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I read a lot of books...
http://www.hellobee.com/2012/01/26/sleep-training-books/

(I read most of the ones listed)

And because LO was colicky and had really bad sleeping habits, I decided that crying-it-out was going to be the best way.

We sleep-trained at 3.5 months, which is a little young, but she was breaking out of her swaddle to self-soothe by sucking on her thumb/fingers so I made an educated decision to sleep train at that point.

Good luck!

We went with CIO because the other methods did not work for us.

@hilsy85: I HIGHLY recommend "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" - it's still my go to book and LO is 19 months old! I used the same technique as Mrs. Bee - CIO with checks.

@hilsy85: How old is your LO now?

@hilsy85: read weissbluth and then do ferber (which is basically checks after 5, 10, 15 minutes. you don't need to read the book).

here is a link to how we sleep trained....

http://www.hellobee.com/2011/09/23/sleep-training-part-1-how-we-night-trained/

@hilsy85: Not sure if this will frustrate you but...

http://www.hellobee.com/2012/03/23/when-to-sleep-train/

@hilsy85: charlie was pretty easy to night train. he always stopped crying when we went in. some babies just get more hysterical when you go in though, so it's easier not to go in at all (that's the extinction method).

i know it's hard, but just remind yourself that you're doing it for him and not to him. he will become a happier, better rested baby, and sleep is so important! once you decide on a method, you just need to commit and be consistent.

we also kept one feeding during training, but charlie quickly dropped it on his own. same with olive.

@cascademom: they tend to sleep better for people other than mom and dad so maybe he will surprise you!

@hilsy85: We did extinction. The checks just irritated him more.

@hilsy85: I was part of a mom group that was led by a sleep expert and her method was CIO with checks so we did that. He was 22 weeks actual/16 weeks adjusted and my group leader felt strongly that we shouldn't do any sleep training until after 16 weeks. The first few nights were hard and I cried just as much as him, but his sleep, especially naps, got so much better after we did it. He never napped in his crib before we trained him and now we can read a couple books, sing a song and put him down and he falls asleep on his own. We kept a dream feed for a long time, 9 months, (probably longer than we needed to), but we didn't have to deal with middle of the night wake ups after he dropped all of his other night feeds.
Good luck!

@hilsy85: We said that we would try it for about 4-5 nights and that I we didn't see any improvement then we would just go back to how things were before. We decided that if he didn't improve then he wasn't ready and we would revisit it in a month or so if things were still bad. Night two was much better than the first and the third night was better than the second. Naps seem to be getting better too. After two days of him waking up after 30-40 minutes and fussing before going back to sleep, he's now been sleeping for over an hour.

@hilsy85: I know your pain. It was exactly atound this age that L started waking up every 1.5hrs and it was sooooo frustrating, especially because she had previously only been waking up once or twice at most to eat.

We did CIO. We checked on her after 5,10 and then 15 the first night but by the second night we modified it to letting her cry for 15 mins then check on her once to tell her we love her etc and then just let her CIO till she fell asleep.

The firs night was awful, she cried for an hour and a half and without DH, it would have been impossible to pull off. Over the next 7 days, the crying time reduced and eventually got down to about 5 mins or so. After 3 weeks she went down without a peep.

I didn't bother with nap training because honestly, I just couldn't face it. She sleeps 11-11.5 hours straight at night which is my top priority.

Good thread...we've been doing sleep training, but with no checks since Lo really only fusses/whines. I have not been consistent with it though so that's probably why its hit or miss with us. The problem I'm having is how do you decide which wake up to feed at? I don't have a problem with one or even 2 night feeds at her age, but how do you decide which ones to do it for? Does it confuse them if you let them cry/fuss for some wakeups at night but feed them at others? This is what has been the most confusing for me. Maybe some sleep training mamas can weigh in....

I would get the swaddle weaning and sleep training out of the way at the same time. I'd also ditch the paci for sleeping too, unless he can put it in his own mouth. You would want him to be able to have access to his hands I case he wants to suck on his thumb, fingers, or hand. We've been using the Merlin sleep suit and it has helped a lot.

We did the 'throw her in the crib and let her cry if need be' method. I guess our plan was to CIO but we never explored any other options and knew that it would probably work the best for our LO.

Mine wouldn't fall asleep anywhere but in my arms while nursing. Like some pps, normal CIO didn't work for us because he would get more pissed off and hysterical when we checked on him at the 5, 10, 15 minute intervals. We didn't go full extinction, though. I would let him cry for up to 15 minutes before going in, with wiggle room either way. If his cry was a very tired, just fighting sleep cry I'd let him go until he fell asleep. If it was a very angry, hysterical cry I'd go in sooner. Once or twice I went in early, and once or twice I let him go longer, but the bulk of the time he was asleep within 10 minutes. Of that 10 minutes he would lightly cry for a few minutes and then sort of whine.

I also paid a lot of attention to his body language via the video monitor. If he was sitting up screaming I knew he wouldn't be able to calm himself down. If he was flopped down on his tummy whining I knew it would only be a few minutes before he was out.

It's definitely not a perfect method and relies a lot on my gut and being able to read him. We're still working on it. Some nights he'll still cry for a few minutes, some nights he'll roll around and chew on his toys before falling asleep within a few minutes, and some nights he goes right to sleep with no fuss. Rarely does he throw a fit, and if he does it's usually because he's wet. Most nights he wakes up at least once (2 hours or so before he gets up for the day), and sometimes twice (unless he's teething or working on a big developmental milestone, then all bets are off).

Not a perfect method, and definitely not for everyone. I didn't read any books, and I only really know the basis of what the generally accepted methods are. I just sort of went with my gut on how to handle it, and tweaked when I needed for what worked or didn't work.