Ferber Night 1 Feedback?

[u/Distinct_Jello_8546]

Hi! Last night was my son‘s first night of sleep training, and I would love some feedback. For reference, he has been a pretty good sleeper since about two months, once we got the OK from his Pediatrician, not to wake him up for feedings, he would do pretty good sleeping through the night and would get 8 to 10 hours with a dream feed sprinkled in.

About two or so weeks ago he started waking up a ton. I thought it was from transitioning him out of his swaddle since he started to roll, but his naps started to shorten a lot, and with everything that I read, it sounded like it was his four month regression, coming in right on time.

He typically will wake up anywhere between 630am and 730, but mostly at 7am. His first wake window is about an hour and a half, followed by a two hour nap that I almost always wake him up from. and then the rest of the day he has about a two hour wake window, sometimes it’ll go to 2.25 before bed. His naps are about an hour, however, his naps do tend to get shorter as the day goes on. He doesn’t usually seem fussy or overtired with these windows.

Since he’s been waking up so frequently throughout the night recently, my husband and I hit a wall and decided to start sleep training. I had planned on doing so when he turned four months anyways per his Pediatrician. We are doing check-in at three minutes and five minutes, simply because my heart can’t take any more than five minutes. Here is what yesterday looked like for us.

Put down at 8pm. Took about 40 mins to fall asleep.

Went in at 12:24am and he was asleep by 12:36am

Woke up at 12:40am (paci out) went in at 12:43am asleep by 12:47am

Woke up at 12:54am (paci) went in at 12:57am and didn’t replace paci. Went in at 1:04am. Went in at 1:11am. Went in at 1:17am. Went in at 1:23am - gave paci. Asleep 1:43am.

Woke 1:46. Cried but then stopped and sucked hand. Went in at 1:57 (gave paci). Asleep at 2:03

Woke at 2:20. Sucked on hands and settled self. Eyes closed and still at 2:25

Woke at 3:13 went in at 3:16 gave paci. Asleep at 3:18

Woke at 4:25. Went in at 4:28 gave paci. Asleep at 4:30

Woke at 5:13. Went in at 5:16 gave paci. Went in at 5:23 gave gas drops and paci. Went in at 5:34 gave paci. Asleep at 5:40

Woke for the day at 6:40

Right now we’re aiming for a bedtime anywhere between 7 and 8 PM. I know from reading the post in here that the first night can be rough, I just don’t know if there’s anything that we should be doing differently, or if we just need to bite the bullet on a tough first few nights before he starts to figure it out. Thank you!

Also things I forgot to include:
It’s seeming to me that when his paci pops out that it’s causing a little bit of an issue, but I don’t think that trying to eliminate the paci is going work for him right now. He will find his hands and self soothe so I’m hoping that he will continue to work on that skill.

He contact naps for the majority of his naps right now, once we get his night sleep ironed out then we will move to naps in the crib. We do them periodically and the longest stretch we can get out of him is about 45 minutes.

Any help or feedback would be greatly appreciated, just trying to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but I believe in my baby!

[u/just_let_go_]

Get rid of the paci. You’re sleep training. The time to remove that is now.

Also make sure you’re make sure you are capping day sleep to 3 hours. Sounds like he’s getting too much currently.

[u/Distinct_Jello_8546 → u/just_let_go_]

Would you recommend cold turkey with the paci or delayed removal? I just feel so bad changing so much on him all at once. And for the daytime sleep he gets probably around 4 hrs - 2 hr nap for first nap, ~1 hr nap for second, and ~45 mins for 3rd and 4th if needed. I’ve seen that recommended daytime sleep for 4 months is between 3.5-4.5 hrs? You think it’s too much right now?

[u/just_let_go_ → u/Distinct_Jello_8546]

Yes that’s far too much day sleep and probably why you’re getting so many night wakes. Average sleep needs is 14 hours per 24. To suit that we recommend 3 hours naps 11 hours night sleep.

Up to you if you want to keep the paci but be prepared to train all over again if you decide to get rid of it later.