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@LindsayInNY: Do you have Ferber's book? I found the book very helpful, even though I only read the first couple paragraphs. He also has a chart in there of suggested time frames to wait.

With the caveat that there's nothing that works for every kid, I have to say we used his method exactly as outlined in the book and it worked so well. We did it at about 5 months. DD was waking up like 5 or 6 times a night and she dropped down to once a night and was able to fall asleep by herself when we put her in her crib. The first night was rough for me - I drank wine and watched Parenthood on Netflix. But by the second night, she had already improved and by 4 days in she was down to one waking to feed in the night.

We did Ferber by the book right at 4 months, just for falling asleep (not MOTN feedings), and it worked like a charm. I highly, highly recommend reading the book - I just checked my copy of the book and the key pages are 72-75.

We started early because his sleep was absolutely atrocious and rocking, swaddling, etc. stopped working. We also noticed (on a long overnight car trip) that he was started to suck his thumb and use a lovey to self-soothe, so it seemed like a good time to try. Basically, he was crying even through our attempts to soothe, so we figured we might as well try Ferber. For us, it worked in about 3 nights - the first night there was about 10-15 minutes of crying during the first hour of the night, but otherwise he never got past the first "interval" for checks. DH was really strict about it - if he calmed down, we restarted the timer. I have to say that DS is generally pretty easy-going and not much of a crier, so it wasn't too challenging. The first three nights I went out and walked the dog while DH manned the checks and monitor. If you have any anxiety I definitely recommend having your DH take over for a bit while you get out of the house or take a bath or something.

The key for us was moving the feeding portion of the bedtime routine just slightly earlier - so, I would nurse him, then we'd put him in his sleep sack (enough to wake him up even if he'd dozed off), then sing a song (same song every night to create routine), turn on white noise and put in crib. We also gave him a lovey which really worked for soothing.

As far as how it improved things, here's part of what I said in a different thread (when he was about 5 months old; he's now 15 months old and still a great sleeper):
"He goes down awake now and we've also been able to put him down earlier successfully. Before we sleep trained, he would not go to sleep before 8 or 8:30 and would often wake back up within 30 minutes of being put down. Now he goes to sleep at 7:15-7:30 every night. We reduced MOTN wakings and he can put himself back to sleep if he does wake up (not to eat). MOTN feedings have shortened in length pretty significantly. And his napping has mostly improved, and we can put him down awake for naps too. (We weren't planning on nap training but it inadvertently worked.)"

I'm another one where checks only made her angrier. And like @gingerbebe: my DH said if she was going to cry anyway, she may as well cry while getting used to going to sleep on her own rather than cry while we rocked and bounced her. But I still read the Ferber book (well, parts, I was really sleep deprived!). We did it a little before 4 months when everything else stopped working.

We only did it for falling asleep, not for motn wake ups. Hers weren't too bad (once or twice most nights) and trying CIO for them was just a fail for us. She ended up sttn at 9 months on her own.

We did our own mashed up version of this near 4.5 months. Shushing and patting during checks. I think I started with naps. Though the older she got patting made her mad and we picked her up for a very brief period only. She now goes to sleep for all naps and night sleep totally awake. She's out in less than 5 min; rarely is it 10 min. Sometimes she cries a little or babbles, maybe 2x/ month it is brief screaming but it is over by the time I pour myself a glass on wine. Ha. Both of our families are shocked when we put her down awake and walk out, but by the end of the day they are in total awe like "wow I can't believe she just....goes to sleep! It's incredible!!" Yeah yeah well it was heinous before we got to this point, so yeah. But it is such a stress relief to not have to work to get her to sleep every night.

@Littlebit7: Same here with people being shocked that I just plop him in the crib and walk away. I've had a few babysitters, a nanny, and friends all stare at me in disbelief when I walk back out of the room in under 2 mins.

We did a modified Ferber at around 4 months for going to bed only, and it worked great. It was modified b/c we stretched out the check intervals since we thought the ones recommended by Ferber were too close and might piss LO off more. He cried 40 min the first night, much less the second, and very little the third.
Of course, now I'm in 18 month regression hell and we've had to go extinction CIO because when we tried checking it was ugly.

@LindsayInNY: She may want to though now that you are back to work.

We couldn't do checks and didn't want to do elimination. We just let them fuss/cry for a bit and then went in and rocked them to sleep. It was enough to get him to realize it was bedtime and then he would calmly fall asleep.

@LindsayInNY: It can be tricky to gauge whether LO needs MOTN feedings or just wants them. What worked for us was when we transitioned to the crib, sleep/nap trained, and transitioned from miracle blanket to Merlin suit (did this all at once), every time she woke up at night DH would go in there and replace her pacifier and pat her and then leave and wait a few minutes to see if she would self-soothe. Every time, she fussed quietly for a minute and then went back to sleep. So we concluded she wasn't really in need of those feedings and stopped going into the room when she woke. That has worked well ever since, and now we don't turn the monitor on at night so we only hear her if she's really upset and in need of us. (So we aren't waking at every little peep).

@LindsayInNY: Yea, I was just trying to say that I get that she may not HAVE to but you never know that her needs may have changed. She may be going through a growth spurt. Or developmental change. Or changes from now being in daycare. I just think its hard to say just because they did it before that they may not NEED to do to it now.

@LindsayInNY: Does she really eat with enthusiasm when you feed her? Are the wakeups spaced apart to where she might be hungry (>3 hours?)

We did CIO for falling asleep at 4 months for both kids and it worked well. DS is almost 6 months and has totally regressed due to teething and an ear infection but we're looking forward to doing it again.

My time limit was an hour. I figured if he kept it up that long he probably needed a snack.

@kiddosc: ditto - sleep training for us wasn't to eliminate 100% but to get it down to 1-2 - DS was waking every 2 hours so only waking 1-2 times was heaven to me!

@LindsayInNY: Yeah, it's hard. I have one who needed me to not give in ever ever ever and one who is more go with the flow and won't cry forever because of being fed once one night. Little stinkers. You're doing a great job.

We didn't do middle of the nights this way with DS, but it took him weeks to learn to fall asleep without crying. Ok, I know you don't want to hear that, but here is the good news: now he goes to bed cheerfully, he loves his bed, sometimes he asks for nap when he's tired. And if htruly needs us in the middle of the night he does call for us, so it's not like he's been trained to just go be quiet in his bed all night.