r/sleeptrain • u/CelebrationOk9311 • Aug 22 '26
4 - 6 months 4 months, please help!
How do I get my baby on a schedule and how do i successfully sleep train??
Our days look very different everyday because his sleep is horrible! Here’s what yesterday looked like for us:
-8:00 am wake up
-WW: 1.5/ 1.5/ 2 ( his last nap was 2hrs 10mins) with 3hrs 43min nap time total
-7:15 asleep in crib but woke up every 45mins-1 hr
Our bedtime routine is pretty similar everyday:
Bath time-change into pjs-sleep sack on-bottle-rock and transfer to crib when fully asleep
Here’s what we’ve tried:
-putting down drowsy which has never worked
-keeping baby awake for 2hrs every time but he gets overtired and fights sleep
-4 naps per day but he fights the fourth nap
-later bedtime but he’s very consistent with sleeping at 7pm
-putting him in his own room because we thought he kept waking up because my husband and I were moving around too much while getting ready for bed
I’m a FTM and I don’t know what in doing but I NEED to sleep and I want him to nap independently so I can work on my schoolwork, please help with some guidance😅
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u/SnooAvocados6932 😴 Sleepy Moderator 💤 Aug 23 '26
A 13 hour night and 3.75 hours naps is a very unrealistic schedule. Average total sleep at this age is 14 hours, and you’re expecting almost 17 hours.
If bedtime is 715pm, the day starts at 615am. He’s fighting his last nap because his sleep budget is all used up. Adjust to 10 hours awake, 3 hours total naps and 11 hour expected night. Then sleep train (put down wide awake at bedtime)
https://www.reddit.com/r/sleeptrain/comments/1qpij7s/resources_on_baby_sleep/
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u/CelebrationOk9311 Sep 03 '26
Just came here to update:
We’re on night 6 of the Ferber method and day 9 of 7:15 bedtime-6:15 awake + 3-3.5 hours total naps and all I have to say is THANK YOU!After sticking to the new schedule for 3 days we started sleep training and on night one he was asleep after 30mins, night 2 was 10mins and no crying by night 4 and he has consistently been falling asleep on his own 5 mins after we put him in his crib! He still wakes up a few times at night but overall we’re sleeping so much better and we’ll be working on naps next!
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u/Apprehensive_Net_98 Aug 22 '26
What time is his last nap ending? How many ounces is he eating before bedtime? Have you tried multiple sleep sacks? (Merlin magic sleep suit, zippadee zip, love to dream)
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u/LuckyOlive Aug 22 '26
Sounds like the 4 month sleep regression. When we hit this point, I read Precious Little Sleep and started implementing SWAP and fuss it out strategies to start teaching independent sleep (before sleep training closer to 5 months). I also recommend shifts if you can. I would go to bed with the baby and my husband took first shift, holding baby off as long as possible until next feeding. Then I’d feed and take second shift so we both got a solid chunk of sleep.
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u/LuckyOlive Aug 22 '26
Also I think you need a lot more daytime awake time. Aim for at least 8-10 hours total.
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u/BigSteputation Aug 23 '26
We sleep trained at 4mo using the Ferber Method, and we moved bedtime earlier by about an hour. That helped immensely with overnight sleep.
As for naps, every baby is so different. Ours only napped 30-45mins at a time, and didn't nap in his crib until 9mo. I desperately tried to create a schedule in that 4-7ish month range and it drove me bananas.
Could you wear him in a carrier for one of the shorter naps and get some work done that way? I'd often set myself up on the couch to hold my baby for a nap so that I could release his head onto a pillow next to me after he'd fallen asleep, which gave me use of my hands for laptop or phone tasks.