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it can definitely eliminate middle of the night wake ups. at that age he should be physically capable of sleeping through the night. he is waking up to eat out of habit -- he gets hungry at that time because he gets fed at that time.

we sleep trained out night feedings for both kids with great success!

@coacheswife123: yup here's a post on sleep training charlie - http://www.hellobee.com/2011/09/23/sleep-training-part-1-how-we-night-trained/

we kept a middle of the night feeding, but he dropped it on his own the first week or so.

here's the series page on sleep training:

http://www.hellobee.com/sleep-training/

With Olive it was pretty easy so I didn't really blog about it except in her monthly update here:

http://www.hellobee.com/2012/11/29/13-month-and-35-month-update/

I actually kept 2 middle of the night feedings during sleep training at 13 months. She was sick the following two months and her sleep went out the window, and we retrained at 16 months. I think I didn't keep any feedings then and just let her cry out any middle of the night wakings. It was quick but she was pretty easy to train overall.

We did cause she started waking up so much. She would do a 3 or 4 hour stretch, and then it was anywhere from 20-90mins of sleep and she was up again. The only way to get her back to sleep was nursing and couldn't put her down till she was fully asleep. Sometimes it took an hour to get her asleep. I was exhausted. She STTN prior to it.

She can now put herself asleep, she still fusses every night, but within 30 mins is out. She did a couple nights of STTN, and now she waking up 2 times a night. Last night she just fussed both times and put herself back to sleep. She has an ear infection, so I hoping once that is better she will go back to STTN. That or this is the 4 month sleep regression and before it was cause she was sick.

I did it for the motn wakeups. I nursed to sleep, and if she woke up AT ALL when we moved her into the crib. That was it, she'd scream. But I could have handled that if she was still STTN like she used to. But she had regressed to 4 and 5 wakeups a night. Not to mention that it started taking longer to get her down for bed and during the night sometimes.

I expected her to still wake up several times in the motn and I'd have to let her CIO. But she has only had one wakeup (the 1st night) where I had to let her CIO. Night 2 she slept from 8p until 430 so I fed. Last night she slept from 735 to 415. Then she went back to sleep ON HER OWN this morning and I almost fell over in shock.

It sucks hard, I'm not going to lie. But once you start it, he'll hopefully show a lot of progress quickly and that will help keep your sanity. It IS better in the long run, for them and for us, but it is really tough to hear them scream:(. I cant wait until we hit zero crying. This morning, she was laying next to me in my bed and we were cuddling and she just rolled over and went to sleep. She was awake and wasnt nursing. Then she was asleep, and I had not done anything to make her go to sleep. I cant wait until our nights are like that! Tonight is night #4. As of last night, she still screamed frantically enough to sound like a jaguar or a bobcat being skinned alive:(. I have cried the past 2nights:(

@coacheswife123: you can give it a try. now is a good age to sleep training according to the book bed timing!

you can do the ferber checks if you want, but i find that extinction works best for middle of the night.

^^^ I meant bc it's too hard to hear them scream- it's torturous and not for someone who has not been pushed totally over the edge!

@coacheswife123: I agree with @PrincessBaby: I had to be at a breaking point to do it and DH made me. While we still have issues it is much better.

We don't do checks cause it makes her more mad. I know she can go all night without eating, but if she is crying, I check on her if she is hungry. If she doesn't suck on my finger then she goes back in the crib. Last night, her 2nd wake up she was just fussy, so we didn't even go in there and within 30 mins she was finally out for the count.

@PrincessBaby: i agree -- that definitely helps!

with both charlie and olive i was at a breaking point when we sleep trained. charlie's sleep was insane at 4.5 months (10+ wakeups). When Olive was 13 months she was waking up at least twice a night, usually more (4-5). I was soooo tired. By the time we sleep trained once and for all at 16 months, I was ready to CIO!

If they had one wakeup, I would probably have just waited it out. You could just give it a try and give up if it's hard. Who knows? He may cry 10 minutes and sleep through the night from then on!

@coacheswife123: LO was already STTN, so sleep training helped us get LO to fall asleep on his own.

we used CIO primarily to get LO to fall asleep on his own at the beginning of the night. for the night feedings, he dropped to 1 on his own, and after he slept through the night a couple of times i felt like he didn't need the night feeding. so i kinda weaned him, where i went in and nursed for a shorter amount of time. it wasn't easy--he could tell it was a shorter amount of time, and i wasn't nursing him to sleep, so it broke my heart to put him back down.

then a few times he finished nursing but wasn't asleep--i was like, dude, this is not part of the bargain. i put him back in the crib awake. whenever i put him back in the crib awake, he fussed for about 15 minutes and then fell asleep. there were probably a couple of times when it went longer or i caved and went in and tried to nurse him to sleep, but otherwise he gradually dropped the night feeding.

@coacheswife123: Definitely try the 15 minute rule. It worked for us.

@coacheswife123: Let us know how it goes - good luck!

@zippylef: Agree that some babies are more dramatic...I know mine is a total Drama Baby.

@Mrs. High Heels: yeah, her room is right next to our neighbor's bedroom and even though they swear they have never heard her, it still makes me nervous to have her crying that long. i think i need to suck it up though!

@coacheswife123: When nights like that become the norm for weeks/months, that is how you get broken down!