Sleep Training, when did you start it? Evan is waking up every 1-2 hours all night long (5 months almost). Any hints for wakings would be appreciated. I am a zombie! Why don't we have sleepers!?!?

[Jen841]

Thank you all for your input. We did Weisbluth for Jude (went to his practice, so could not consider anything else). I am thinking of trying Ferber for Evan.

I need some sleep! I am nursing him and fall guilty to feeding him so I can go back to bed. 5 minute-1.5 hours later he'll start to cry again. He has put himself to sleep via playing. During the day he is not a napper. I can't control daytime sleeping b/c of daycare. We are putting him down close to 7:30 pm daily. Around 5 or 6 am he wakes happy and ready to start the day. Ugh!

[nfowife]

Around 4-5 months I started moving the bedtime earlier until DD settled on around 5:30 p.m. most nights. She was still waking 2-3 times a night until about 8 months, then it went down to 2 wakings (but I only fed her one of those times starting at 8 months) and then on her own at almost 9 months she started sleeping through the night. She is still an early waker- generally up between 5-6 a.m., but I can put her down at 6 p.m. and I don't hear from her usually until the next morning. I say she sleeps through about 75% of the time, the other 25% she is up once around 3 for a quick nursing.

[mudder17]

Okay, I started at 18 weeks. BUT, I did not cut out the night time feedings until she gave them up herself. (ETA: she didn't give it up until the night before she turned 10 months) I did limit the timing of the first feeding to 4 hours after bedtime, but other than that, I let her night feed as often as she wanted as long as she nursed and went back to sleep. During the day, I did whatever I could to help her sleep, including long stroller walks, nursing to sleep, rocking, or whatever worked. She ended up getting good sleep during the day, which meant she was well rested when she was learning to fall asleep on her own at night. Is there any way you can put him to bed earlier in the evening? Oddly enough, Kaya started doing better when I put her to bed earlier (although in her case, it was a 5 pm bedtime!). But ~ 6 am has always been her bedtime. When she sleeps until 7:00, that is sleeping in late for her, even now!

I do know what it's like to wake up several times a night all night (although not with a toddler in addition to an infant), but hang in there--it will get better (I hope!)! :)


Eileen

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[jhaud]

i didn't work on this issue with dd until after her first birthday. doc told me how to get rid of the nighttime bottles(ebm)(by reducing amount every couple of nights). and then i read (or at least parts of) the no cry sleep solution for toddlers. i liked the recommendations - very much a try and see plan, but many of the recommendations have worked for us. (i could let dd cry with difficulty - but dh could not at all and would then ask me why i was making her cry... so i needed a no cry kind of solution!

of course mine is still a 5-6:30 am waker, but the earlier mornings are the ones where she has gotten less sleep in general (later bedtime, short nap on previous day. i know it makes no sense but she sleeps longer when she has had more sleep.

good luck

[juliasmom05]

DD's not a sleeper either. We started at 5 1/2 months because I was so darned exhausted. At the time, DD would nurse for 30 minutes and then sleep for 30 minutes, all night long. We did Ferber. After that, I still nursed her at night (every three hours), which for me was much much better than every 1/2 hour. So we only had to really let her cry for one night. She still wakes up every 4 hours and needs to nurse. But, because she is boycotting most bottles at daycare now, I can't see giving up the night feedings. DD wakes up at 5:30 AM as well, so I feel your pain.

Marci

Mom to Julia 4/05

[AmyZ]

Yikes! You must be tired. One other book I always like to throw into the mix is "Good Night Sleep Tight" written by the Sleep Lady Kim West. We used this method around 10 months -- it is basically a gradual removal plan... in our case minimal crying. You can probably get the book out of the library so you don't have to buy it.

Amy Z

"Ma!" to Eliana 2/04 - She's 2!
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[Momof3Labs]

We first did Weissbluth at 8 months when we were having horrible nap problems.

Could he be reverse cycling since he is in daycare? How is his intake during the day?

[tarahsolazy]

We did a Ferber CIO for bedtime, for falling asleep, at 7.5 months. One night, 29 minutes, and it was done. I still nursed every 3 hours or so at night until around a year, and he gave up his last night feeding at about 15 mo. Since Evan is in daycare in the day, you may want to think carefully about completely night-weaning him. If you do that, you may find that your milk supply completely dissappears. Or not, there's no way to tell. But, different people feel differently about supplementing or appropriate weaning time, so you'll have to figure out where you stand on that. The main reason I kept doing the night feeds, and even encouraged them for a while, was that I really didn't want to wean before a year. I was never a huge volume pumper, so I really thought my supply would be in jeopardy.

[Jen841]

He drinks 4 4oz bottles (or so) at daycare. I think that is little, but that is what Jude did too.