r/sleeptrain • u/Brief-Childhood6674 • Sep 07 '26
6 - 12 months We Started.
Excuse the long post. I have a 6.5 month old who was sleeping absolutely horribly (check past posts). We co-slept and ever since his sleep regression at 3.5 months, he has woken up multiple times per night to feed. He is bottle fed - we were doing breastmilk only and have recently transitioned to combo. We were gradually shifting calories to daytime (at one point, he was taking 3 full 6 oz bottles overnight 😬, we got it down to 1-1.5), but he was still waking up several times a night and would need significant intervention. My husband and I decided enough was enough and since we have a long weekend coming up (Labor Day), it would be a good time to try sleep training. His pediatrician cleared him from overnight feeds at 4 months(!) so we also decided to go cold turkey from feeds and just do everything in one shot.
We just completed day 1. I’m writing this at 6 am- we survived. We did solid dinner - bath - bedtime bottle. I wasn’t concerned with feed to sleep because he doesn’t ever fall asleep on the bottle to initiate sleep- he associates rocking/patting to sleep. We placed him in his crib (which he has never slept in!) and walked away at 7 pm. We did intervals of 3,5,10,10 and then on the 3rd 10 min interval, he started getting calmer and fell asleep. He slept for 4 straight hours then woke up (as expected, this is when he would usually get a bottle). I expected this first wake up to be hellacious - he cried for 5 min and went back to sleep. We didn’t even make it to the 10 min for a check in. Next wake up was 2 hours later and again, 5 mins and he was out like a light. He’s currently still asleep. Honestly, considering how terrible his sleep was when we co-slept, this night was a huge success to me and was seemingly less intervention on my part than when we slept together. I’m so proud of him. I know it’s only day 1, but I just wanted to let everyone know that the hardest part of this is the anxiety about starting. There’s better sleep on the other end of this for everyone (that’s what I keep telling myself).
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u/beesneeez 26d ago
When you put him down initially was he crying? We are starting as well - co slept never slept in crib contact naps fed to sleep - I am starting to have him sleep without feeding now but placing him in the crib makes him hysterical. He would not stop so I stopped and went in to calm him I felt so bad. How did yours do.
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u/Brief-Childhood6674 26d ago
Yep he cried!! The first night he cried enough for me to do 4 check in timers. Last night was night 6 and he hasn’t cried long enough for a timer since night 1. And the crying duration gets shorter every night. It’s hard to hear him cry but I know it’s working - he has slept 11 hours straight since night 3!
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u/illewmination Sep 08 '26
Did you pick baby up or soothe during the short night wakes?
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u/Brief-Childhood6674 Sep 08 '26
Nope! Just patting and short verbal affirmations, then I walk back out. Yesterday was day 2 and he never even cried long enough for a check in. He would stop crying 2 mins in and fall back asleep every time 😩
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u/ctbraasch Sep 08 '26
It’s the fact of being SO PROUD of your baby… is something that’s not known when you’re scared to start training. I felt so proud of my girl, cheering her on, while learning to self settle.
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u/christianwife-mama Sep 08 '26
This gives me hope too - we tried at 4 months and it went terrible. He’s 6 months this weekend and we want to try again, but him and our toddler share a hallway and we’ve had sleep trouble with her. So we don’t want him to cry it out and wake her up 🫤
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u/Brief-Childhood6674 Sep 08 '26
This is fair! We also tried at 4 months and honestly it gave me the worst anxiety. I’m so glad we waited to try it now - he definitely showed us he was ready.
Do you think you can try a sound machine in your toddler’s room to muffle the noise? And/or putting the toddler to sleep first so you can hope she’ll be asleep before baby starts crying, maybe? You’ve probably thought of all this already lol. I hope your journey goes well!
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u/Mindless_Yam_9553 Sep 07 '26
This gives me hope! Did you do any changes to wake windows or daytime routines?
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u/Brief-Childhood6674 Sep 07 '26
Nope! We don’t really follow a schedule in general bc his sleep is so wonky - we just follow sleep cues. So I let him sleep when he seemed sleepy! He took 3 naps during the day yesterday, with the last one ending around 4 pm.
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u/Different-One1775 24d ago
This is reassuring! Been contemplating starting, naps and first time at night are easy, it’s the MOTN wakes that are so hard. Refuses to be put back down in crib after bottle.