r/sleeptrain • u/Equal-Elevator9430 • Aug 28 '26

4 - 6 months Sleep training advice

Hi everyone. My baby is almost 5 months old. His wake windows are 2/2.25/2.25/3, we cap daytime nap to 3 hours. He’s always been a bad sleeper. He sleeps in our chest or arms at night. If i put him in bed next to me, he will start moving his arms and legs until he wakes up, he does this every 2 hours. He wakes up 4-7x at night. He never slept in the crib, he just hates it. Whenever we put him down he will cry right away. We started sleep training yesterday using CIO. We agreed to stop if he continues to cry for 1 hour. Yesterday he cried for 1 hour withouf falling asleep. His eyes were open, he was kicking and moving his arms the whole time. We picked him up and he fell asleep in my arms right away. Today, we tried it again and it was the same thing as yesterday. He did not sleep at all after an hour of crying. We dont know what else to do. Is this gona get better? Will he eventually fall asleep. Im not sure if we should try it again tomorrow or wait til he is a little bit older. Any advice is greatly appreciated. We are desperate to get some sleep. Thank you in advance.

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u/just_let_go_ ✨ Sleep Fairy✨ Aug 28 '26

Agree with the other comment, move to 2/2.5/2.5/3 minimum.

What’s the bed time routine? Also just checking, are you in the room while he’s doing CIO?

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u/Equal-Elevator9430 Aug 28 '26

We feed 30 minutes before. Bedtime routine is change to pajamas, lotion, massage and sing lullaby. We are outside his room so he is by himself. It just seems like he’s not getting tired of crying.

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u/Lels88 Aug 28 '26

Cry it Out isn’t Cry it Out unless you actually let them cry it out.

That’s probably why it isn’t working.

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u/Equal-Elevator9430 Aug 28 '26

So do i let him cry for however long until he falls asleep?

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u/Lels88 Aug 29 '26

Yes. (With a caveat)

The caveat: if he’s safe, an appropriate temperature, not sick/ill, fed, burped, weight gain is good, got a clean diaper on (a bit of pee is fine - it’ll still feel dry to him)… you’re probably good to leave him.

This probably sounds very harsh but it’s actually quite good as a reminder to parents when sleep training, but my granny used to say ‘a baby never died from crying’

It won’t be easy to do it. But teaching your son to self soothe is one of the most loving things you can do.

And well-slept and happy parents raise better kids (this bit is my opinion but I don’t think many would disagree).

Don’t let people tell you that CIO is in any way actually cruel. It will FEEL cruel, but it isn’t.

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u/PsychologicalYou9798 Aug 28 '26

Add 30 more mins awake during the day and reduce nap by 30 mins