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By sleep train, do you mean to sleep through the night or something else?

@Mrs. Deer: We started last week, just a few days before my DS turned four months old, so not quite as early. We were planning on waiting until closer to five months, but he went through the 4mo regression early and suddenly none of our usual tricks (swaddling, Merlin suit, rocking) were working and sleep was a complete disaster (it was never good to begin with so that's saying a lot). I would nurse him to sleep at bedtime, and he would wake up 30-45 minutes later like clockwork. So we started Ferber just for going to sleep at bedtime and MOTN wakeups where we knew he wasn't hungry (ie an hour after he had just eaten). He took to it really well and never cried for more than 10-15 minutes. In the past few weeks he has found his thumb/fingers (never took a pacifier) and uses that plus a lovey for self-soothing. (Our ped said it was fine to have a lovey in the crib.) I'm still feeding him twice in the middle of the night, but the feedings are a lot shorter because he is doing less comfort nursing.

Hope it helps! Let me know if you have questions - I'm no expert, but we've been doing it for less than a week so everything is very fresh in my mind!

@Mrs. Deer: We sleep trained to fall asleep at 11.5 weeks. No regrets! I felt confident because he was self-soothing with his hands and I knew the bouncing just couldn't continue. We went from hours and hours on the exercise ball to a sweet little night time routine with a bath, books, and a big kiss.

I started sleep training when LO was 9 weeks. She's 3.5 months now and she is now weaned from the swaddle and since yesterday has been falling asleep on her own completely unassisted (I hope it lasts!).

I decided to sleep train early because her sleep was so crappy, multiple wakings, didn't want to be put in the crib, had to be put down after rocking until she was completely asleep, and then she would wake up an hour later. I decided to give training 3 days and if things didn't I improve, I would ditch the training and try again some other time. I think the first night wasn't too bad. But there was more crying the 2nd night, and there was still a bit of crying the 3rd night. But things started getting better every day so we just kept at it. What I decided was that I can't be afraid to hear my baby cry. So whenever she cried after a short cycle of sleep, I wait 10-15 mins before I go get her. Sometimes she'll go back to sleep and sometimes she wants to get up. I just want to give her a chance to soothe herself. When she was swaddled, I think the crying was a soothing mechanism. I think it still is even though she can suck her hand. There's usually a whimper or a cry out before she falls asleep.

@Mrs. Deer: it's all a blur but there were only a few really bad nights, but it was a while before it was no fuss at all. But once she did start falling asleep in her crib the night wake ups got a little better. I think maybe she was in the Merlin sleep suit? I really can't remember- crazy because i felt like I would never forget!

I didn't, but maybe just try and see if she falls asleep on her own in 5-10 minutes? I don't think less than 10 minutes of CIO is really sleep training... but I wouldn't let a 3 month old cry for longer than 10 minutes.

@Pumpkin Pie: nice to know you are making progress! I'm pretty much where you were with naps and can't wait to start training! I think I'm gonna try at 8 weeks..

Totally depends on the kid! With our first we sleep-trained that early using Ferber and it worked incredibly well; even at the worst he never cried/fussed for more than 15-20 minutes, and within days he could settle himself to sleep in under 5 minutes every time. It was incredibly easy - he would be furious when we first left the room, but calmed down quite quickly.

Unfortunately, this is not the case with his little brother who is now 14 weeks. He clearly isn't ready to self-soothe and will just get more and more upset. I haven't really tried to sleep train him the way I did with his older brother because my instincts just say that it's not the right thing for him.

So I guess what I'm saying is to go with your gut. And if your gut says that he is ready, I like Ferber and have also had success with the Merlin Magic Sleepsuit - it lets LO suck on his hands but muffles the startle reflex once he is actually asleep. It looks completely ridiculous (I call him the marshmallow man while he's wearing it), but hey, whatever works!

@Mrs. Deer: mine doesn't take the paci so far! I'm planning to try another brand that I have. At this point I'd love it if she takes a paci to sleep and worry about weaning later!

We did around 8 weeks I think? He had a ton of issues that I won't go into but basically he never slept and never stopped screaming no matter what we did and he was at most getting 8 hours of sleep a day. DH convinced me to try CIO bc he was crying all the time anyway so perhaps we could get him to sleep.

It was tough for a week or so especially because DS did not deal with attended CIO or shush patting or pick up/put down without losing his mind so we had to do straight CIO. Every time I started to lose my resolve DH reminded me he would cry this much anyway even if I was holding him and that it was unfair to him to let him cry and be inconsistent.

He got the hang of everything pretty quick. Once he got his naps sorted out he slept awesome at night. We realized that DS has high sleep needs but needs to be forced to sleep. Other than an awful two week wonder week and reflux related setback he's SO much better now. LO is 4 months now and so far his sleep has been good. He's on a schedule, takes 3 naps (2 hr, 90 mins, 60 mins), goes to bed around 7pm, we wake him for a feeding at 8-ish and he's asleep until 730am. He wakes up during the night lately to babble but puts himself back to sleep. When he's well rested he's a joy but even now a bad nap means he is a terror, so I don't regret training him early one bit.

@ValentineMommy: did he cry for long?

@ValentineMommy: nice! DD co sleeps fine at night tho so that's not our issue.. But it's good to know that at 5 weeks they can possibly STTN! She will be 5 weeks tomorrow (but really 4 adjusted) and she still eats twice MOTN.