Sleep Question "Survey"

I thought with all of the questions about sleeping, it would be interesting to see what methods everyone has used in nighttime sleep training and if your babies sleep through the night.

If you don't mind sharing the information, please respond and let me know if you used CIO (cry it out), a modified CIO, or no CIO and whether or not your babies sleep through the night. If they do, how old were they when they started sleeping through.

Thanks!

 

I thought with all of the questions about sleeping, it would be interesting to see what methods everyone has used in nighttime sleep training and if your babies sleep through the night.

If you don't mind sharing the information, please respond and let me know if you used CIO (cry it out), a modified CIO, or no CIO and whether or not your babies sleep through the night. If they do, how old were they when they started sleeping through.

Thanks!

 

Well, to be honest, we sort of lucked into our babies sleeping through the night... but there was also some strategy.

They both just started sleeping through the night about two weeks ago (at 3 months). Our little boy will sleep for 9 hours straight most nights and our little girl 7 or more. They go to bed around 9-10 pm and wake between 6-7 am.

We began using Dr. Karp's methods from pretty much Day 1, and that's all we have used really. We wrap them in their Miracle Blankets (they still want and need them) and rock them while our white noise CD plays, then we put them down.

For our little boy, we put him down very drowsy and he will generally fall asleep watching his mobile spin around (it has stars and moons that light up and spin around), our little girl is colicky, so she sleeps in her swing still, but she will sleep long stretches.

I know we got super lucky, but we never did CIO and we also never had our babies sleeping in our beds on a regular basis so they were used to this sleeping arrangement from the beginning.

I am hopeful this trend will continue, so far it has been going well.

Good luck!

 

Hayley goes to bed at around 7:30-8pm and generally sleeps through the night, sometimes she will wake up at night and be very upset so i let her come into my bed, its not very oftern that happens.
she usually wakes up at about 6:30-7am

 

At our 4 mo. appt. our pedi told us to cut out the nighttime bottle as it was likely for comfort rather than hunger. I followed HSHHC pretty closely, and did the CIO method which was HARD. After cutting out that bottle one of my girls instantly started sleeping 10.5-12 hours per night. It took us 9 nights to train the other one but she now sleeps 10.5-12 hours also. The first couple of nights of letting her cry it out weren't too bad, but on nights 5 and 6 I was ready to give up because she was up more than she was down that night. I stuck with it and like I said on night 9 or 10 she started sleeping through with only little whimpers here and there which only lasted another couple of nights. We have a very regimented nighttime routine...last bottle then upstairs for jammies, lullabies and then bed. They almost always go down with a smile and are asleep within minutes.

 

The girls sterted sleeping through the night at 5 weeks old (8 hrs straight), Then at about 2.5-3 months they started sleeping 12-14 hrs and that lasted until 6 months. They got sick aroung 6 months and they started waking up all the time, the got so used to me jumping when ever they cried I wasn't getting any sleep. So I just stared CIO a week or two ago. Its been working real good sleeping at least 12 hrs (6-6). We all are waking up well rested now.

 

My girls started sleeping through the night at 4 and 4 1/2 months. We used the book Good Night, Sleep Tight by Kim West, a.k.a. "The Sleep Lady." We used a modified CIO at about 3 months, because the girls were waking a lot but not eating very much each time they woke up. I highly recommend the book.

 

We did the cry it out method. The doctors made us wake them up to eat every 3 hours until they were 2 months old but after that they just slept on their own at night. They sleep from 7-7.......an occasional cry at night but they usually aren't awake just having a bad dream or are cold. I don't rock them before bed I just say night night time and lay them down with their mobiles and pacifier.

 

No need to CIO here... We just used the book, 12 Hours by 12 Weeks, written by Suzy Giordano. We started sleep training the girls at 6 weeks of age, and the day they turned 10 weeks old was when they first slept for 12 hours straight through the night, no nighttime feedings at all. They have slept 11-12 hours every night ever since, with the exception of being sick or having ear infections! It's a wonderful book, and made sleep training super easy!

 

We didn't commit to a particular method when we clumsily tried to start sleep "training" around 6 months. That was our first mistake. Just within the past 3 weeks did we commit to and stick to a method and it has worked like a charm. We chose the Good Night Sleep Tight aka "Sleep Lady" technique by Kim West as well.

Chloe started sleeping through the night (11 hours) on her own starting around 5 months. Bryce started sleeping 8 hour stretches around 12 weeks, but starting at 4 months, he became our constant waker and would not go to sleep without a fight up until we started the Sleep Lady a few weeks ago. Now, he goes down by himself and stays asleep for 10 hours.

Phew!!!

Carina

 

We used CIO for naps and bedtime at 5.5. I need my little ones to be able to put themselves to sleep because my husband is a fulltime fireman and has to work 10 nights a month. My DD will often go right to sleep and sleep from 10-12 hours. My DS continues to put up a fight depending how sleepy he is. Once he's asleep he will also sleep from 10-12 hours. We do have some night wakings where we go in to give the paci. However, that is much better than the long middle of the night feedings.

 

The girls started sleeping 11-12 hours at about 2.5 months. All we did was a consistent 3 hour schedule during the day with a dreamfeed at about 10:00 which we slowly moved until their last bottle was at 7:00. We have a nightime routine and always stick to it and try really hard to start at exactly the same time. About twice a week one will wake in the night, but usually all it takes is a pacifier or a 5 minute rocking to get her back down. I think consistency is the key, and we really got lucky with good sleepers. Good nappers--no way, but I'll take the nightime sleep over regular naps anyday.

 

Around 5 months, I decided to try CIO. Before doing CIO, my boys would have their 7:00 bottle and then go to bed. Then they each would wake 2 times to eat during the night. I came to the realization that they did not need to be eating that much at night anymore. They had 4 6-8 oz bottles during the day and solids twice a day.

I decided that I would give them one bottle each after their 7:00 bottle if they woke up crying and then if they cried anytime after that, I just let them cry. We did that for about 2 weeks. After the first night of not feeding them after their last late night bottle, during the day they began to drink 8 oz consistently rather than sometimes 5 oz. Then recently, we did a true CIO after their 7:00 bottle to eliminate all night feedings. Now they may cry a little during the night but I just leave them and they end up sleeping anywhere between 6-7. When they wake in the morning, they are happy and not crying of hunger. That proves to me that they were eating out of habit.

So officially, I would say 6 months and 1 week until completely sleeping throught the night.

ALso interesting was that I have heard if they wake to eat and it is just a little, it is out of habit. My boys though were eating a lot at night. Well, I stopped feeding them anyways. My boys are in the higher weight percentile and my Dr. said they wont turn into skeletons if I dont feed them in the middle of the night! So, even though my boys drank full bottles at night, with a few days of CIO, they dont wake to eat anymore.

 

I used the Ferber Method of CIO at 7 months for bedtime. THey now sleep through most nights. For naptime, I used CIO. They go down beautifully for both now. ONly a little fussing.
Melissa

 

quote:
We used the book Good Night, Sleep Tight by Kim West, a.k.a. "The Sleep Lady."


Same here.
We followed her method of putting them down at around 7:00 and then waking them for a dream feed at 10:00 or so. Just this week we cut out the 10:00 one, and they slept 6:30 PM to 6:30 AM. WOO HOO!

 

My one sleeps thru the night, my other one likes to sleep in bed with us I know it is a bad habit, also she wakes up in the night for a bottle. Do I just stop giving it to her and let her cry herself to sleep. Also, I am afraid tha tshe will wake the other. help please I don't know what to do. Should I put her down first and have her cry herself to sleep. I just don't know.

 

We do a modified Babywise, eat, play, sleep. Still do it at night. We don't have to CIO much but we do sometimes at naps. Usually in the middle of the night, they don't go back to sleep without eating... esp. if they ate at 6pm and wake at 4! Thats a long time to go without food, so we feed them and put them back to bed... its not every night and not the same time every night. Once a pattern develops there however, we will start water to break the habit. This worked well with John so we will see if it works with these guys!

 

quote:
Originally posted by suzq1675:
My one sleeps thru the night, my other one likes to sleep in bed with us I know it is a bad habit, also she wakes up in the night for a bottle. Do I just stop giving it to her and let her cry herself to sleep. Also, I am afraid tha tshe will wake the other. help please I don't know what to do. Should I put her down first and have her cry herself to sleep. I just don't know.


I wouldn't let her cry herself to sleep at this age. She probably still needs the bottle in the middle of the night. At that age, ours were eating at 11 pm and then again at 5 am. Maybe you could try feeding her before you go to bed instead of waiting for her to wake for the bottle. Once she falls asleep, can you put her in her crib without her waking up? If so, I'd try that and then go in and soothe her when she wakes, but don't take her out of the crib. That's what we did at that age. I put a chair next to the crib and would sit there and hold the paci in and rub their heads until they fell back asleep.

 

I forgot in my original post to answer my own question!

At about 5.5 months we did CIO and they begain sleeping from 6:45 - 6 within a few days. One of my sons did begin waking up again at 4 am a few weeks after that. He would babble mostly and start crying after a while. Once he started crying, it would wake his brother, so we started going in and putting the paci in...well, that was a mistake! Totally reversed what we'd worked for! My pedi said as long as we knew nothing was wrong with him (and we knew his cry was just for attention) to leave him for however long he did it, and he would learn that we weren't coming in. So, we just ignored him. Took about 2 days, and he was back to sleeping through.

 

I tried several of the popular books mentioned out there between 6-10 months when I decided to actively try to sleep train. ANd I can not do CIO, I just couldn't do it. Then I like others on here did the Kim West book, Good Night Sleep Tight, and it has been the best thing I have done. I have the world's best sleepers now, and they just get in their bed and are asleep in two shakes without a peep! Naps too! I think that this is great. I tried this at 10 months, so that is when mine slept well. OH, so I would classify this as modified CIO.

 

We do the CIO method. If they cry longer than 10 minutes then they are not ready to go to sleep and we will go pick them up. I haven't heard about any books other than the Baby Wise books and I didn't like them. Danny doesn't sleep through the night though. He wakes up between 3-4:30 am and wants to eat and sometimes to just hang out and then sometimes he wakes his brother up. They are 5 months old and this has only been going on for the last month or so. Does anyone have any advice?

 

Man, reading this makes me want to cry. I think I'm just the worst at this. My twins are 7.5 months old and they each get up 6-8 times a night. Yes, SIX to EIGHT. I've done Baby Whisperer and HSHHC and the result has been that I CAN get them to go to bed at night, which is great, but keeping them down? No good. These are my 5th and 6th kids, and I can't for the life of me remember what I did differently with the others that made them not so awful. I'm at the end of my rope and feel like I've got nothing left to even try.

Thanks for listening. I keep thinking that by the time they're in school, they have to be sleeping, right? Or I'll be in the loony bin!

 

A little CIO. My little girl will whimper a little bit and we will go in and check on her and then after a couple minutes she is OUT! I am lucky they have been sleeping through the night since they were8 weeks old, 4 weeks adjusted age. I don't know how you mommies do it without any sleep.

 

I forgot to add that for the past 3 weeks or so they have been sleeping from 7:30- 7:30! Gotta love it!

 

We used Twelve Hours Sleep by Twelve Weeks Old. They were sleeping 12 hours through the night plus nap about 3 hours a day by 16 weeks. We don't do CIO. I put them down and leave them happy. If they fuss, I leave them alone and they usually stop. If they are full on crying, I go back in there, make them happy again and leave again. This method has worked for us and I usually don't have too much of a problem getting them to go to sleep. I also stick to a consistent eating, playing and sleep schedule. I think this all ties in together and it's important to be consistent.

 

quote:
Originally posted by debbidala:
Man, reading this makes me want to cry. I think I'm just the worst at this. My twins are 7.5 months old and they each get up 6-8 times a night. Yes, SIX to EIGHT. I've done Baby Whisperer and HSHHC and the result has been that I CAN get them to go to bed at night, which is great, but keeping them down? No good.



I'm so sorry your little ones aren't sleeping all night! I know how hard it is to be constantly woken up, and I really can't imagine it if I had to take care of other children. Are you going in when they wake up during the night? When we decided to CIO, we decided to really commit to it. We slathered their tooshes with diaper rash cream, so we wouldn't worry about diaper rash. Then once we put them to bed, we did not go back in until 5 in the morning (and eventually 6). It was tough the first few days to listen to them cry, but each day they cried less, and after about 4 or 5 days, they did not cry at all. I hope yours are sleeping through soon!