It's been a week since we decided to sleep train! It's been a journey, but not as hard as we anticipated. Back story: We have tried sleep training in the past, once at 3 months (I think?) and once at 4 months, but we only let her cry 15 minutes at the most. We again tried around 6 months with the pick up/pick down/ferber method... she cried for 1 hour and would get hysterical every time we intervened, so we decided it wasn't time. Finally, we decided to try again and we are so glad we did! Some of the obstacles we had to overcome: she was still swaddled (yes, at 7 months!), we coslept with her, she still nursed 2-3 times on average at night. She was starting to wake up and nurse almost every 1-2 hours for a week and I finally told DH it was time to try sleep training again cuz I was getting tired!
Day 1: Nursed to bed at 9pm, asleep, woke up at 10pm, nursed, asleep, woke up at 12am. That's when we decided to start sleep training. We took off her swaddle (cold turkey). She cried for 35 minutes with dad in the queen sized bed (in guest room) until she fell asleep. Awake at 3am, dad went to lay down with her, she cried for 45 minutes until she fell back asleep. Awake at 7am for the day.
Day 2: Dad gave bottle at 8:30pm, went down at 9:15pm after crying for 3 minutes. Slept until 3am, woke up crying and I nursed her back to sleep. Left the bed at 3:30am, she woke up at 5:50am, nursed her back to sleep, then woke up at 7am.
Day 3: We were traveling a little out of town, so she fell asleep in her car car seat 7:30-8:15pm, then she woke up. Fed at 9:30pm. Slept in her car seat from 10p-12am. I nursed her to sleep when we got home. She woke up at 4:10am and soft cry for 15 minutes before she fell back asleep. Soft cry for a few seconds at 5:30am. Woke up at 7:15am.
Day 4: Bathed, fed, footed pajama, red books at 8:30pm by dad. In bed at 9:15pm, rolled around for 15 minutes, and slept. Soft cry for a few seconds around 1:30am and back to sleep. Woke up around 7am, nursed to sleep. Up for the day around 9am.
Day 5: Nursed her around 8pm, bedtime routine at 9pm, bed at 9:15pm, rolled around and slept by 9:30pm. Woke up crying at 7:15am, nursed in bed, then woke up at 8:15am for the day.
Day 6: Nursed to bed at 7:30pm. Woke up at 10:30pm, nursed, fell back asleep. Woke up at 6am, brought her into bed with me and nursed and fell back asleep. Woke up at 7:30am for the day.
Day 7: Nursed and slept around 9pm, woke up at 10pm, nursed for 10 minutes but kept popping off. Rolled round in bed and fussing for 30 minutes with dad before finally falling asleep. Woke up at 6am.
Notes: We went completely cold turkey on her swaddle since she rolls around and we would be leaving her alone in bed. We sometimes stay with her until she falls asleep and then we sneak out. Before when she coslept with us, she would stay on her back and if she rolled on her stomach, we would move her to her back. She basically dropped her middle of the night feeds since we started sleep training. Our next step is to move her to her crib because she's just barely started crawling and I'm afraid she'll crawl off the bed even though we have a guard rail (it doesn't cover every inch of bed space and it doesn't cover the foot of the bed). Also, we need to have a more consistent bed time.