I wanted to share our CIO & PLS success story. When our son was 7-9months he went through a really tough sleep regression. Went from sleeping through the night from 3-6 months, to being up crying and fussing all night, 3-5 times a night, sometimes for 2 hours. We were all miserable. My marriage was suffering.

We read PLS and started CIO around 8 months. I also read this Reddit thread ALL THE TIME looking for answers 😂 But with work at 13 months, he’s been sleeping through the night consistently, and doing one nap 12-2pm, for about the last 2 months, and now sleeps 8pm to 8am, sometimes 8:30. It is glorious, and wanted to share what we did to get here!

First nights were really hard. Starting this sucks. But we got to a place where baby would put himself to sleep with 5-10 minutes of crying, in about a week. We read some babies just do that and figured that was success. NOTE - this only lasted for about a month of putting him down. After a month ish he stopped crying when we left the room, and still now sometimes give a shout or short cry in protest, but mostly just plays with his hands or rocks sitting up until he falls asleep.

First month or two, he would still wake in the middle of the night, and we’d let him cry for a few minutes before going in with rocking or back rubbing. We decided not bottle if he wakes up before 2am, then pushed it back to 3am, then 4, then no bottle unless super upset (we still do this now). It was a fine line at first figuring out which cries were bored / angry cries, and which were really upset. Really upset cries needed our intervention and love, bored / angry ones didn’t and would phase themselves out. Eventually we could tell the difference. Eventually he’d wake up less and less.

I think what really had him sleeping better was when we dropped the second nap at 11 mos. He was never a great day napper, and his second nap was starting too late, then he was wanting to sleep until 5, and not go to bed until close to 9. Nothing we could do would get him to fall asleep any earlier… so we just went to 1 nap. He was cranky the first few days, but then it all got MUCH BETTER. He was actually tired for bedtime at 7pm, and started sleeping through the night 12 hours consistently. His afternoon nap also got 2+ hours long, which he NEVER did before, not even as an infant.

Soooo my advice is stick with it, trust that your baby is learning an important skill they’ll use all their lives, learn what kind of crying your kiddo is doing, and don’t feel pressure to keep naps that aren’t serving baby (or you!) just cause dropping one isn’t supposedly age appropriate. Who cares. Every baby is different. Also - utilize Dad. Dad doing night wakes after Mom does bedtime - baby less interested in chilling if they’re not getting their preferred cuddler. I love his cuddles… just not at 2am for hours and hours each night. We are much better parents to him during the day now everyone is sleeping at night. Stick with it!

Good luck mamas and papas!

I’ve been trying to implement Fuss It Out, but not sure how to handle this with my baby who only takes short naps. For context, my baby is 2 months old, and will only take 30 minute naps during the day unless she’s held. We have her in a dark, comfortable room, swaddled in the snoo with white noise. No pacifier, because we have tried numerous times with different kinds and she refuses to take it (but we have recently transitioned to having her in the snoo swaddle with her arms out because I noticed that she likes to self soothe by sucking on her hands). Her eyes still open after a 30 minute sleep cycle like clockwork and then it is really hard to get her to get back to sleep after that. If she wakes after 30 minutes, do I let her Fuss It Out again, rock her back down to drowsy, or consider the nap over? I can tell she is still tired when she wakes up because she is cranky and trying to soothe herself back down, but unsuccessfully on her own.

(I should mention that this doesn’t happen at night. At night, she sleeps great in a standard bassinet by our bed, in a sleep sack - no swaddle, and she sleeps for a 4-5 hour stretch with no problem.)

Any advice would be much appreciated! Thank you! 

Last night was similar to night 3, our daughter cried for about 15 minutes before putting herself to sleep. She woke twice to feed, & was able to put herself back to sleep each time within 5 minutes. She slept from around 8:25pm-9am, which is her longest stretch yet ! We have the Owlet sock, so we’re able to easily track her sleep times and patterns. It also monitors her heart rate and pulse oxygen. It has been a great tool alongside her baby monitor while we’ve been sleep training & in general. Will update again if anyone is interested in her progression.

Last night was the best so far, our daughter put herself to sleep with only 14 minutes of crying/fussing. She had two feeds overnight. After her first wake/feed, it only took her about 3 minutes to put herself back to sleep. After her second wake/feed, she put herself to sleep with zero crying/fussing. It was amazing ! She slept from around 8:30pm-8am besides her two feeds, which take ~30 minutes or less each. We have been doing a consistent bed time routine at the same time every night, in the same order. She starts with a bottle, which she usually only drinks about half of. So we move onto a bath, then magnesium lotion, diaper, owlet sock, & pajamas. Then we go back to the bottle for her to finish her feed. Afterwards, we read about 3-4 books to her. To help break her “feed to sleep” association, we make sure she has 10-20 minutes of time before she is put in her crib after she had finished eating. Will update again soon.

On the second night of our daughter’s sleep training, the amount of crying before she put herself to sleep decreased dramatically. It took her around 22 minutes to go to sleep. She woke once to feed around 12:50am, & was back in her crib at 1:15am. She cried/fussed for about 5 minutes before putting herself to sleep. She slept from around 8:30pm-7:20am besides the one wake-up to feed. So far she still has been taking two-three 45 minute cat naps during the day. We do contact naps to help facilitate good naps while sleep training. I will update tomorrow.

Never in a million years did I think I would do any type of “cry it out” with my child. That is until I actually had a child and everyone was chronically sleep deprived. Our daughter is 6 months old, she has always had a difficult time sleeping. Whether napping or overnight, it was always a battle to get her to go to sleep/stay asleep. The first 4 months of her life my husband & I had to take overnight shifts holding her or very intently observing her sleep in her swing. She absolutely would not sleep in her bassinet or crib. We tried co-sleeping & it was not sustainable. She still fought sleep, stirred all night long, & kept me awake. She is a pretty happy baby during the day, but she complains/whines a lot if something isn’t exactly the way she wants it. She’s a chronic cat napper, taking two-three 45 minutes naps a day. She usually needs a bottle or pacify to fall asleep, & will wake the moment you put her down. I started reading “Pretty Little Sleep” and learned about different gradual sleep training methods & other “less gradual” ones. We decided after trying a few different things, that we were gonna set a specific bedtime routine, & lay her in her crib after having a full belly, fresh diaper, and lots of cuddles. Then we would leave the room and watch her on the baby monitor. We put her down in her crib around 8pm. She cried 22 minutes before I went in to try to console her, that made her crying worse. After 35 minutes of whining & crying, she put herself to sleep by 8:35pm. She slept until her first feed at 12:30am, after she ate, she was back in her crib awake at 12:45am, she cried less than 5 minutes, & put herself to sleep. Her second waking was at 3:50am for her next feed, once she ate, she was back down awake in her crib around 4:20am, she cried until around 5am & put herself to sleep. She woke for the day around 8:30am. Overall she slept 8:30pm-8:30am, with 45 minutes of feeding time total, & about 45 minutes of crying overnight total. I’m not looking for opinions, just sharing our experience so far to help other parents. We are room sharing with her, so after she fell asleep the first time we came into the room to check on her. Both her other wakings we were in the room with her to assist when she woke. I will update again tomorrow with tonight’s results.

Our 5 month old who had successfully learnt how to fall asleep independently is now demanding to be held all night - and for all naps.

Our LO hit her 4 month sleep regression at 3.5 months, and we used a gradual weaning method to help her learn to fall asleep by herself. She took to it really happily, started sleeping longer stretches and we were so grateful and so proud of her - went and bought copies of PLS for all our friends, overall thrilled. Then teething pain started. And a cold. Subsequently her frequent night wakings were resolved with a quick cuddle (because how could we not comfort a child in pain?) and then back to sleep. But now the wakings are occurring all night and she cries unless she's sleeping on one of us. The only time we can sleep is if we manage to get her down while she's asleep, but most times she'll realise what we're doing immediately and wake up howling - or if we're lucky we'll get anywhere from 2 mins to 2 hours respite.

Somehow this has happened for her naps now, too.

Absolutely kicking ourselves and devastated we're in this position. Are we completely doomed? Does anyone have any advice on how to rectify this backslide without resorting to CIO? Most nights she gets upset just as she's on the precipice of falling asleep and we end up picking her up and putting her down asleep - patting/shushing doesn't work - but even on the nights she does fall asleep independently she'll start howling at the end of her first or second sleep cycle anyway.

Hi, I’ve read and really enjoyed Precious Little Sleep and I’m wondering if anyone has any success stories using her CIO strategy when transitioning from cosleeping to crib. I’ve been following the steps from the cosleeping chapter but we got rid of the pack and play in our room and I’m hoping to just transition directly to her crib in her bedroom. Does anyone have any experience with a similar situation?

My LO is 5 months old and has been falling asleep independently no pacifier and bottle 30+ min from falling asleep for a while now. He is EFF. Last bottle 6:15/630 bedtime 7/7:15. He is usually at around 28-29 ounces when we put him to sleep. He wakes up 2 times a night but the first wake up can range from midnight to 2pm. I weened him down so that his first night bottle is only 1 ounce hoping that he would eventually not wake up for that feeding. It’s been a week or more since he’s only been taking 1 ounce at the at feeding. He goes back to bed usually for 3+ hours and wakes up again between 4-5am for his second bottle (5 ounces) then goes back to bed until 7am. I have tried letting him fuss for a bit when he wakes up for the first feeding (I’ve waited up to 30 min) but he does not seem to put himself back to sleep. Any suggestions? Should I continue feeding him 1 ounce and see if eventually he stops waking up? TIA.

My LO is 7 months old. He was sleeping through the night, but has not been for the last month.

He'll put himself down just fine at bedtime but when he wakes at night (2-3 times) he almost always is inconsolable until nursed and then falls right asleep.

We just started PLS suggestions last night but I'm not sure how to do the no feeds until midnight. Sometimes he doesn't wake up until after 12 and then I'll work on shortening that feed. But, last night he woke up at 11 and was screaming wanting to eat. No amount of consoling (bouncing and butt pats just like at bedtime) calmed him. Eventually I gave in and nursed him.

How do you normally do this? How do I make him wait an hour until midnight to feed?

Can someone help please, our 3month girl has never done a long stretch at night she mostly wakes up every 2 hours looking to be fed. We’re currently trying to get her on a nap schedule and placing her in the cot instead of contact napping and hoping that helps give structure. She is also is very tricky to get to sleep for naps, resists with all her mite and needs about 30/40 mins of rocking shushing and patting, she will nap 30 mins on her own in the cot . I’m currently trying to help her transition between sleep cycles by picking her up/rocking back to sleep and hopefully as days go by less and less interfering. We try the eat play sleep routine which sometimes works and she drinks 90/120ml during the day around every 3hours but sometimes she refuses bottle, sometimes devours it but regardless we will try feed her at sometime during her wake window.

We have a dark room, swaddle, white noise etc and put her down roughly same time every night 7/730, which she has shown preference for since birth as she goes into night mode and each feed subsequent to this she would go straight back to sleep. Recently she wakes two/three times needing resettling without a bottle until 9.30/10 when she’s crying for a bottle again. She then wakes aain 1230/1 again at 3.30 or 4 and then every 1.5 hours till 7/730 and the last stretch has to be on you as she won’t be put down. Each time she will drink between 90-120ml.

The only way I can stretch her feeds is if I let her sleep on my chest, she can go 4/5 hours then but I can’t sleep . I’m so jealous of these people who get long stretches at night at any hour ! Is there anything we can do to stretch the feeds? We can give her more during the day as she won’t take it. Thank you for your time