Sleep Training 1.0
April 27, 2007
A few weeks ago Xander had his 6 month checkup. He did great - hated the shots, as all kid do, but his doctor was happy with his development, etc. The only criticism the doctor had was that Xander is not sleeping through the night. He suggested essentially letting Xander cry-it-out for a few nights, and then we would all sleep better. Zach decided that we should get right on the sleep training, so that night we started. We put Xander to bed in his crib - which he hasn’t really slept in (he’s been in a bassinet in our room), and we didn’t give him a bottle in the middle of the night, and we didn’t bring him into bed with us when he woke up. Needless to say, it was a pretty miserable night for everyone.
We didn’t do the full cry-it-out method - we did go in and comfort Xander at regular intervals. We did this Thursday night too, and then Friday and Saturday night Xander was visiting his grandparents. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday night we continued in our efforts to get Xander to sleep through the night. We were all exhausted, and Xander wasn’t any closer to sleeping through the night, though he was starting to get a little nervous about bedtime. Finally, we gave up this cry-it-out method. Xander has been sleeping in our bed for the past week, and life has been much easier. Xander stirrs some in the night, and sometimes needs some help finding his pacifier, but for the most part, he sleeps pretty well, and we don’t usually give him a bottle. Some nights he has refused to eat dinner, and then he wakes up crying for food usually early in the morning.
I think in the next week or so we may try to transition Xander to his crib again, but I haven’t come up with any good solutions for what to do with him when he wakes up in the night if he’s in his crib. Since Zach and I both work, and we don’t have much vacation time to sacrifice at the moment, we’ve been doing whatever gets everyone the maximum amount of sleep. So as we continue to try various sleep methods, I’ll keep everyone posted, and if anyone has any suggestions, I’d love to hear them!
Hello! I am a regular reader, but not a regular commentor . . . My husband and I just went through the sleep training with our 6-month old. What we had to do was take away his pacifier. I felt awful doing it, but it only took 3 days until he was sleeping from 7pm until 5am. Owen didn’t know how to soothe himself to sleep without his nukie, so before the sleep training I was up 4-5 times a night popping that thing back in his mouth. Our nights aren’t always perfect yet, but we are getting closer. We have been at it for a week and a half so far. Good luck!
hi there,
we had some sort of crib nightmare too. we didnt really do the cry-it-out method, but she transitioned nicely within 3 days. some of the things we did was:
1. tummy full, change in pj’s soft lights and she goes into her crib.
2. sometimes a bath helps.
3. we hang a toy at the side of her crib so if we hear the toy going, we know she is still not sleeping (cause she needs to reach out for it, we know she wont hit it in the middle of the night). its pretty amusing cause when she is awake she will hit this toy sort of letting us know she is done sleeping.
4. when i put her in the crib, she cries a little,i come back and put her back in sleeping position,leave the room and repeat it till she falls asleep. all the time i never talk to her or look her in her eyes, just pure business. at first it took like an hour but now i can just tuck her in and leave the room and she will be sleeping in 10 minutes all thru the night.
if you are still breastfeeding, this may prove harder since the bfed babies in my support group still wakes up countless times during the night. the transition proves harder for us than it is for us as we are so used to seeing her in our room and now we hv to get up and go to the other room to tend to her.
good luck
Hi Sara! I can’t believe how big Xander is getting! And you’re right, he is now a blonde baby! Or a blonde big boy, I should say.
Good luck with the sleep training, I have no advice to offer. We just put our cats in another room and shut the door, don’t think that’s good advice for a baby though! 
Sara,
I can’t believe this but our Emily slept through the night last night for the first time– she is 11 weeks old. I got her to do it using advice I got from a book called Secrets of the Baby Whisperer. It is a good book and not too extreme. You might check it out but one of the main points is that you do the EXACT same thing every night because babies thrive on routine. Good luck, I know old habits die hard especially when you need to sleep for work.
Mary B.
I have commented a few times.. I am going through the same thing with my little James. No “great advice” for you, but Just some commiserating… James has the same pajamas Xander is wearing too, though.. Old Navy with puppy paws and bones? Love those, but he outgrew them. Anyway, I hope that he starts to sleep better for you!
Why don’t you let the poor kid get into bed with you? How on earth are you supposed to let your child know that he can trust you if you’re leaving him in his room to cry by himself?
Great parents you’ll be - why don’t you just tell him now that you have no desire to comfort him while he’s crying?
Hi Marki, thanks for the encouraging suggestions. Xander does sleep in bed with us right now. As I’m assuming many parents to, we have been trying several different methods of sleep training. Obviously the cry-it-out method wasn’t working for Xander or for us. And although Xander is sleeping in our bed right now, we don’t want this to be a permanent arrangement, so we will begin another attempt at a transition to his own bed at some point in the future. If you have any other suggestions, please let me know - thanks!
Hi Sara,
I ran into your blog, looking for sleep suggestions for our 3 1/2 month old (Ava). We don’t have any trouble getting her to sleep while breast feeding– infact she loves to breast feed every 1-3 hours all night long. We’ve moved her to our guest room bed (padded with pillows on all sides so she won’t roll off). So we have her out of our bed, but waking up every 1 hour to feed her is purely exhausting! I haven’t tried the cry out method –but I would be up for any suggestions. How did it work out with you? Sincerely, Ana
Hi Ana, I’m sorry to hear about your sleep challenges. I’m certainly not an expert, but there are definitely things that you can experiment with. Does Ava use a pacifier? Maybe it’s not the breast feeding she’s so attached to, but the sucking - if that’s the case, then a pacifier can do just as well as breast feeding. Some parents swear by rice cereal - they claim that once their baby was able to get more sustinence to last through the night, their kids stopped waking up so frequently. It varies from doctor to doctor and expert to expert. I know people who have put a little rice cereal in bottles with breast milk or formula - it is surprising how much longer babies will go with a little solid food in their stomach. The general rule is that you’re supposed to wait until 4-6 months to start babies on solids, but if I were you, I might try a little rice cereal in a bed time bottle for Ava and see how it works. It’s not going to hurt her, and it may help the both of you sleep better. Good luck, and please let me know if you figure out any solutions!