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If you're looking for less crying, I would check out the No Cry Sleep solution. I'm sorry :(. Good luck!

@Mae: my advice would be to do a bit of reading about the various sleep training methods / philosophies and then go with what fits your comfort level and works for your baby! And you shouldn't feel like you need to sleep train if YOU don't want to because at the end of the day it isn't your Pedi who gets up in the night

Good luck and I hope your sleep improves soon!

@Mae: sounds like your pedi is recommending the Shuffle.. But I think doing nights first or both is usually more common than doing naps first....check out this summary for a brief description of some of the more common methods:
http://sleeplady.com/baby-sleep/sleep-training-methods-demystified/
A couple of weeks ago, we ended up doing a modified ferber, where we spaced out the checks farther than what ferber states. Our LO did better than expected, and really only the first night was hard (but not as hard as I'd thought it would be!). The following nights up to now, we haven't had to check on him because if he cries, it's short or he just fusses.
I have no experience with no cry methods but I guess I'd say that if your LO is already crying a lot anyway, you might as well let her cry during training and see how it goes? She may surprise you, like my LO did. It was hard to do, but seeing him in the morning all smiles and not angry with me made it worth it. Feel free to wall me if you have specific questions! I feel for you..... It's so hard to make the decision but once you do, it'll be worth it!

Now, if you have success with naps, please let me know! I just started a thread on that.....

we had good luck with no cry sleep solution but at 5.5 months. I personally would never swaddle wean at the same time as CIO. We found LO slept better out of the swaddle because he was shortly after able to roll on to his stomach and suck his thumb!

I'm so sorry that you're going through this! I'm going to tell you what worked for us, but remember that you have to do what's comfortable for YOU. The key is just to stay consistent with whatever method you end up going with.

We started right around 4.5 months and started with nights. We also removed the swaddle at this time too so that he could find his hands to help self soothe. We used a binky, but I'm kicking myself now since he's almost 2 and still uses it for comfort. My BFF also did CIO for naps (she watched him twice/week), and she ended up nap training him at the same time on the days she had him.

We did extinction. Going in for checks just made him escalate, so we didn't bother. My limit was 1 hour. The first night, he cried for 20 minutes and soothed himself to sleep...but then woke up at 3am screaming bloody murder. At 3:59, I was ready to go in when DH told me to give him another minute or two, and he actually settled. I don't know who was crying harder during that time...him or me!

It's sooooo hard to listen to initially. I often had to leave the house or go into the basement and put headphones on while DH had the monitor upstairs. For some reason, he tolerated it far better than I did. I have to say that consistency was our key...whenever we broke the consistency, that's when he reverted and we had to start all over again.

Wishing you lots of luck and love!

Oh, also, I think it made more sense to start with nights, not naps. The natural urge to sleep is way stronger and harder to fight at bedtime. My LO is an awesome night sleeper but nap training has been waay harder for us.

We sleep trained (Ferber) at four months. It worked really well for us in getting LO to sleep. I kept the MOTN feed until LO dropped it herself.

Like PPs mentioned, I think it's more common to train for night sleep first and then naps. Ferber's book pretty much guarantees good night sleep with his methods and then says essentially good luck with the naps. Bedtime went from a two hour walk a thon to a five minute routine in five days. Getting a crib nap took several training attempts over the course of a year.

My 2 cents...I wouldn't think about sleep training whilst there is a regression/teeth/illness/anything else going on. Even if you do go with CIO, there will most likely be regressions due to teeth/illness/travel/wonder week/it's Thursday etc. where you'll have to re-train...so if you aren't prepared to go through the crying again on subsequent occasions, maybe it's not the method for you. I would also deal with the swaddle weaning separately...maybe first?

That being said, we did extinction and it worked wonderfully for us in 1 day, tacking naps and night time together. That wasn't too bad, but the odd night of CIO we have to do every once in a while gets hard now that she's older and more aware

We didn't take the swaddle away until LO started rolling over in it. Then she preferred sleeping on her stomachs and didn't really miss it. We still use the swaddleme on her so it is secure across her chest and just leave her hands free, but I plan to stop that once winter hits and we pit her in warmer nannies (it is a PITA to take the swaddleme off for diaper changes in the night when I'm not sure she really still needs it!)