort of sleep training regiment. If we sleep train it will be once she's older and has developed her sense of security, and it won't be with Babywise.

[Deleted]

Jan 29, 2015 9:46:24 GMT -5 gdaniels77 said:

My pedi's NP told me at LO's 1 month appt that we should already be trying to get her to STTN. She recommended reading Babywise and already implementing some sort of sleep training regiment. If we sleep train it will be once she's older and has developed her sense of security, and it won't be with Babywise.

Omg I would die with that advice And totally want to complain to the ped.

[lovesbooks]

I picked up Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child and Happiest Baby on the Block from the used book store. Figured it was smart to start reading now when I have time, before I go back to work. Looks like you can start trying toward training between 4-6 months. Although, it seems most babies figure out their own schedule that gives them enough sleep and it's those fussy kids that need training. I want to know what's normal and when I should act if my child is overtired, so I have found these two books helpful. I love sleeping, and miss it dearly, so I'm all about getting back to a full nights sleep.

[nolanova85]

Right now we're just working on sticking to routine. So far we're having great success - he goes down awake and doesn't fuss much before putting himself to sleep. We started putting him in the crib in his room the same night we started the routine and had no issues, thankfully. He's gotten several 6 hour stretches the last several nights but then last night only went 4 hours. With stretches of this length, I always get him and feed him once he starts fussing. Right now we're putting him down sometime between 9pm and 11pm. As I go back to work in a few weeks, we'll start working to get him to go down closer to between 7pm and 8pm. Other than that, we're not going to start formal sleep training until he is a little older, though I'm certain we will do some sort of training (unless, of course, he keeps progressing well himself).

[jennielee123]

Jan 29, 2015 7:54:25 GMT -5 mgk207 said:

I'm certainly not implementing any kind of program (LO is 5 weeks), but I'm starting to observe and play the "Let see what happens" game. For example, in the first month, every time he made a peep in the night, I got right up to soothe/change/nurse him, but I've started waiting a few moments to see if he would fall back to sleep. Sometimes he does (score!). Similarly, I have been putting him back down awake after a motn feeding to see if he'll fall asleep on his own. Sometimes he does (double score!). If he does more than fuss, of course I attend to him, in both situations, but I can generally tell what he needs, and I don't let him escalate to the point of real crying before I intervene. That would put us back to square one (and nobody wants to be at square one in the motn). He's a pretty good sleeper, so we will just use our judgment as he gets older and do what works for him.

This is exactly how we've been handling it.

[irish14]

Jan 29, 2015 20:48:47 GMT -5 calvinfoster said:

My big problem is that babe is on a late schedule  - he wants to go down between 10:30-12 (on the later side lately) and sleep late into the morning. If I didn't have 2 other kids and was on maternity leave for another couple months, that'd be fine, but in 10 days we have to be back to reality and he needs to be at daycare at 7:30. I don't know how we're going to shift his sleep cycle backwards because babies kinda do what they do.

Mine is on a similar schedule - often down 10:30 and takes an hour to fall asleep. DH is staying home so LO won't go to daycare, but I do want to nurse him before I go to work so we're going to need to figure this out too. No advice, unfortunately, just commiserating...

[birch113]

Jan 29, 2015 16:06:44 GMT -5 lovesbooks said:

I picked up Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child and Happiest Baby on the Block from the used book store. Figured it was smart to start reading now when I have time, before I go back to work. Looks like you can start trying toward training between 4-6 months. Although, it seems most babies figure out their own schedule that gives them enough sleep and it's those fussy kids that need training. I want to know what's normal and when I should act if my child is overtired, so I have found these two books helpful. I love sleeping, and miss it dearly, so I'm all about getting back to a full nights sleep.

+1 for Healthy Sleep Habits. It's been really helpful.

[danisgossipgirl]

Jan 29, 2015 20:48:47 GMT -5 calvinfoster said:

My big problem is that babe is on a late schedule  - he wants to go down between 10:30-12 (on the later side lately) and sleep late into the morning. If I didn't have 2 other kids and was on maternity leave for another couple months, that'd be fine, but in 10 days we have to be back to reality and he needs to be at daycare at 7:30. I don't know how we're going to shift his sleep cycle backwards because babies kinda do what they do.

We'll be dealing with this too. Baby goes down 10-11ish depending on how much she wants to fuss and cry at the boob that night. In the morning she gets boob around 5-6 and is happy to sleep for a while after than (sleeping now). When I'm working I'm zombified if I don't get to bed around 10 most days because I get up at 5-5:30. If I can just shift her back to 9:30-10 it'll hopefully work out so that my h can tend to the older two first thing but we'll play it by ear. 

[meether]

I just follow DD's cues, when she starts to yawn, I set her up for naps/bedtime. We eat, change, play, eat then she goes down to sleep (we try to provide a quiet place with soothing sounds?. In her first 6 weeks, she'd stay up for about an hour and then want to sleep. She is not fussy/ or a crier, so we try to always attend to any sounds she makes. She started doing 8-9 hours at 4 weeks old (pedi said she could sleep as long as she wants since she was gaining a ton of weight), and now at 11 weeks she does 10-12. My older daughter was/ is also a great sleeper, she slept through at 6 weeks. Now both girls go down at 7 and wake up between 6 & 7). Both girls were very easy to put to sleep, we count our lucky stars for mellow kids. 

[gdaniels77]

Jan 29, 2015 11:15:15 GMT -5 @amyg said:

Jan 29, 2015 9:46:24 GMT -5 gdaniels77 said:

My pedi's NP told me at LO's 1 month appt that we should already be trying to get her to STTN. She recommended reading Babywise and already implementing some sort of sleep training regiment. If we sleep train it will be once she's older and has developed her sense of security, and it won't be with Babywise.

Omg I would die with that advice And totally want to complain to the ped.

I didn't say anything, just made sure our 2 month checkup was for sure with the ped and not her, but I so wanted to ask her thoughts on it being linked to FTT...

[nbateman5]

Anyone read/follow this? practicallyperfectbaby.com/

[FCtwinmom]

Jan 29, 2015 20:48:47 GMT -5 calvinfoster said:

My big problem is that babe is on a late schedule  - he wants to go down between 10:30-12 (on the later side lately) and sleep late into the morning. If I didn't have 2 other kids and was on maternity leave for another couple months, that'd be fine, but in 10 days we have to be back to reality and he needs to be at daycare at 7:30. I don't know how we're going to shift his sleep cycle backwards because babies kinda do what they do.

So my son has an occupational therepist that comes to our house to work with him (free program through the state because he was so premature and because of his birth weight). But I was asking her about sleep training last time she was up. She said if we need to adjust their sleep schedules to do so in 15 minute increments. So for example to start your bed time routine 15 minutes earlier each night.

She also said the sweet spot for sleep training for those who want to do it is between 3-6 months, and she said by 6 months to really try to have the routine you want established so you don't have to break any bad habits. This month we are just observing and keeping track of their habits and will see if we need to start something more formal next month. (Twins are three months old actual age but only one month adjusted age).

[bdk0186]

According to that site nbateman5 your baby is suppose to only nap for 1.5 hours at a time. Is this something you do or do you let your LO nap til they wake?

[nbateman5]

Feb 2, 2015 7:53:40 GMT -5 bdk0186 said:

According to that site nbateman5 your baby is suppose to only nap for 1.5 hours at a time. Is this something you do or do you let your LO nap til they wake?

bdk0186 I only discovered that site yesterday while I was googing swaddli g during nap time. Attempted the 15 min rule last night which kept me up entirely too long listening/watching an unhappy baby. That with the combination of being up to pump right before she woke up kept me up from 430-630, ugh it was misrable. Will talk it over with H to see what he thinks. She definitely has increased the amount she's taking per feeding. She's up to 5oz and sometimes 6 when she wants more after 5. But she like PP said is large for her age and was over 9lbs at birth. Who knows, sleep training is rough...might just wait it out and see what her schedule is like in a month.

[rayray007]

Feb 2, 2015 2:27:54 GMT -5 Miss Killjoy said:

Feb 1, 2015 22:28:10 GMT -5 nbateman5 said:

Anyone read/follow this? practicallyperfectbaby.com/

Everything I have read says that BF babies won't generally increase how much they take at a feeding, so I wouldn't follow this because it says to feed them six ounces per feeding (which is way more than the 3 my baby takes consistently). That's my baby, though. She spits up if she eats more than that. Some babies may be able to handle 6-8oz per feeding. That just seems crazy high for a BF baby.

6-8 oz is a crazy amount for 2 month olds!

Regarding moving bedtime up for those ladies going back to work- just give it a try cold turkey, LO might surprise you. I know I always would stress out about transitions like that and DD would always surprise me by taking it in stride. Like unswaddling and taking away the paci- both happened accidentally when we had a babysitter so we just rolled with it and DD was fine (I realize not all babies are so laid back, but you don't know until you try and I think we don't give them enough credit sometimes). The boys are almost 11 weeks old and we just switched their bed time last week from 8-9 pm to 7 pm and it's been great. We were trying to stretch them out to 9 and realized it just wasn't working so we switched it up cold turkey and it's working better for everyone involved. The babies are going down easily, and sleeping until 3-4 am, so they're not up any earlier. GL!