Maybe I am seriously the exception, but my DS started sleeping 10pm-5 or 6am at 8 weeks without waking for a feed. When it was clear that this was a pattern, I started putting him down at 9 and he slept until 7. We are now at 8:30pm-7:30am and he will be 12 weeks tomorrow. He only awakened a couple of times in the first couple of weeks of showing this sleeping pattern and I fed him. Once I realized it wasn't hunger and he could go through the night, I soothed him briefly on the rare chance he woke up and he went right back to sleep. I do still swaddle him, so I think there may be some adjusting to get him to sleep without out here in the next couple of weeks. This pattern change did occur once I started feeding him fewer bottles of BM (I EP due to feed issues) with more in each one. OP - I say there is no time like the present!

Anonymous wrote:Pardon my ignorance, but does sleep training only mean getting baby to sleep thru the night? I'm more concerned about eventually moving baby from our bed to his crib in the nursery, but am ok with getting up to feed him during the night. He's currently 8 weeks old. When is a good time to start thinking about transitioning to the crib? I don't mind him in the bed now, but we never really planned on co-sleeping...it just happened...so we aren't really wanting it to be a super long term thing. Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

We didn't use sleep training to get our children to sttn. Both my kids were completely unable to get themselves to sleep without having a nipple in their mouth or being bounced into oblivion. My daughter especially was a TERRIBLE sleeper, woke up every 45-60 minutes all night long and was a tired mess. We tried the calmer options of shushing/patting and nothing worked. We did Ferber at 5 months to get her to fall asleep on her own but I always told myself that I would nurse if she was truly hungry since 5 months is so young, but just not let her fall asleep at the breast and make sure she goes down in the crib drowsy but awake after the training. She didn't actually sttn without being fed until she was about 16 months actually.

To those of you who "shame" those of us who do sleep training I will say this. I almost FELL ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL because I was so exhausted from lack of sleep. So...what's a better option for me? Dead baby or baby with this mysterious "broken bond"? Hm? How would you feel if I had fallen asleep at the wheel and crashed into you and your loved ones? Yeah, that's what I thought.

We read Ferber and used that method with both our kids. It worked like magic!

DC#1: Did it at 5.5 months. Took a few weeks to fully phase in, but in the end, DC slept from 8-5 each night, nursed at 5, then went back to sleep until 7 or 7:30. I think I dropped the 5 am nursing session around 11 months or so, when it was clearly just for comfort not eating.

DC#2: Did it at 6 months. Very much the same story. Now at 12 months, DC#2 nurses, then rolls right into the crib, turns onto belly and sleeps straight through until 6 am. Joy! (And DC#1 remains a fabulous sleeper, as well. 10-11 hours straight at night, no drama.)

A few pieces of advice: If you're going to use the Ferber method, READ THE BOOK first. It's not CIO. There's some specifics to understand.

Also, it doesn't work immediately. We had some stressful/hard nights for the first few weeks when we wondered if it was "working" or not . . . and if we were doing the right thing. You'd think we wouldn't second-guess ourselves the second time after it worked for DC#1, but we did. It's just hard to do, but we could not be happier in the end. Our children are amazing sleepers, and they're so well-rested and happy during the day as a result.

GL, whatever you choose.

I did Ferber at 16 months, it was a breeze. I wish I had done it earlier. I would not have done it while my baby still needed to eat - but I think 9 months would have been perfect for my child (can't speak for anyone else).

Ugh, ignore the anti-sleep training nutsos. First, I read Weissbluth and I don't remember where it says that babies have to have a 1x feeding per night until 9 months. My son did not. Second, there is no reason why can't sleep train to get your son down to 1x feeding per night. I recommend the book, the Sleep Easy Solution. You really can't go cold turkey (of course) on all feedings. So what you would want to do is see if you can eliminate them one at a time. Ferber has strategies for this and the Sleep Easy Solution just expands on that and gives you ideas.

FYI, I sleep trained at 4.5 months, my son was doing one feeding at around 5-6am which he then dropped around 6-7 months.

Pardon my ignorance, but does sleep training only mean getting baby to sleep thru the night? I'm more concerned about eventually moving baby from our bed to his crib in the nursery, but am ok with getting up to feed him during the night. He's currently 8 weeks old. When is a good time to start thinking about transitioning to the crib? I don't mind him in the bed now, but we never really planned on co-sleeping...it just happened...so we aren't really wanting it to be a super long term thing. Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Please don't feel pressure that you have to sleep train by some certain month or your baby will never sleep on their own. That is nonsense. We waited until our DS showed signs that he wanted to self soothe AND he was going the whole night without needing a feeding. That was at nine months and the sleep training worked perfectly because he was ready. My personal parenting philosophy is to learn about different approaches but ultimately go with what feels right for my kid.

PPs, please save us your hysterics on the evils of sleep training.

OP - it is not too early to sleep train.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OMG - you women are terrible. It is PERFECTLY NORMAL for a 5.5 month to nurse every 2 hours. Maybe he doesn't *need* it for nutrition but he obviously needs the comfort of his mother.

I really hope that you mothers who sleep-trained early on (or really EVER) don't come to regret that you missed out on all of the bonding and comfort you could have provided to your babies instead of letting them scream themselves to sleep.

I concur.

I also agree - I don't think sleep training is a good idea for babies. They want to sleep with their moms.

Anonymous wrote:OMG - you women are terrible. It is PERFECTLY NORMAL for a 5.5 month to nurse every 2 hours. Maybe he doesn't *need* it for nutrition but he obviously needs the comfort of his mother.

I really hope that you mothers who sleep-trained early on (or really EVER) don't come to regret that you missed out on all of the bonding and comfort you could have provided to your babies instead of letting them scream themselves to sleep.

I concur.

OMG - you women are terrible. It is PERFECTLY NORMAL for a 5.5 month to nurse every 2 hours. Maybe he doesn't *need* it for nutrition but he obviously needs the comfort of his mother.

I really hope that you mothers who sleep-trained early on (or really EVER) don't come to regret that you missed out on all of the bonding and comfort you could have provided to your babies instead of letting them scream themselves to sleep.

OP here -- don't think he is really eating every 2 hours -- I think when he gets worked up he prefers to nurse to calm down and it is faster and unfortunately I am doing what is faster and easier even though probably not best. My guess is he is actually eating about 3x per night.

Now or at least by 7 months. I think it gets harder after that.

whoa- every 2 hours at 5.5 mos? This is the perfect time to sleep train. It would be much harder after a year for sure. If your baby is on the growth charts and wasn't a preemie, I can't imagine he *needs* to eat every 2 hours. And I'm so sorry that you're not getting any sleep!!!!!!!!!!!! Good luck!

I read that 5.5 to 7.5 months is ideal for sleeptraining...but Weissbluth says that some babies need to eat 1x per night until 9 months. If you sleeptrain, what do you do about the feeding issue? Should I just use the Ferber method as they have a chart which suggests how to get rid of night feedings? Right now DS is 5.5 months and wakes up every 2 hours to eat. I feel so tired all of the time and I am thinking to sleeptrain. Thoughts?