[sherilynne]

Had anyone had success at sleep training your baby.?

I purchased the book Baby Wise , on the suggestion of a friend of mine with Trips... She has had her preemie babies sleeping all night since they were three months old... I found the book rambled on, and on and had lttle to say .... JMHO

I know there are other methods. My babies weigh 9.6 pounds and 9.15 pounds I consider them to small to sleep all night Do you thing that I am right or wrong.. They will be three months old on the 13th of June...

Looking for some advice... Sleepless here in KY still feeding every three hours...

thanks
sherilynne

[lifeworthliving]

Your babies are big, so they are hungry. Books are great, but at 3 months they aren't going to sleep all nite. Mine didn't.

[SoccerMama]

Mine started sleeping throught the night at about 4 1/2 months. I did put a small amount of cereal in his last bottle before bed-I'm not saying that made the difference b/c you never can be sure.

[mandiedq]

I had to wait until my LO was about 12 lbs. That was the magic weight for us. I think she was 5 months at that point (yes small). It probably was a combo of the age and weight. WE used "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child" as our resource. She's a great sleeper now!

[PollyS]

I used the techniques taught by the Baby Whisperer. They worked for both of my children. I began the techniques with my 1st when he was around 10 weeks old and the 2nd from day one. I'm definitely an evangelist!
Get some rest lady, you're gonna need it!

[sunshinejanie]

Every baby is so different. I don't think a one size fits all approach is good when it comes to kids. They will sleep all night when they are ready

[lhart24]

I actually slept 7.5 to 8 hours a night regularly from my third night on.... It totally depends on the child.. I was always a big sleeper and not really much into eating... LOL

and if by chance I did wake up .. it was usually only once.. and only for a few minutes to get my mid night snack..

[felix820]

I just wanted to second the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Mark Weisbluth. It was the only thing that helped cure my youngest son's sleep issues. We started doing it around 4 months old with the go-ahead given from our pediatrician first. Good luck!

[batgirlandrobin]

For me, I just figure it comes with the job description of "MOM"(getting up at night that is ;-) My oldest didn't sleep through the night until he was 18 months...that same month we added #2 to the mix and at 5 months old and 19lbs he's NOT sleeping through the night....it's hard at times but I figure if he's hungry, he needs to eat. Soon I may start him on a tiny bit of organic rice cereal...and I'm thinking I'll give it to him at night and see if that changes anything....I wonder. Hope you get more sleep soon!

[ctsunshine]

Originally Posted by felix820

I just wanted to second the book Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Mark Weisbluth. It was the only thing that helped cure my youngest son's sleep issues. We started doing it around 4 months old with the go-ahead given from our pediatrician first. Good luck!

Yes, Yes! this book is great. It is like a treatise on sleep, complete with statistics and helpful for each age range.

I also read and used the guidance in babywise and in baby whisperer. DS slept through the night -- 8 hours -- at 8 weeks (but he was also huge...10 pounds at birth, probaby 12 pounds or so at 8 weeks, I can't remember?). Hard to know how much was who he was and how much was what we did. I was and still am (at DS 20 months) VERY into DS getting his sleep, both for naps and at night.

I am also very pro breastfeeding (I know babywise is really controversial among breastfeeding mommas!) so just to put it out there, I did not put DS on a strict time schedule. Very sensitive to feeding him when he was hungry. The key emphasis of both babywise and baby whisperer is separating sleep from nursing. Nurse when baby wakes up, then "awake time", then sleep -- put baby to be awake. So baby doesn't end up needing YOU in order to fall asleep and learns to fall asleep on his/her own. DS never "cried it out", didn't need to. He just learned to sleep from his early days.

HTH...

CTSunshine

[mama2gavin]

I don't like babywise, and I don't really like sleep training. It does work better for some people though.

Here is something to think about. We as adults wake up how many times a night? Maybe 2 times to roll over? Maybe you get up to go to the bathroom? Maybe get a drink?

I know there is alot of pressure from society that a baby should be sleeping through the night by this certain age or this certain weight, but it's really not reality. Babies don't know how to just go back to sleep. They want to know where you are, they want to be near you. Maybe they need a feeding because they are thirsty.

So here is my story, Gavin never would sleep in his bassinet, so he slept with us for the first 6 months, and he would wake every 3 hours to eat. (he was BF) At 6 months I moved him to his crib in his room, and eventually he did go to waking 2 time a night, once at 1:00 and another a 5:00.

I am not going to sit here and say that I never tried the CIO method, because I bought into the whole every baby can sleep through the night at this age, and if they aren't they are waking from habit. So of course I started to think something was wrong with my baby. Why wasn't he STTN? But honestly, it never really worked for him. It made the night worse for him and me both because he was so insecure.

So now fast forward to the last month or so. Gavin is sleeping 11 hours a night. You know what did it? Him eating 3 solid meals a day, and routine. I make sure Gavin is fed a jar of baby food and oatmeal if he is still hungry 3 times a day. I also have an afternoon schedule with him. He gets a bottle and nap and 5:00pm and normally sleeps about 30-45 minutes. Then it is playtime. At 7:00 we eat dinner, at 7:30 we get a bath, and at 8:00pm we rock and he gets an 8oz bottle.

Do whatever you feel is right for you, just remember they are only little once, and there is nothing wrong with rocking and coddling you LO to sleep!

[mrslukebrown]

Well I have to say, I agree it doesn't work for everyone, but for us over here, it did. A friend recommended the Babywise & Healthy Sleep Habits and i couldn't even finish them they were SO boring, so I took the main points from them and combined it into my theory.

At around three months it was, I started getting Gavin on a routine. He was breastfed. I would put him down to bed, where he was originally going to bed at 12, he started going to bed at 9. He woke up still during the middle of the night for a while, but then all together we cut that out too. DUring the day for naps, he would wake up and then two hours after he was awake, I laid him down NO MATTER WHAT. He did about two days of crying/whimpering but then he learned how to put himself to sleep. NOW i am not goign to say its not hard hearing them cry (up to 1 hr. was my limit) but in the end I realize, life is so different.

Gavin wakes up at 6, takes a nap about 8. Then again right after lunch. Goes to bed every night between 6 & 7 and we start the whole routine over again. There is no moer fussing to sleep. No more waking up in the middle of the night. It is so great. I can honestly say, it changed my ilfe and my relationship with him. I have no one with me to help me in the middle of the night so I couldn't do it anymore and this has worked so well for us.

I encourage you to check out Baby, Pregnancy, Toddler, Baby Names, and Parenting Community - BabyCenter, if you don't already. they have a sleep forum and also you can look under the month and year your babies were born. Just a heads up, stick through it, PM me with ANY questions!!!

Take care and good luck! <3

[sherilynne]

I thank you all for your help. I felt as if I was doing something wrong by not expecting them to sleep all night.

Here is our routine. I take them for a stroller ride at 6:30 we get back between 7:30 and 7:45 I change them into night clothes and feed them at 8:00 They usually have a fussy period and at 9:00 I lay them in the crib. They sleep till 1:30 am I change and feed them and put them right back into the crib and They awake at 5:30 or 6:00 .

I feel that they are doing exceptionally well. I feed them every three hours during the day . I occasionally feed them sooner if they appear to be hungry.

I am going to order the book...

sherilynne

[mintman72]

When my first child was about 4 months, my ex-wife & I would feed him an 8oz bottle of very watered down oatmeal cereal right before bed. We had to cut the nipple of the bottle a little bit, so that the oatmeal would pass through a little easier.

Man, did he love that stuff. He would suck the bottle down in less than 10 minutes, and then he would sleep all through the night.

[mrslukebrown]

Originally Posted by sherilynne

I thank you all for your help. I felt as if I was doing something wrong by not expecting them to sleep all night.

Here is our routine. I take them for a stroller ride at 6:30 we get back between 7:30 and 7:45 I change them into night clothes and feed them at 8:00 They usually have a fussy period and at 9:00 I lay them in the crib. They sleep till 1:30 am I change and feed them and put them right back into the crib and They awake at 5:30 or 6:00 .

I feel that they are doing exceptionally well. I feed them every three hours during the day . I occasionally feed them sooner if they appear to be hungry.

I am going to order the book...

sherilynne

I thank what you're doing already sounds great! Now once they start getting a little older and you feel more comfortable you can cut out the middle of the night feedings (Gavin was down to about 1 at 6 months and now none at 8 months-- also because we switched from breast to bottle) ANYWAYS; you just go by what you are comfortable with and really it's all up to you! If you don't want to order the book, I found them all in my local library -FREE!- ANYWAY, take care and lots of luck! <3

[tootsie roll]

I realized that I don't have any answers to sleep issues any more. It seems that once I figure out what my daughter is doing, I find out I am wrong. She is 11 1/2 months old, and is still breast-feeding. She had gone through periods where she STTN, and times when she would wake several times a night.

She started walking about 3 weeks ago, and for the past month, has been waking up a few times a night. I usually ignore the first time she wakes up, but then she is usually up at about 4 am. I don't know if it is the "right" thing to do, but I usually just go in there at 4 to nurse her a little and get her back to sleep. She goes to sleep at 8 pm every night, and is up at 6:30 am every morning. I know she probably doesn't need to nurse, but I end up so exhausted the next morning if I am up listening to her cry. I have tried letting her cry it out for several nights in a row, but this time, we don't seem to be getting anywhere.

[tryingtosave23]

We used Babywise on my first born and he was sleeping through the night at 9 wks. He was a ginormous baby though. Nine pounds at birth. We had him on a great schedule. Now, my 2nd baby came along and it was totally different. She let us know real quick that she was not conforming to any schedule we wanted to put her on. She was a large baby at birth too (10 lbs) but she didn't start sleeping through the night until she was about 3 months old. It just proves that every child is different. You just have to get them on a schedule and the babies usually make that themselves. (at least my dd did) It will get easier!! HTH

[NJMom]

I would feed my twins at around 8 pm, put them to bed, wake them at 11 pm, feed them, and then they would sleep for longer through the night (until around 6:30 or 7). Good luck and don't worry, it'll happen eventually!

[ahernandez]

Please Please Please talk to your ped before you put rise or oatmeal in the bottle. In the past docs would tell you to do this but now the peds association or whatever they are called) do not recommend this (I really can't remember why) and under certain curcumstances you should do it but don't do this without talking to the doc.

I think every baby is different. My little guy (14 months) comes to bed with me around 9 or 10. Has a bottle and falls asleep. DH puts him in his crib when he comes to bed and usually my son sleeps thru the night. But if he wakes up we just take him to bed with us and he falls right to sleep, usually no crying or anything. If we try to leave him in his crib he will cry. I think he is lonely. I figure he was with me for 9 months if he wants to come hang out come on in (he is 14 months now) and part of this aproach is DH and I both work full time so we want our sleep at night nd this gives us our sleep. Plus I like DS coming to bed with me. I don't get to spend that much time with him during the day so I like our time at night.

Thats just what we do. I have tried to let him cry it out but I can only lat about 10-15 min it just breaks my heart.

[BStroh]

I think you are on the right track. Every baby is different and has different needs. My son at 2 1/2 months was waking 1-2 times in the night to feed. By 5 months I think he was sleeping through the night. He was a big eater then and still is, he is 15 months now.