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I did with my first kid - at 6 months with the Sleep Easy Solution. I'm not doing it with this baby although sometimes I wonder if I'm doing the right thing because at 9 months she wakes several times a night! But I have come to see sleep as a more develoental thing I guess!

I didnt think I would, but a lot of babies regress later on andbyou get pushed to a point you've never been before. Desperation.

My daughter slept through the night for several months early on, and I was all smug thinking sleep training was unnecessary and cruel. And then...my LO regressed BAD. I was dealing with up to 5 or 6 wakeups a night. That is not hunger or neediness, it's just hard core sleep regression. That kind of broken sleep is debilitating.

So I learned to never say never, and to not get too comfortable with a smug grin on my face because babies change their habits CONSTANTLY!!!

I have never sleep trained but I would if my LOs slept poorly! Fingers crossed!

I did by CIO when LO was 3.5 months. She had terrible sleeping habits and for us, it was the only solution. Now, she's a great sleeper!

I don't think so. I let his fuss for cry for a minute or two when he wakes up. If he continues I tend to him. He usually needs to eat and I don't feel like I should "train" that out of him.

We did no cry sleep solution a while back and it felt like a really positive team effort. He learned how to fall asleep on his own without many tears and most nights goes to sleep happily and peacefully. I like that I don't have to worry about going in or nursing an extra time "messing anything up". I wouldn't rule CIO out if in the future something changed but it was worth it to me to try other options first.

We haven't yet and so far we don't intend to. He goes down easily - but we do rock him to sleep with a bottle. But I treasure that time SO MUCH

We didn't end up having to do a lot of CIO but I think we would have. We sort of came to a decision that we would tolerate some fussing to help her put herself to sleep. She is a baby who cries a lot. She was a colicky newborn and still, as a 9 month old, cries WAY more than most babies. Even when she doesn't need anything she sometimes cries. She did not sleep for more than ten minutes at a time during the day for the first four months of her life. If we hadn't permitted a little CIO I am not sure i would have survived the last nine months. Now she takes two 2 hour naps and STTN. Hallelujah.

We used the Ferber method at 3.5 or 4 months. It got to the point where it would take me an hour or more to put him down. Now that I know he can self soothe, if he wakes up or has problems falling asleep I know it's because he's over tired or teething.

One week shy of 7 months and we haven't sleep trained and I'm hoping we won't need to! DD has been STTN with the occasional one wake up. I do rock her to sleep though which I don't mind because they are only this tiny for so long!

Nope, for the same reasons as @runsyellowlites: . Creating an environment conducive to sleep? Yes. Sleep training? No.

Not really, but kind of?

he was an awful sleeper. Up every hour, gets overtired and cranky, needs motion to sleep, etc. every night for 10.5 months. To stay up until 1-2am wasn't unheard of. We cobedded & nursed to sleep every night since that was the only way any of us was going to get any sleep.

He started sleeping in his crib at 10.5 months - he moves a LOT & we were all running out of room (plus DH was ready to have the bed back & he had a week of vacation so he could help with anything that came up).

I'll admit - The first night was awful. he was SO overtired. He cried for 13 minutes, then passed out (we were going to check on him at the 15 min mark). That was 14 days ago and now he starts every night in his crib; I put him down drowsy but awake and give him 5 minutes to settle/cry. He's usually asleep by then (and it's more of a drowsy cry than upset, if that makes sense?). If he isn't, then I take him out & try again.

if he wakes in the night, we give him 5 minutes. If he goes longer we go get him. 9/10 times he's back asleep by then. He also sleeps through the night without a peep more often than not and his bedtime has totally smoothed out; on average he's asleep by 8, 8:30 at the latest. The difference is night and day, but I wouldn't have done it sooner.

@Mrs. Jacks: I read your CIO blog aloud to my resistant DH in the waiting room of the pediatrician's office. You swayed him!

We did not CIO in any form, and I didn't follow any method other than to respond to LO's cries. We coslept, and he woke up at least once a night until he was almost 2. I don't feel it set him up for any bad habits; sleep is a biological necessity, not something you learn, in my opinion. He sleeps fine now (at nearly 3yo), but likes to have one of us rub his back as he drifts off.

I was actually injured (cosmetically, but permanently) because my parents did CIO. This was before video monitors, so my accident is perhaps less likely to happen today, but I would never do any form of CIO as a result.

@runsyellowlites: yes to all your reasons! When Miss A cries every fibre in my being needs to go to her and leaving her to cry makes me feel like shit.

@grizz: yes to this too!

I get the impression that alot of families sleep train because it's something they're told they "should" do rather than something they want to do. It also strikes me that sleep is also an adult problem rather than an infant one.

Miss A went through a pretty bad regression from six months thanks to six new teeth and lots of action and development and my life got much easier when I let go of the notion of STTN. At this point in time she's just not that kid and I'm ok with that.

We don't plan on it. LO is 5 months and overall, a really good sleeper. She is easily soothed if she does wake up and at this point we can easily tell if she's really upset because she's wet or hungry or she's just startled or making noise. She did have a 4 month sleep regression (starting at about 3.5 mos and lasting about 4 weeks) where she was up every 3 hours or so. It was rough but I think I felt less desperate because I believed her good sleep would return. I do have to say, if she was a really bad sleeper and I was delirious with lack of sleep, we may have tried something/may try some sort of training in the future. I philosophically believe it's better not to CIO/sleep train but I fully admit it isn't always that easy.

I've seen too many different babies with different needs to say I will or won't. If baby is doing fine without sleep training, I won't do it-- no one LIKES the idea of letting their tiny little baby cry all by himself even for a few minutes. But I also saw how exhausted my nephew was because he just. couldn't. sleep. My sister sleep trained him (some CIO, not sure what "method") and he was like a new baby, so much less cranky all day, such a better napper, ate better, the whole thing. He needed it even more than his parents did. So.... we shall see. But I really do pray this baby is a good sleeper. Even now I have a very hard time falling asleep and DH falls asleep literally in minutes. I hope baby gets that from him!

I always get confused by the phrase "sleep train". What does that really *mean*? Is it exclusive to the cry it out method?

My son sounds like @sorrycharlie: daughter - 3-8 wakings a night. It's pretty rough. He's never been a sleep through the night/5-6 hours baby. At 9.5 months, the sleep deprivation is getting harder! But we still don't plan on any crying it out yet.

We ARE going to change our habits to help him have better sleep habits. I really think he A) loves to be with us/snuggle and B) does know how to fall asleep when he wakes up. Our habits haven't allowed him to learn, so I'm not comfortable making him cry until we've tried to change our habits first. So maybe that is "training" as well?

@honeybear: Good reason!
@Kemma: I've been told by every parent IRL to sleep train at some point!
@mewtill: I always get confused by the general term too!

Haven't yet felt the need to, but never say never. K is 4+ months and I feel a pretty good night sleeper. I always nurse her if/when she wakes up. The only time I could see she didn't need to nurse was for swaddle-weaning when she made that obvious. If she's ever had more than 2 night wakings since she was really little (over 12 hr period), it was because she WAS hungry (growth spurts) or during our travels (and I felt nursing was more for comfort).

Now, naps are an entirely different thing. I've been reading on sleep/nap training methods and trying to just incorporate cues and consistency so far.