sleep train

Question

Any parent sleep train your baby ?1. Any tips for sleep training ?2. In what week to start infant sleep train ?

Cherlyn · Accepted Answer

My LO’s the type that cannot be rocked to sleep, and only started to sleep in the cot at about 3 months old (refused prior). We had started patting her to sleep at 2 months, and that worked for a while, but stopped working at 4.5 months. She used to sleep better with a swaddle, but started rolling at 4 months, so I had to wean off the swaddle. Her sleep was pretty bad and inconsistent up to this point. By this time, we had already trained her to differentiate between day and night (makes a big difference) and taught her bedtime cues, including closing the curtains, turning on white noise and putting on pants over her romper (the pants took over the swaddle). So because at 4.5 months, she suddenly couldn’t be put to sleep by patting/carrying/rocking, and direct latching also didn’t have a 100% success rate, we decided to do the cry it out method. We had done this for my first child, but that was at 18 months when all other methods failed too. I was very worried and hesitant since this LO was much younger. But nothing else worked. So.. we ensured she was fed, had pooped and had a clean diaper. Then we did the bedtime routine and closed the door, monitoring her with the baby monitor. We set cut off timings to go in if it didn’t work, and also went in if she flipped onto her tummy and couldn’t flip back. We started with just the first sleep at night, then gradually extended it to each time she woke up at night (after feeding), and afterwards, all her naps. It’s been 3 weeks, and the success rate of her falling asleep for every nap and sleep is now 100%. When we first started, the crying lasted 50min. Now, it ranges from no crying to crying for 2 to 20+min. Her naps range from 30min-2hrs and her night sleep ranges from 3hrs-7hrs per cycle. We’re still finetuning our training (awake intervals, how long before the nap to feed her, etc) and will wean off night feeds when she’s older so she’ll sleep through the night too. For the record, there’s no negative psychological effect so far on both my kids from the cry it out method:) my elder daughter can’t even remember that she went through the training. Haha. There are many methods of sleep training, each having its own pros and cons. It also depends on what you’re able to bear with during the course of the training and what your goals are. Hope you and baby are able to sleep well soon:)