My 3 month old has hit that phase of awareness where actually falling asleep is hard for her. Add in the fact that I have a nearly 2 year old that has no clue how to be quiet and I spend 50 % of my day on edge and shushing people. Bedtime for my youngest took 2 freaking hours last night. We did CIO for my first around 8 months but I'd like to help guide DD2 to better habits now rather than later. Any tips?
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We did CIO with checks to fall asleep and to STTN at 13 weeks with twins...also started putting them to bed way earlier. Chances are if its taking two hours to fall asleep, you've got an overtired baby. We moved bedtime from between 8 and 9 up to 6:30 and it worked wonders--good luck!
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@Eminthevalley: I put her to bed at 630 and she'd only been awake an hour and half! Usually her awake time is just an hour though so maybe I did push it too far. I just felt like 6 was way early
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do you have white noise? that might help with your older LO being too loud. Unfortunately, this is a common time for sleep problems, as you said they are just more aware! I personally feel like formal sleep training is not appropriate at 3.5 months, but I think there are a bunch of people on here who have done it! I would prob stick to the basics--strong bedtime routine, white noise, letting her get used to fussing a little (not crying, but fussing) before you go to pick her up. maybe the merlin sleep suit? I wouldn't worry too much about making bad habits--way too early to even think about that, I would just do what works now!
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@hilsy85: I'm not really comfortable with letting her cry this young and I realize this is normal for her age BUT I think it's negatively affecting my mental health and I want to feel like I'm doing something if that makes sense.
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We did Ferber (by the book, literally) for falling asleep at bedtime right at 4 months. We did a routine of: nurse, put in sleep sack, sing bedtime song (same song a few times in a row), cuddles/kisses, put in crib with lovey, turn on white noise. The first 2-3 nights, he cried for maybe 15-20 minutes (not hard, and not necessarily in a row). We never made it to the highest level of Ferber checks (makes more sense if you read that chapter of the book) because he didn't escalate. Once we sleep trained for going to sleep at bedtime, we were able to put him down awake for naps too following the same routine.
Good luck!!
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My LO is having a really hard time falling asleep lately too! We have been doing naps in the carrier in the morning and late afternoon when I am on the go with the toddler, and I put her down for a quiet nap when my toddler is having her midday nap. She hasn't been sleeping for very long at any of her naps, no matter what I do, so she's pretty darn done at 6 pm. I have been cuddling them on our bed and feeding the baby from then until bedtime until we get through this phase. Even though baby is really tired at 6, she won't go to sleep for the night before 8 or 8:30. She rests and nurses off and on and catnaps, but she isn't ready to go down for the big sleep at that time. So I just try and keep her in a cuddly and unstimulating environment.
I find the days that are the hardest is when we're not out and about and I am trying to get her down for a whole bunch of daytime naps! Even with liberal use of the TV, it's impossible to keep my toddler quiet and still enough to get the baby to go to sleep.
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@Rockies11: yes! We do better out and about but then I get nothing done at home (well I barely do when we're home lol) I can get my youngest to connect her sleep cycles and take a 2, maybe even 3 hour nap when my eldest takes her nap so at least I have that. TV won't keep my toddler quiet either. And I can't leave her alone to color and she follows me around anyway. There's no controlling the situation. Tonight I'll try just letting baby sister try to nap around 6 and put her to bed a little later than I have been. Thanks!
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We sleep trained right before 4 months. She would only go to sleep nursing for an hour. Then we would have to hold her for 20 mins before putting her down. She started waking up every 30-90 mins a night. I hit my breaking point. DH should of forced me into it but it was SO much better for all of us. We did CIO, no checks. I would only go in after 2 am to feed. Just once overnight. She had been sleeping 9 hours stretches so I knew she could do it. It was hard but I just couldn't keep up that schedule.
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@Smurfette: her night sleep isn't horrendous yet but it's stopped being as good as it was. Prior to 2 weeks ago she was sleeping 730 to 5 and then back down until 7 or 8. Now she's up around 130 or 2 and up every 1.5 hours or so after that. Things got so so bad before sleep training DD1 that I don't want that to happen again this time
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I have no tips for early sleep training but just wanted to say that if it doesn't work now, try again in a month or two. We tried Ferber somewhere between 12 and 14 weeks (I don't remember exactly) and it was a massive fail. It seemed to actually make things worse and we quickly stopped. We then waited until she was about 5 or 5.5 months old and did the exact same thing and it worked amazingly well at that point. I think she was just too young the first time around.
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We did CIO without checks because we found checks just made him hysterical. DH basically made me do it because nothing was helping my son anyway. No amount of rocking, wearing, bouncing, pacing, walking, anything kept him asleep for more than 20 minutes and DS had 4-6 hour witching hours every night. Once his reflux was well-medicated DH said if he's going to cry all the time, he might as well learn to sleep while he's at it. It was the best thing we ever did - our son is a fantastic sleeper now and we really thought he was a low sleep needs baby. Turns out he needed a lot MORE sleep!
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@Mrs. Sunshine: maybe move her last nap up? At that age mine took a catnap from about 4:00-430 and then bed at 6:30...maybe just a slightly longer wake time before the 6:30 bedtime? My memory of the nap schedule at that time is a little foggy...
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We used the book Sleep Easy Solution when we sleep trained my 5mo old. They have great advice for that age range, and it worked wonders for us, but it is a CIO method. So if you'r enot comfortable with that you may want to try the No Cry Solution book
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@lady grey: well we did CIO no checks for my oldest because us going in just pissed her off and she would be hysterical anyway but she was much older. I don't mind a little crying buy I don't like letting her get too worked up yet. I'll check both of those out!
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