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@Alivoo01: how long did you do the CIO?

I just ask because I was in the exact same situation since my LO was 3 months old (before that, she would consistantly sleep at least 8 pm-2 am!) but it all fell apart just after she turned 3 months. I kept "waiting it out", but it never improved and she'll be 6 months this next week,

So, we finally just sleep trained the last 4 nights. I'm not ready for her to completely STTN, since her weight percentiles are still low, but we have MANY nights with 4-8 wakeups a night, and she doesn't even want to eat at all of them, she just wants to be held.

So we decided we would try the Ferber method and absolutely not pick her up until after 1 am (bedtime is at 8) when we would feed and then not again until 5. She still poops overnight pretty often which is why we chose Ferber so we could do a check and smell for poop before really letting her cry.

It's early so I want to be cautiously optimistic but she is now sleeping straight through 8-1:30 or so and then eating and going right back down and sleeping till 5:30, and then going right back down and sleeping till 7:30.

Two wakeups for us is a BREEZE compared to before. The first night was brutal, I'm not going to lie. Her first wakeup (about 9:45 pm) she just cried about 5 minutes and fell asleep so we thought it was going to be easy. We were wrong.

Her second wakeup, around 10:30, she started SCREAMING, almost immediately. I did a check at 5 minutes and honestly, she seemed to just scream louder (but at least I could smell that she hadn't pooped, I knew she wasn't hungry, so it reassured me that she was okay). She cried so hard....one of the hardest cries she's ever done in her little life. I did another check 10 min later and another check 10 min after that. She finally fell asleep 2 minutes after the last check. So she cried 27 minutes total which maybe doesn't sound so bad when you read it, but it HORRIBLE and TERRIBLE when you are experiencing it. She screamed right through the checks and I got super teary eyed, too.

Then she slept until 1:07 and I HAPPILY scooped her up to feed her. Then she slept till 6! Like...WTF. She never sleeps that long. I fed her again and she slept till 8.

2nd night she went down at 8 pm, stirred and let out about 1 minute or less of cries around 11:30 and then slept through until 2:30! I fed her. Then she slept till 5:30! I fed her again and she slept till 8 am.

3rd and 4th nights were similar. Small stirrings and maybe 1 cry here or there, but basically sleeping through from 8 pm- 1:30-2 am. Eating and going right back to sleep. Then sleeping through till 5-6 am, eating and going right back down and sleeping till we wake her for day care.

When I feel comforable with her weight gain, maybe around 8 months, I'm going to try to push out that first feed to 3-4 am which hopefully means only 1 wakeup a night and will use CIO again to do that if I have to.

Just a little encouragement!

@Alivoo01: Oh yeah, my husband is the same way actually. So he slept in our bedroom with ear plugs and I did the first three nights alone (sleeping on the couch). He agreed that we've exhausted all other options and isn't morally against sleep training, but he can't bear to hear her cry so will always take the path of least resistance.

So we both agreed it would go more smoothly if I just did it myself, because he would DEFINITELY give up after about 5 minutes of crying. It was hard not having emotional support the first night, but at least I didn't have someone undermining my efforts.

Does it immediately turn into full-blown crying? If not, I'd delay a tiny bit longer each time you go in and only pat, no picking up, talking or nursing.

My lo had a difficult time between sleep cycles right around 4 months, then he was fine.

Also do you use white noise? Because I think that really helps.

@Alivoo01: Try it! The sound is comforting and will subconsciously remind the baby that it's sleep time.

@Alivoo01: yayyy! Looks like it's starting to work a bit. Last night was night 5 (or 6? I can't even remember) and LO slept 8-2:30 without a peep before waking up. I fed her at 2:30 and she was still sleeping when I left for work at 6:45!! DH texted me and said he had to wake her at 7:30 to get her ready for day care.

She is almost 6 months old and that is the FIRST TIME IN HER LIFE she has had only 1 wakeup. Maybe we should have tried sleep training earlier.

I'm trying not to get too excited, as I know all this will disappear when she teethes, or gets sick, or etc etc. But it sure is nice right now.