https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Wed, 06 May 2026 13:33:22 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/our-sleep-training-with-ferber-so-far#post-1968526 Tue, 02 Dec 2014 22:34:53 +0000 Mae 1968526@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Just wanted to update on how we are doing now a few weeks later. Over all I think sleep training for night has gone pretty well! Most nights she either falls asleep on her own with no crying, or falls asleep immediately after the 5 minute check. If she's overtired or worked up she may cry a little longer, but we haven't had any really rough nights since night 4. Also overnight she has done great. She's been sleeping until 610-645 in the morning and most nights I have 0 or maybe 1 (max 2) checks (haven't had her cry more than 5 min at a time overnight since night 4 either). Hope I don't jinx myself here... but just wanted to update for anyone looking for inspiration that Ferber seems to be working for us at night :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/our-sleep-training-with-ferber-so-far#post-1952506 Thu, 20 Nov 2014 13:25:16 +0000 Mae 1952506@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Penelope: so glad you are finding what works for you! I think all babies are so different with their needs. I used to be so afraid to let lo nap within 2 hrs of bedtime bc I thought she wouldn't sleep then. But she would be SO ANGRY the last hour before bed then cry when I tried to rock her. We figured out that she is so much happier and goes down way easier if she wakes up just 1 hr before bedtime (1.5 hrs before set down bc our routine is 30 min). I know it's unusual for a 6 mo to sleep so late but trial and error have shown us this is what she needs. Every baby is different! :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/our-sleep-training-with-ferber-so-far#post-1952455 Thu, 20 Nov 2014 13:07:19 +0000 Penelope 1952455@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@mae it's comforting to hear your story as we also started sleep training our 5 month old this weekend. (Similar to you I was essentially up all night holding/bouncing/nursing, essentially for the last month and a half, then hit rock bottom, I'm so sleep deprived I fell down a couple stairs carrying babyA at 5:30am (she was fine! Thank goodness-but then my husband heard us and tumbled down the entire 15 set wood staircase- not okay, concussion, bruised and banged up, luckily no broken bones...). But it could have been a lot worse. </p> <p>We started with CIO with checks (from what I read from the sleep sense guide- not night weaning though!) but she was crying for about 2 hours the first couple nights, and I was bawling my eyes out so we hired a sleep consultant- first mistake we made, we were putting her down too early!!! From her last nap she must be kept awake for a full 2.5 hours before setting her down (=longest wake time for a 5 month old, I think at 6 months is somewhere between 3-4hrs wake time at the end of the day). So the 3rd night was only 14mins, 4th night 15 mins, 5th night 30 mins (apparently nights 5, 6. 10 and 11 they regress a bit) but significantly less than 2 hours!<br /> So I thought I'd share in case she was going down too early! (Now it's the middle of the night crying I'm afraid of!). It hasn't actually been too bad 30 mins couple times but I'm supposed to expect the worst.<br /> Sleep training is HARD! But I"ve been reassured this will pay off for you and your baby"s benefit! </p> <p>Please keep posting as I'd love to hear your progress! We can do this! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/our-sleep-training-with-ferber-so-far#post-1951772 Thu, 20 Nov 2014 09:10:27 +0000 Mae 1951772@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>UPDATE: so due to illness we were not going to push training last night and were prepared to cosleep. But we thought we ought to give her a chance so we decided to put her down as usual and set a 15 min cry limit (5 min then check. 10 min then rescue) and a 1 hr total time limit to fall asleep bc sometimes she rolls around a long time and she needs her rest. Set her down, she rolled around without fussing for 30 min and fell asleep. No crying! Slept 830-615 with wakeups at 430 and 545 (both times I let her cry just 2-3 min and did a check/replaces paci and she fell right back asleep). </p> <p>So I'm thinking this really does work and the night previous was an anomaly due to illness onset prob? I think in the future we will stick with this but set shorter limits for fussing. Like I feel at this point if she isn't asleep in 2 hrs there is a problem and we need to rescue her and try again next night. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/our-sleep-training-with-ferber-so-far#post-1950915 Wed, 19 Nov 2014 14:26:02 +0000 Orchid 1950915@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mae: oh!!! Poor baby! At least you've seen how well it can work. Hope baby feels better soon! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/our-sleep-training-with-ferber-so-far#post-1950594 Wed, 19 Nov 2014 12:09:42 +0000 Mae 1950594@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@sailgrl18: turns out she's sick. Cold. :( didn't seem like it last night but she's gotten progressively worse all morning. Ugh. Poor baby. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/our-sleep-training-with-ferber-so-far#post-1950565 Wed, 19 Nov 2014 11:48:50 +0000 sailgrl18 1950565@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mae: Oh no! Hopefully it's just an extinction burst and things will get better. We had one and we just had to be consistent and not revert back so DS wouldn't get confused. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/our-sleep-training-with-ferber-so-far#post-1950283 Wed, 19 Nov 2014 09:41:39 +0000 Mae 1950283@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Leah: soooo nigh t before last was AMAZING. Put her down and she fell asleep in 9 min no crying. No wakeups. Last night? THE WORST. I know regressions happen but omfg. She never cried hard for a long time but she would cry a few min the stop for a bit then start again and just would. Not. Sleep. Took 4 hrs 15 min(!!!!!!!!!!) to fall asleep. Slept 3 hrs 15 min then awake and crying on/off for 2 hrs and I gave up and took her to bed. We are both exhausted. I am confused and disheartened. I am going to try again tonight and hope last night was a fluke but I'm not going to let it go on so long again. :( </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/our-sleep-training-with-ferber-so-far#post-1950259 Wed, 19 Nov 2014 09:31:24 +0000 Orchid 1950259@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mae: how's it going???! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/our-sleep-training-with-ferber-so-far#post-1948243 Mon, 17 Nov 2014 19:57:37 +0000 ellewoods84 1948243@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mae: she's doing pretty good! Knock on wood.....we've had a couple nights with only 1 wake up, but most nights she goes about 6-7 hours, eats, sleeps another 2-3, eats, and then another 45 min-1 hour. We havent trained to really eliminate any MOTN nursing. Does go the whole night without waking? No. But we were waking up every 45 min to 1.5 hours, like you some nights unable to even put her down, so this is a vast improvement. She also can fall asleep on her own which is HUGE since bedtime was sometimes taking upwards of 3-4 hours to just fall asleep. Naps are a whole other story though. We have not nap trained. I keep saying I am going to, but chicken out. A couple times I've tried and she just cries so much and I'm like all this crying for a nap!?! But I know eventually I have to suck it up and do it. anyways, like I said you are doing awesome!! And so is little miss! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/our-sleep-training-with-ferber-so-far#post-1948124 Mon, 17 Nov 2014 17:41:20 +0000 Mae 1948124@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@ellewoods84: how is she sleeping now? Did you end up doing nap training too? </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/our-sleep-training-with-ferber-so-far#post-1948118 Mon, 17 Nov 2014 17:37:34 +0000 ellewoods84 1948118@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Hooray!!! So glad it's working out better this time. I know it completely sucks to hear your baby cry, but you are helping her become a great sleeper! And in turn you will be a better mama when you are well rested. I will second what @Little Misters Mom said. We had a complete extinction burst around day 5 where she cried at bedtime for a LONG time and I was questioning myself and this whole stupid sleep training process, but thank god we stuck with it! You are doing a great job. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/our-sleep-training-with-ferber-so-far#post-1948101 Mon, 17 Nov 2014 17:13:20 +0000 ScarletBegonia 1948101@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Yay!! For us naps regulated themselves after we sleep trained at bedtime. Also just our son turning 6 months seemed to flip a switch in his little brain that allowed him to sleep longer than 45 min in the daytime. Good luck!!!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/our-sleep-training-with-ferber-so-far#post-1948041 Mon, 17 Nov 2014 16:20:56 +0000 Mae 1948041@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@twodoghouse: totally agree about desperation! last time we tried I wasn't desperate enough and I caved. This time I felt like it either worked or we accepted cosleeping because those were the ONLY options left. And I really really really did not want to cosleep. </p> <p>@Jass: no problem! It is also such a process. We swaddled weaned first (into a merlin suit). Then 3 weeks later we moved her into her crib in her bedroom (out of pack n play in our room). Then 2 weeks after that we did the sleep training/transition into sleep sack. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/our-sleep-training-with-ferber-so-far#post-1947967 Mon, 17 Nov 2014 15:40:48 +0000 Jass 1947967@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mae: thanks a ton for writing such a detailed post in response to my questions. Congrats and kudos to you n your babe for being strong and going with it. Your experience gives me hope and courage to get in board with sleep training. But i need to swaddle wean and move her to crib before doing sleep training. hope someday I'll be brave enough to do it. Thanks again for answering all my questions. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/our-sleep-training-with-ferber-so-far#post-1947767 Mon, 17 Nov 2014 14:37:40 +0000 Mrs. Cheesecake 1947767@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>It gets better and by the looks of it your baby is getting the hang of sleep training. We did sleep training when DS was about 5 months old and it took him a lot longer to get it. But now he is 19-months and is able to put himself back to sleep, with the exception of teething and illness. Congrats and enjoy sleeping! :happy: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/our-sleep-training-with-ferber-so-far#post-1947747 Mon, 17 Nov 2014 14:27:43 +0000 twodoghouse 1947747@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Yay!! That is awesome! When we sleep trained the first time (re-doing it now... My fault not baby's or Ferber's, haha) it was out of complete and utter desperation where I was holding both babies all night long, not sleeping more than a couple hours total in days. I truly believe in order to make sleep training work you have to be in the most terrible, exhausted condition of your life. It was the only way i'd get desperate enough to listen to the crying! Last night (first night retraining A) was like magic. She cried for 20 minutes at the beginning of the evening, then slept from 7:30-3:30. If she was a singleton i'd be SO well rested right now! Someday I'll get up the guts to retrain Blake again (I can't handle his pained crying right now from teething!) but until then, 2.5 hr stretch of sleep is better than the 45 minutes I have been getting! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/our-sleep-training-with-ferber-so-far#post-1947706 Mon, 17 Nov 2014 14:07:48 +0000 meredithNYC 1947706@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Congrats! Sleep training is nothing short of glorious, as far as I'm concerned :wink: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/our-sleep-training-with-ferber-so-far#post-1947677 Mon, 17 Nov 2014 13:57:34 +0000 Little Misters Mom 1947677@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mae: So glad to hear this is working for you! You needed some serious sleep, friend. </p> <p>Just a word of warning, if in a few nights she suddenly goes back to crying a bunch for a night or two it is just the "extinction burst." I was so frustrated when it happened, but it's normal and passed. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/our-sleep-training-with-ferber-so-far#post-1947657 Mon, 17 Nov 2014 13:48:47 +0000 loveisstrange 1947657@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mae: You may very well find that she sleeps later! Sleep begets sleep. :) Good job , mama. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/our-sleep-training-with-ferber-so-far#post-1947610 Mon, 17 Nov 2014 13:27:00 +0000 JoJoGirl 1947610@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Hahahahah &lt;3 we only harass when we know it'll help :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/our-sleep-training-with-ferber-so-far#post-1947582 Mon, 17 Nov 2014 13:17:09 +0000 blackbird 1947582@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>:wink: </p> [attach=618/14/nf744l.600x450.9d399d5c5ab981a2585b4fdfc1a395dd.jpg] https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/our-sleep-training-with-ferber-so-far#post-1947536 Mon, 17 Nov 2014 12:54:39 +0000 Mae 1947536@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@LovelyPlum: thanks :)</p> <p>@edelweiss: yes! I so wanted to know minute by minute what other ppl did. I know every baby is different but sleep training stories made me feel more prepared. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/our-sleep-training-with-ferber-so-far#post-1947526 Mon, 17 Nov 2014 12:47:21 +0000 edelweiss 1947526@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>i remember finding this kind of info so helpful when i was in the throes of sleep training. thanks for posting! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/our-sleep-training-with-ferber-so-far#post-1947522 Mon, 17 Nov 2014 12:45:43 +0000 LovelyPlum 1947522@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Gahhh, go Fia and Mama!!!!!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/our-sleep-training-with-ferber-so-far#post-1947512 Mon, 17 Nov 2014 12:41:12 +0000 Mae 1947512@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>So this is a post in response to some questions I got from @jass: but rather than wall her I thought maybe I'd just post my info here so others could share their stories too! </p> <p>Our situation, briefly: </p> <p>LO used to be a great sleeper, then she got progressively worse until last week when she refused to sleep on her own at all. The first night I sat up all night rocking her and my husband stayed home from work so I could sleep. The 2nd and 3rd nights I sat up until 4am then gave up and coslept with her (which makes me extremely nervous and uncomfortable) out of desperation because I was afraid I'd fall asleep and drop her if I kept sitting up with her. That day we had her 6 mo checkup and the doc told me to sleep train the baby or stop driving because I was becoming a hazard to myself and others with my sleep deprivation. i didn't want to start that night because she wasn't feeling well after shots, and I was too tired to sit up with her, so we coslept that night too. </p> <p>Saturday night we started sleeping training and it went like this:<br /> 8:07 put her down with a pacifier, a second pacifier by her hand, and a paci plushie (a wubbanub that you can use with any paci) for her to cuddle with. She kicked around grunting but not crying for a while.<br /> 8:20 start crying<br /> 8:25 went up for first check, gave her paci, stroked her head and told her I loved her but she needed to go to sleep now, left the room. She then just sort of kicked around for a while<br /> 8:50 started really pissed off crying<br /> 8:55 started over with check 1 bc it had been so long. went up for first (second) check, gave her paci, stroked her head and told her I loved her but she needed to go to sleep now, left the room.<br /> 9:05 went up for next check, gave her paci, stroked her head and told her I loved her but she needed to go to sleep now, left the room.<br /> 9:20 went up for next check and she had thrown up a little (not a ton, and it wasn't on her clothes just on her cheek/behind her head). I wiped her down and moved her so she wasn't near it in the crib. gave her paci, stroked her head and told her I loved her but she needed to go to sleep now, left the room.<br /> 9:20-9:59 she mostly screamed really hard and I mostly questioned my sanity. We went up 2 more times. It really sucked. I hated life and myself and stupid stupid sleeping training.<br /> 10:00 - HOLY SHIT SHE FELL ASLEEP.<br /> 10:45 - up and crying.<br /> 10:50 - went up for first check, gave her paci, stroked her head and told her I loved her but she needed to go to sleep now, left the room. She fell asleep right after<br /> 11:45 - up and crying<br /> 11:50 - went up for first check, gave her paci, stroked her head and told her I loved her but she needed to go to sleep now, left the room. Fell right back asleep<br /> 2:30- up and crying, but only for 4 minutes and fell back asleep on her own!!<br /> 4:30 - up and crying but only for 3 min and fell asleep on her own!<br /> 6am - up for the day, not crying just happily kicking around. this was her normal wake time. she did not appear traumatized, horse (I really thought she would be), nor did she appear to hate me at all. Huzzah! Babies are better people than parents are, truly. </p> <p>Night 2:<br /> 8:15 - set her down<br /> 8:30 - start crying<br /> 8:35 - went up for first check, gave her paci, stroked her head and told her I loved her but she needed to go to sleep now, left the room. Then she just kicked around without crying for a bit<br /> 8:50- flipped to her stomach (which she hates) and started crying<br /> 8:58 - stopped crying on her own but not asleep and still on her stomach.<br /> 8:58-9:10 - She kept crying for like 30 seconds then calming like she was trying to go to sleep. I wasn't sure if I should go up or not since she was still crying on and off, but it seemed like she was winding down. But since it went on for that long I decided to go up and flip her back to her back and give her her paci back. When I got up there she'd thrown up a little again (or maybe just a lot of spit up? she is a reflux baby) but it wasn't on her clothes. I think she wanted to sleep but couldn't bc the sheet was wet under her, poor baby! I flipped her over, wiped her face, moved her down in the crib, gave her her paci, told her I loved her, and left.<br /> 9:15- rolled onto her side and fell asleep!!!!!!!!!!!!<br /> 11:45- awake and crying<br /> 11:49 - stopped crying and fell back asleep on her own<br /> 4:30 - awake and crying<br /> 4:32 - stopped crying and fell right back asleep on her own<br /> 6:25 - awake for the day, 30 min later than usual!!!!!!!!! Once again she was fine and no hard feelings</p> <p>So I know we are only 2 nights in and we may still have some bumps in the road or regressions but my main feeling at this point is HOLY SHIT THIS WORKS. And I'm obviously pretty excited about it. I slept in my bed last night, with my husband, without getting out of bed even once for the baby, until 6:30am. That has not happened in MONTHS. </p> <p>We are not nap training yet because we want to make sure she is well rested at bedtime each night and not overtired. After she seems really well established with night training (1-2 weeks?) we will nap train. </p> <p>@jass: I hope I answered your questions but if not let me know!</p> <p>Eta: we swaddle weaned into the Merlin suit 1 mo before this, and night 1 of Ferber was also her first night in a sleep sack. So it was sort of a double whammy sleep training and Merlin weaning at once (but she just about figured out how to roll in Merlin so it was necessary). Also shoutout to @blackbird: and @jojogirl: who harassed me into sleep training and answered my 475 questions and talked to me the whole worst-2-hrs-ever!!!!!!!!!!!! </p>