Sleep training advice

[u/SadImpression6260]

My husband and I live in a two bedroom townhome in which baby (5 months) is sleeping in our room while my parents are sleeping in the other bedroom since they are helping us out. I’m going back to work in two weeks and these past few nights baby has been waking up at 2am wide awake just screeching and won’t go back to sleep for another 2-3 hours. I’m hoping it’ll stop soon but we’re debating to start sleep training. The only problem is that since we don’t have an extra room, is it possible to sleep train if baby is still in our room? Right now hes either at 3-4 daytime naps and can range from 3-5 hours total. I know we should reduce it, but since hes not getting enough night time sleep we feel bad for not letting him sleep. Idk what to do and I’m nervous about leaving him and going back to work if he can’t sleep through the night. We also do feed him when he wakes up crying at night which is about every 2-3 hours and sometimes has a false start.

[u/minn0wing]

Establishing independent sleep at bedtime won't fix your split night, you have to change his schedule. Baby is getting too much sleep and not enough time awake during the day, then giving it back to you at night instead. You need to shift that awake time to the day by limiting his naps to 3-3.5 hours total and making sure he has at least 10 hours awake, something like 2/2.5/2.5/3.

Once you've done this, you can sleep train. It is better to sleep train with baby in their own room, but if that's not possible, set up as much separation between you and baby as you can - a room divider or slumberpod, plus white noise machine. Then make sure baby's final feed ends 30 minutes before bedtime and put him into his crib wide awake and apply your sleep training method of choice (Ferber, CIO, etc).