Hellobee Boards

We did it at 7 months. I would go in and soothe him in any way other than feeding - but would try not to take him out of the cot if at all possible. It was 2 weeks of absolute hell - he would wake up constantly every night - but it was SO worth it as he started sttn and has done so ever since - he's now 20 months.

We did sleep training at 5 months and it went like this:

For 3 nights one parent spent the whole night in the kid's room, but out of sight (when we had to re-train at 19 months this was obviously impossible, but not an issue). You put them into the crib awake. On night 1, you could talk to them in a low voice using calming phrases (like, don't engage with them, but say "It's ok, it's time for sleeping, it's ok, night night") and shush them, and you did this continuously while they cried and every time they woke up. On night 2 you just shushed them, but still as long as they were crying, you were saying shhhh. On night 3 you shushed them but only intermittently. After that you were supposed to move outside the door and shhh them intermittently for the next few nights. Obviously B was little so he was still eating at night so I'd dream feed him at 10 and then feed him again at 4 if he woke up. I dropped the 4am feed at about 9 months when it was obvious that he didn't need it - he cried for a few minutes for a few nights and then just got used to it. I liked the sleep training method because while it was terrible hearing him cry, at least I knew he knew he wasn't alone, so while he was definitely mad, I was pretty sure that he wasn't scared.

@winniebee: we are doing cio to eliminate night feedings too. Absolute torture. We are on night #11 and there is no consistency to her wakeup times and length of crying. Last night was an hour! The night before was the first night ever she completely sttn. Two nights ago it was an hour and a half of crying until 6am and then it was time to get up. Ughhh. No advice. Just venting. @Bubbles: did you see progress every night for those 2 weeks? Because we are all over the place right now and it is discouraging.

@winniebee: what if, when/if he gets really riled up letting him cry, you give him a bottle with a little bit of water in it? so he isn't getting any calories and can feed/hold it himself?

@winniebee: Even though I don't BF, having my husband tend to her overnight was highly effective when we were doing our made up version of sleep training.

Also, when we decided to night wean from the bottle as part of the sleep training, we did the declining amount in the bottle. We only had to cut by two ounces a few times for her to get the message.

We night weaned kind of naturally around 7-8 months -DS skipped night feedings for enough nights in a row and was eating enough during the day that I was sure he didn't need them- but he had a week-long sleep regression right around 9 months. A few of my friends said they went through the same thing, all around the time that separation anxiety started. Some of our solutions:
- I cuddled his back-up lovey until the first wake-up, then DH (who took over night wakings after we night weaned) would switch it out - the scent seemed to comfort him.
- I got a little soft book to put pictures of me & DH in - he looked at it throughout the day, even when we were at work and I think it helped him make the connection that we weren't gone forever even when we weren't physically present. I got that tip from a friend who actually left one in her son's crib and he'd look at it in the MOTN.
- we put on a nightlight in his room. I think this may have been what actually worked - we had the nightlight off for so long bc he was such a distracted eater and I kind of had an "aha" moment where I turned it back on in the midst of the regression.

We night weaned at 9 months as well. Try moving the bottle earlier in the night. LO was breastfed but what finally got him to sleep through the night and not wake up wanting to nurse was to nurse half an hour before bedtime in full light. That way he didn't associate eating with sleeping. We did CIO (which was brutal) to drop the MOTN feeding at the same time but he slept through the night on day 3 and has consistently STTN (except for illness or random issue) the last year.