Reply to Extinction or Ferber (Timed Checks) for 6 month sleep training?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My 6 month old EBF DD weighs almost 18 lbs and the pediatrician said we can definitely sleep train her at this point. 
Her sleep has sort of gone off the rails over the last month, she's waking up every 45-90 minutes all night long unless I bring her into bed with me. It's really horrible and I need to sleep again (I'm working full time while also caring for her all day and also have a 2 yo who is thank goodness in preschool).

It's definitely a feed/snuggle-to-sleep issue and I don't think she is very hungry because will nurse for maybe 2 minutes when she wakes up. I'd like to drop the "feeds" cold turkey while also sleep training but willing to keep a dream feed or even a 4am early wake up feed (waking up once at 4am would be heaven compared to current situation).

Anyway - I definitely need to sleep train her. If anyone has been in a similar situation, can you let me know if Extinction or Timed Checks worked better for you? I'm also not totally sure how to avoid feeding her to sleep at bedtime - she currently zonks out while having a long nursing session. Should I wake her up all the way before putting her back down?
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Ooo I have so many thoughts! First of all, you'll get some haters about sleep training, ignore them, you're absolutely doing the right thing. I strongly recommend the Sleep Easy Solution. It's what we used, as have many people we know, with great results, and it will answer all your questions.

Keep a dreamfeed if you'd like (I would), but with a six month old, I would NOT get into a 4am habit. You'll be back in two months wondering how to solve it. Your baby can go from 10/11pm to 7/8am without food - start how you mean to go on. Sleep Easy will walk you through weaning your feeds, but if they're all 2 mins or less, you can drop them all cold turkey. You'll definitely need to keep her awake during the bedtime feed. Don't let her snooze-eat and then wake her, it'll make it harder for her to fall asleep if she's taken the "edge" off her tiredness. Keep her away during the feed, just like you probably had to when she was a newborn - sing, talk to her, shake her arm, have her be naked if you have to, but NO snooze eating (except during the dreamfeed).

Sleep Easy does the timed checks. I honestly think it doesn't make a difference for the baby, either way will work, and I think there's an argument to be made that extinction is actually the better bet. But we did the timed checks, and I liked that because it gives you a "system" for dealing with weird things that pop up. Everyone will tell you the key to sleep training is consistency. So if you go with full extinction, you CANNOT go in there. With checks, part of the system is to go in there. So - if the cat gets in the bedroom without you noticing, you can get her out at the next check. If you notice a crack of light by the curtains, you can adjust at the next check. If you're worried about a poopy diaper, you can take a whiff at the next check. All of those have happened to us, and we never had to break our consistent plan to deal with them.

Best of luck! In a week or so, your life is about to become amazing. [/quote]

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