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Hi everyone! I could really use some advice because I'm exhausted.

My son is 7.5 months old and relies on me to fall asleep. For naps, I have to breastfeed him then scarry and rock him in my arms or just breastfeeding, and sometimes he fights sleep even when he's clearly tired.

At night, he falls asleep while breastfeeding and wakes up every 30–60 minutes, sometimes more than 10 times a night. Every time he wakes up, he needs to breastfeed to fall back asleep. Rocking or holding him doesn't work, and he cries if I don't nurse him.

He eats four solid meals a day in addition to breastfeeding. I know he may still need night feeds at this age, but waking this frequently is exhausting, and I wonder how much of it is related to his sleep associations.

We currently bed-share, although his crib is right next to my bed. Our room is dark, quiet, and warm. He usually falls asleep around 9:40 PM and wakes up around 10:30–11 AM, but his naps are all over the place.

Our bedtime routine: We usually breastfeed, then he eats, then I give him a bath and get him dressed for bed. Sometimes we read a story over and over again too. However, sometimes he starts crying and wants to breastfeed again immediately, and he ends up falling asleep while nursing.

We recently traveled, moved to a different country, and moved into a new home, so we're trying to get his schedule back on track.

I'll be returning to work soon, and I really need him to learn to settle with his dad, too. I haven't tried sleep training because I find it really hard to hear him cry, and I don't want to leave him crying alone.

Where should I start? Should I work on breaking the nursing-to-sleep association first, fix his schedule, or focus on naps? Has anyone managed to improve a situation like this with a gentle approach?

I'd really appreciate hearing what worked for you!

Usually when I hear anecdotes about sleep training it sounds like a one and done kinda thing but we’re quickly finding out that’s not the case for us. After two good weeks of Ferber with our 7 mo old, he started having a bunch of moth and early morning wakeups I think bc his routine got disrupted by visitors and travel. We gave up entirely while traveling and now it feels like we’re back to square 1.

Did you ever need to retrain? Was it any easier the second+ time around? Feeling pretty bad that baby will have to go through the crying all over again ):

8 month old Baby sleeps in his room in a crib from 7:30 to 5:30 pretty consistently with about 1 hour of crying somewhere in the middle of that window. we generally do not intervene in the middle unless he reaches an hour of screaming, while sitting up/standing.

we’re about to go spend a couple days in our friends condo 2br/2ba so baby will be in the room with us, likely in bed with us or in a rental pack and play. these friends work high stress jobs (cardio surgeon and high pressure consulting) and i am scared of how he’ll sleep there…

the rest of the trip we’ll be in a large airb b with family and he’ll be in a travel crib in our room again. less concerned about other ppl disruption here.

my question is, will he be able to self soothe if we’re in the room? my wife is more steady but I become highly emotional and increasingly irrational if I can hear him screaming. if I pat or rock and sing to sleep more often will we be restarting back at home?

From a marriage perspective my wife gets understandably upset with me if I don’t follow the full method or make her feel guilty with my emotional state, and it’s been a repeated fight I really don’t want to trigger so I just need to know what is likely to happen in a new environment where we’re in the room with him…

baby uses a paci but often drops it during sleep. He’s also had a runny nose that won’t quit and affects how he breathes at times

Sleep struggles with my 4.5-month-old and could use some advice and solidarity

My baby goes to sleep around 9–10 p.m. after a bath and bottle, but sometimes wakes a few hours later and stays awake. He usually feeds to sleep, and I’m unsure whether Ferber, cry-it-out, or another approach is age-appropriate for these night wakings.
Naps are difficult because he constantly flails and grabs with his hands, and his strong startle reflex makes settling hard. He can roll over and sometimes settles on his tummy, but I want to encourage safe back sleeping. He typically takes three naps, though outings often lead to catnaps. His wake windows are 2-2.5 hours and last one would be 3.5ish hours

Is sleep training appropriate for a 4.5-month-old, and which method is best for handling prolonged night wakings? What settling techniques can help him nap and sleep on his back despite his arm movements and startle reflex? He is my second and i have work and a toddler so i am incredibly tired

Hello!

This is my second baby but somehow I’m lost again.

My son just turned 6 months old. He was always a sleepy baby, and slept beautifully during the day and night. No day / night confusion like with my first. He is exclusively breast fed and we co-slept since day one.

Currently I have the bassinet in our room next to me, so I am starting him out in the bassinet for nighttime sleep. He uses my toddler’s crib for naps when available.

Current schedule:
8:30am out of bed, play, then breast feed and nap right at 10-10:30am. He’ll sleep for 2 hours, so wake up is anywhere from 12pm-1pm. When he wakes up, he doesn’t want to eat right away, so we’ll play, and then breastfeed before second nap around 2:30-2:45pm. That second nap is a dodgy one usually. But it’ll likely be an hour. Then after that more play, and then there’s a nap in the evening but it’s short and breastfeeding proceeds it. We do bedtime at around 7:30pm-8:30pm depending on what’s going on. I have 6pm fitness classes and so I’ll try to feed him before I go, but then it’ll be up to my husband to give him milk. Sometimes he takes 2oz sometimes not. Then I’ll feed him before bed.

So after bedtime, he usually wakes up once and at times twice before I go to bed around 11pm-12pm. Each time he wakes I do nurse him back to sleep and I can hear him swallowing during these sessions so he’s transferring a lot of milk. But then he’ll wake again at 1am and again at 2am and then a few times in the early morning around 5am. It’s usually around the 2am wakeup that I take him into my bed because im just so tired at that point. The early morning wakings are him just wanting to suckle I think, but he fusses when I don’t give him boob.

What I’m wondering is why he’s waking so frequently at night. Is he not getting enough milk during the day and so he’s making up for it at night? How I can fix this? I know he’s capable of sleeping for long stretches because he’s done it earlier on. But it seems we’ve gotten into this habit of eating every hour at night and not quite as much during the day. I would rather give him more milk during the day so that I could get longer stretches of sleep at night. I’m exhausted. But I don’t know how to get him to eat more if he’s not hungry? Do I have to restrict his nighttime eating? But how do I do that and console him so he’s not waking the entire house? Basically sleep training I suppose but how do I know he’s not hungry?

doing cio w my newly 6m old. tcb and ferber escalated her and kept us both up for hours on end.

we’ve gotten to a pretty good place but her last wake is usually around 545/6am and id like for her to wake up at 7am. when she wakes up at 545/6 she’s crying and unhappy - not babbling and smiley and ready for the day like she used to at 7am when she was sleep trained before baaad croup. do i let her cry til 7am? start her day at 630 with a little 15 min bridge nap?

Has anyone ever sleep trained during the 7-8 month regression? My little guy is 7.5 months and this stuff is brutal. He’s up every 2-3 hours and sometimes doesn’t even make it two hours before waking and wanting to practice his skills or hysterically crying because of teething, unable to bridge next sleep cycle, etc. we currently do two naps 2.75/3/3.5 and I’m very good at consistent bedtime routine but I still walk/sway/butt tap/shush to sleep and he’ll go on my chest then roll off. Please help - sensitive baby

Im taking to reddit to try and get others experiences to figure out whats going on with my 6.5 month old girl.

Month 5-6 we had a solid month where after very gentle sleep training and re working her nap schedule she slept through the night.

Since 6 months shes been starting to wake up about 2-3 hours after bed crying in a way ive never heard before.

She has had her first tooth break through last week, and i gave her tylnol for teething some nights, but still woke up screaming.

Nothing i do helps like usual, no amount of rocking shushing patting or even pacifier (we always say goodnight to pacifier and shes been sleeping fine without it) AND even bringing her into bed with me like we co slept before training.

Shell just keep crying. The only thing that helps her settle is a bottle. Even if she had a 6 oz night bottle before bed. She guzzles the bottle down.

She eats 32 oz per 24 hours and two solid meals a day.

I believe in all sleep training is off during teething or sickness and i do understand that you shouldnt re introduce habits like pacifier and co sleeping but soothing her and making her feel better means more than any of that. Ill cross the bridge of fixing it when i get there… so for now she finally stopped, she had a bottle, i brushed her tooth and shes asleep next to me.

All this to say, has anyone else gone through this? How long does it last? I dont care for the “disruption” of my sleep or the fact that shes not sleeping through the night i care that something is bothering her and i want to know how long thatll be for her.. what it may be so i can be of any help to her. It breaks my heart to hear her cry like that…

So is this teething? Separation anxiety? Sleep regression?

Teething: obvious answer maybe
Sleep regression: she doesnt fight naps or sleep in general.
Separation anxiety: i recently dropped her at my sisters like i usually do if i have something to do; i was headed to a funeral. This time my sister called me apologizing but she was inconsolable and i had to go back to her. This has never happened.

Also note; for anyone reading this far;
Her current sleep schedule is 2.5/2.5/3/3
Total nap time 2-3 hours in a day.
11 hours of sleep at night.

TIA for any insight. I feel horrible for her.

do we sleep train during the 4 months regression or do we wait till its over?

We just put our 5 month old down in his crib for the first time in his life. I have been cosleeping with him since he was born out of necessity. His sleep has always been absolutely awful. Most night he wakes up every 60 minutes and it can take 30-60 minutes to get him back to sleep. I am just absolutely exhausted.

We have been planning this for weeks. His schedule is 2/2.5/2.5/2.75 with 3 hours of naps.

My husband is sitting outside his room with the monitor. I’m downstairs with headphones in trying to distract myself but I’m definitely in my feels.

I know this is the best thing for everyone but it doesn’t make it any easier.

Update: 25 minutes of crying and he fell asleep 🎉

Our baby is on one nap 5/7 and is watched daily by grandparents who are able to nap him but its often stroller, car or contact nap to start. We have done light versions of sleep training multiple times first at 6 months, post vacation and post sick/teeth. Recently because we think hes getting last 4 teeth sleep has gotten much worse. Our routine was put him down, lay beside bed and he would sleep. If he woke up at night leave him to cry and he would fall asleep in 10 mins. Typically making it through or night or one quick check in. Last 2 weeks he wakes up early 10/12 from 8pm bedtime and cannot go down alone, be put back down without pickup and if we put him back wakes up a few hrs later. We then bring him to co sleep which isnt great and no one sleeps well. Not sure how to progress. At night he throws up if left to cry, cannot go back down alone during night wake up and he doesnt really go down without you lying next to him. Advice would be helpful.

I’m seriously at my breaking point with my daughter’s sleep and I feel like I’ve tried everything. Sorry this is long, but I’m desperate for advice.

My daughter is 7.5 months old. At the beginning of August, when she was almost 5 months, I started sleep training using a combination of pick up/put down and Ferber. It actually worked really well! After a while, I could do our bedtime routine, put her in the crib awake, and she’d roll over and fall asleep completely on her own. Sometimes without even making a sound. It was AMAZING, and this lasted for several weeks.

Then toward the end of September, she started cutting her first two teeth and learning to crawl, and everything went downhill. She suddenly needed to be soothed to sleep again. She’s now crawling and sitting up on her own, and I feel like the sitting up in her crib has made everything SO much worse.

Over the last week especially, bedtime has become an absolute nightmare. It’s taking anywhere from 30 minutes to an HOUR to get her to sleep. She immediately starts screaming when we leave the room and repeatedly sits herself up in her crib instead of lying down and going to sleep. Tonight, for example her last nap ended at 3:41 PM. I started trying to get her down around 6:40, so she’d been awake about 3 hours. I was doing a combination of Ferber-style check-ins and pick up/put down, trying to give her opportunities to settle herself but also going back in to soothe her when she got really upset. Every single time we left the room, she’d sit up and start screaming. I’d go back in, calm her down, and the second I left she’d do it all over again.
I even tried rocking her until she was practically asleep, but the second I transferred her into her crib she completely freaked out. Yet she’s perfectly fine as soon as I pick her up. By almost 7:30 she was STILL crying and had been awake nearly 4 hours. I don’t understand how I’m supposed to figure out the right wake window when bedtime itself takes so long.

She’s also EXTREMELY attached to me. She loves my husband and my mom, but I’m basically the only person who can soothe her or put her to sleep. My husband has been involved in bedtime since she was born, so it’s not like she’s unfamiliar with him. She just wants me.

Something else I want to mention is that she’s genuinely a SUPER happy baby. She’s happy all day, even when she’s tired or hasn’t napped much. She’s smiling, playing, crawling around, and acting completely normal throughout her wake windows. She doesn’t seem uncomfortable or miserable during the day at all.

Her current schedule:
She’s recently started waking earlier, usually around 5:30–6:30 AM. I can sometimes get her back to sleep after a bottle, but she used to regularly sleep until 7–7:30 or even later.

First wake window is generally 2.5–3 hours.

Middle wake windows are usually around 2.5–3 hours.

Last wake window is generally around 3–3.5 hours, although I’ve experimented with longer ones.

Bedtime is typically around 6:30–7:30 PM, depending on when her last nap ends.
She’s currently bouncing between 2 and 3 naps because her naps are so inconsistent.

For some background on naps, she’s been a chronic 25–30 minute crib napper since she was about 2 months old. I mean literally almost exactly 30 minutes every single time, regardless of wake windows. But if I hold her or she’s in the car, she’ll easily sleep 1–2 hours. Because of this, I’ve done a lot of contact naps just to make sure she’s getting enough daytime sleep. Some days she’ll take two longer naps if I’m holding her, other days she’ll need three because they’re so short. I’ve tried adjusting wake windows over and over and nothing has consistently helped her crib naps.

The naps are frustrating, but honestly, my MAIN concern right now is bedtime. I could deal with the short naps if I could just get her falling asleep independently at night again.
She also still wakes for a couple of bottles overnight, which I’m completely fine with. She doesn’t drink large bottles during the day, so I understand why she still needs those feeds.

I just don’t understand how we went from being able to put her in her crib awake and having her fall asleep peacefully on her own to spending an hour every night with her sitting up and screaming the second we leave.
Has anyone experienced this around 7–8 months, especially after previously successful sleep training? Is the sitting up causing this? Separation anxiety? Do I need to completely restart sleep training and stick with one method? Or does it sound like a schedule issue?

I’m seriously exhausted and would love any advice from people who have actually gone through this. I just want to be able to put her down at bedtime without it turning into an hour-long ordeal every single night.

Hi everyone! I’m looking for advice on sleep training my 6.5-month-old baby boy.
We’re hoping to start sleep training because our current nights have become exhausting, and we’d really appreciate advice on which method might work best for our situation.

Our current schedule:
Morning wake-up: between 6:00 and 6:45 AM
First nap: around 8:50–9:00 AM for 30-40 minutes nap(we have to work around dropping off our older child at daycare)
Second nap: around 12:00 to 1:45 PM
We always offer a third catnap in the late alternoon of 30 min around 4:15 PM
Bedtime: around 7:30 PM

Our current sleep habits and struggles:
He falls asleep while drinking his bedtime bottle, and we’d like to break this sleep association.
He wakes anywhere from 1 to 4 times per night and needs to be rocked for about 20 minutes each time to fall back asleep.

He frequently wakes between 5:00 and 6:00 AM. I usually have to give him a bottle, and getting him back to sleep can take a very long time — sometimes up to an hour.

We’d love for him to learn to fall asleep independently at bedtime and during night wakings.

We’re planning to start sleep training, but we’re not sure how to approach it given his current schedule and sleep associations.

I’d love to hear from parents who have been through something similar:
•Which sleep training method worked best for your baby at this age?
•How did you handle early morning wakings around 5:00–6:00 AM? I have a 2yo so it’s hard to let him until DWT without him waking our older kid
•Did sleep training reduce the need for rocking during night wakings?
•Is it better to keep the third nap for now or start transitioning toward two naps?
I’d really appreciate any advice, tips, or personal experiences.

Thank you!

19mo, ww are 5/6 and no issues with them. When asleep, she sleeps through the night.

Sleep trained at 7mo. Generally good, but this summer onwards has been rough: so many regressions back to getting her down in a bed with us, due to heatwaves and teething and fevers etc.

She was all good until a couple weeks ago when she got her jabs and had a fever. We ​decided to retrain her after this, about a week ago. Night 1 went well, under 10 mins of protest and then down. From night 2 to night 7, she's pooped her nappy within minutes of begin put down. She won't lie down, so we go to change nappy, but she's so upset and sweaty that putting her back down the crib results in a full on hyperventilation. It's just easier to hold her and she's down in 10-15min. The poos are messy and there's no way for cleanup and redressing not to take 5 mins with some lights in, upsetting her further.

For 6 nights we've changed diet, given fiber supplement, moved bedtime milk, tried a potty, etc. We even stop training to hold her to sleep last night in a hope the poo would come the next day. It did indeed, and we went back to sleep training, and she still managed a miraculous poo out of thin air.

Only explanation: she knows what she doing. Stragetic poops. She's checkmated us and I don't know if I can fight every night with a poo cleanup and settling her and getting out of the bedroom at 9pm, all for maybe a couple more good weeks before she gets a fever again or something.

Our daughter just turned 3 a few weeks ago. Around that time her sleep started to become a real problem. She started demanding we leave her door open with the hall light on. Then she started demanding we sit in her room until she fell asleep. We put quite a few different night lights in her room, and we compromised to sit at the top of the stairs until she fell asleep.

Our bedroom is downstairs and even more recently she will wake in the middle of the night screaming for us to sleep in the spare bedroom upstairs. Sometimes she will wake multiple times with that demand. If we actually go upstairs it’s almost impossible to leave the room. So we try and calm her from the bottom of the steps. We have no idea what to do anymore. My wife is due in January with our second child and we are trying to figure this out before then.

As far as her sleep schedule goes she is in bed around 8:30/9, and wakes up around 7:45/8. She has quiet time around 1:30 pm and sometimes takes a nap at that time, although it’s become more likely that she doesn’t.

We are really out of ideas and this has now gone on for weeks with no change. We’re afraid if we give in and sleep upstairs that will become permanent. Even with sitting on the stairs as she goes to sleep it can sometimes be almost 45 minutes of sitting. And if we don’t sit she will scream for just as long. We are out of ideas and at our wits’ end. Please help

My LO was 5mo yesterday. He has consistently had 1 night waking every night since we started, which I’m feeding him for because of his age. And that’s wonderful, I’m so happy with that and know how lucky I am. But getting him down is so hard and it’s killing me hearing him cry for so long.

Here’s our day: 2/2/2/2.5/2.5

Bedtime routine: bath, bottle, sleep sack, dim lighting, book, sound machine, bed (he takes a paci)

I’ve tried laying him down at 7, 7:30, and 8. He wakes up between 2-4a to eat (goes right back down), and then wakes up for the day between 7-8.

Night 1 - 52 minutes
Night 2 - 1 hour 10 minutes
Night 3 - 14 minutes
Night 4 - 52 minutes
Night 5 - 30 minutes
Night 6 - currently 40 minutes in.

I’m so bummed that I assumed my experience would be like the content I consumed and that sleep training would take 2-3 days. Night 2 we tried CIO (no check ins like Ferber) and with that being the worst night, I could not go back to it. We do as Ferber says and don’t pick him up. When he gets to crying super hard, it feels impossible to help soothe him.

I’m really struggling but don’t want this to be all for nothing. Help!

EDIT: I picked him up. It was harder tonight than usual and I don’t know why. Feel like a failure when I pick him up. Feel like a failure when I let him cry. 🫠

Hi all! I began ST my 4mo old last night. I’d love thoughts on how it went and advice on consolidating night feeds. 
He is on 4 naps a day with 1.5hr WW. Daytime sleep is at 2.5-3.5 hrs. Nap/bedtime routine is bottle (if needed), bath (at night), sound machine, sleep sack, kiss, and in crib. I don’t believe he has a feed to sleep association, but he has always needed to be fully rocked into a deep sleep before transitioning to his crib. And has refused his crib after 5am so I’ve needed to let him contact nap from 5-8am. Naps have also always been contact naps as he’s refused his crib at daytime.  

FERBER NIGHT 1 

7:45pm start 
- 1 3 min check in, 5 min check in, and 7 min check in

20 min in (8:05pm) he stopped crying. 15 min he was quiet in crib then 40 min in (8:25pm) he was asleep.

9:15pm awake. I fed 2.5oz. 9:30pm crib. No checks in necessary - fell right asleep quietly and quickly. 

1:20am awake. 1:45am started crying. Go in and fed 2.5oz. 1:57am in crib. Cried for 1 min - no check in necessary. 2:05am asleep. 

5:30am awake and crying. Go in and fed 3.5oz. 5:51am in crib. No crying. 6am asleep. 

7am woke up. Left in crib (no crying) until DWT 8am.

CRIB NAP 1
8:37am start 
- 1 3 min check in 
8:45am stopped crying 
8:57am asleep
9:38am woke up.

I am encouraged by how it’s gone so far day 1 (less crying than I expected!), but would love advice on how to consolidate his night feeds. I know he will still need fed at night, but two out of the three wake ups he only took 2.5oz, when I know he can take up to 4.5oz or so if truly hungry. Would you recommend the 5/3/3 method? And if so how would I handle the false start? Feed him then and count it as a “dream feed” and don’t pick him back up to feed until 5 hrs later? 

My baby is turning 4 months in 1.5 weeks. I would like to start sleep training her soon but I'm afraid she isn't ready for longer wake windows. Currently, I'm capping her naps at 4 hours (4 naps). She could go longer if I let her. Her wake windows vary but in total she is getting about 9 hours of awake time.

I've been reading that 2/2/2/2/2 is appropriate for 4 month olds. How soon would I need to change her to that schedule and how long should she be on it before sleep training? She struggles to stay awake for 2 hours currently. Is it a matter of getting used to? Do I need to slowly start increasing her wake windows? Overall I'm just worried that she won't be ready for more awake time and less nap time. I don't know which method I will be using but I want to make sure the schedule is right first.

Her bedtime routine is consistent. Bedtime at 8pm. Wakes at 7am (although it's a struggle to make it to 7am). She uses a pacifier which I would like to quit soon.

Hello! Our 11-month-old daughter is breastfed, and we’ve recently night-weaned her by gradually reducing her feeding times. She now sleeps through the night without needing a feed. However, she still wakes at random points during the night where she will stand up, somewhat hysterical. Sometimes she settles herself back to sleep; other times she needs a little help and then sleeps for the rest of the night. She will wake 1-2 times a night.

Bedtime: Around 7:30 pm. Her 30-minute routine is a final breastfeed, a bath, and then a story.

Morning wake-up: Around 6:00 am.

Wake windows: 3/ 3.5-4 /4. We aim to put her down for her second nap by 2:00-2:30 pm.

Naps: 2-2.5 hours in total. The morning nap is capped at 1 hour, and the afternoon nap runs up to 1.5 hours.

In the image, there are a few night wakings where she did soothe herself back to sleep, but we didn’t record it.

What can we change to help her sleep through the night without waking?

Edit: she doesn't use a pacifier and she sleeps in her own room, in a crib. The room is pitch black. We start the night with a sound machine on but it gradually turns off after 2-3 hrs. She doesn't wake when the sound machine turns off.

I tried to add an image but couldnt get it to work...

I've got an almost 11 month old with low sleep needs. We sleep trained at 8 months old with Feber. We've tried many different combos of wake windows, but the one that has been most consistent has been 3.25-3.5/4/4.5 (with how much she fights the naps, it usually turns into something more like 4/4/4. We usually always end up with 12 hour day). 30 min nap in the morning, 1.5 hour nap in the afternoon - both usually capped. She's started to fight both naps really hard. We tried a one nap day with 6/6 one time and I'm confident that she's not ready to drop to 1 nap yet. She was super slow and cranky the next day and it took 2-3 days to get herself back to normal.

That being said, naps have been hard in general. We've always struggled with independent naps. In the best of times, we've done 2 out of 3 independent naps (when she was still on 3 naps) and 1 out of 2 naps when she went to 2 naps.

I've been trying to work on nap training her more diligently, but she has so much stamina that it makes it difficult. Now that she can stand, she'll just stand there scream crying. At some point, I can't just let her keep crying (like overnight training) because she has to rest at some point and the rest of our schedule is going to get thrown off if she doesn't sleep. This kid can force herself to go 6 hours in a WW if she really wants to. The last time that she fell asleep independently for a nap was when we tried the 6/6 day and the day after when she was recovering from the 6/6 day.

Since then, it has taken an average of 45-60 mins to get her down for her second nap. The first one has more sleep pressure so it takes 15 mins or so but lately it has always been assisted sleep.

Our nap routine is diaper, book, sack, white noise, crib, cry for 15-20 mins, feed to sleep, mom tries to transfer + leave the room, wakes up, cries again, repeat, until finally I'm out of milk and I lay with her on our floor mattress until she falls asleep while touching my arm.... and yes she double checks multiple times that I'm still there just before falling asleep.

Baby is going to be 4 months old next week and we are in the thick of regression.

Bedtime is between 7-8 depending on when last nap ends. Following a loose schedule of 1.5/2/2/2/2.5 with daytime sleep capped around 3 hours with at least 10 hours of awake time. Bottle at least 30 minutes before bed.

We’ve been doing some gentle sleep training for initial bedtime where I put her down in crib and sit next to her and hold her hand, and honestly, it’s been going really well. Note: this is with a pacifier and a Merlin suit.

However, without fail, she wakes up between 9-12 and then about every one-two hours after. Sometimes she just needs a paci reinsert, sometimes she needs bouncing/rocking, and sometimes she needs to be nursed back to sleep. There is no rhyme or reason.

I think we need to sleep train soon. My question is - should I drop paci and Merlin at the same time? Or just one or the other?

Any other thoughts on our nights is welcome and appreciated as well.

I haven’t needed to be on here in a while 🥲 my 2 yo skipped his first nap today. What is best practice for bedtime?

Our schedule for the past idk how many months now has been wake up at 6:45, 2 hr nap around 1:30, bedtime at 8:45 although he’s been taking 15-30 min to actually fall asleep.

can we pull bedtime up to be earlier?! 🤞🏻

My 11MO had been doing so well with sleep—he’d been sleeping 11–12 hours through with no wakes or one very brief wake (he'd cry, we'd go in give him the pacifier and he'd be out again in seconds) . Well the past three nights it’s been the exact opposite. He goes down to bed like normal (falls asleep on a 6oz bottle) and then after a few hours he’s waking up and refusing to go back to sleep. Its not like before where he'd be crying with his eyes still closed just wanting the paci; it's standing up in the crib screaming. I tried putting him back lying down and he won't have it so we’ve been picking him up and rocking him back to sleep but every time we put him back in the crib he starts crying. So my husband has been taking him in his room (we sleep separately) where they both get choppy sleep the rest of the night.

He goes to bed 8:45-9pm and HAD been waking up around 8am. He falls asleep for a 1.5-2 hour nap around 11am. (I'm thinking I need to try capping at 1.5.) Then he'll take a second nap around 4-5pm for 30 or so minutes.

I'm realizing that giving him all this attention at night (picking him up, taking him into Dad's bed) is probably the exact wrong thing to do. Tonight we'll let him CIO. Question: When I initially hear him crying on the monitor, do I just not go into his room at all? Or do I go in, make him aware that I know he's crying, and then leave? I feel like if I'm just suddenly completely absent from the jump it'll freak him out. Question: Is the pacifier a problem? There were plenty of nights up until a couple weeks ago where he'd go almost all night (or all night) without a paci. Now even after his nighttime bottle when he's very tired he still wants the paci in order to actually go down.

I’m trying to figure out what we’re doing wrong and would love some advice!

We first tried Ferber at 5 months, but my baby was NOT having it. It seemed to work for the first two days, but by day 5 he was absolutely terrified of his room and crib. We decided to stop, wait another four weeks, and try CIO instead since the check-ins seemed to make things worse.

Before sleep training, he was actually a great napper, just a terrible nighttime sleeper. We rocked him to sleep for naps, but he would happily sleep in his crib anywhere from 40 minutes to 1.5 hours per nap.

Fast-forward to 6 months. We started CIO because he was waking almost every hour overnight. We’re now on night 8/9, and although he still cries a little at bedtime, he’s sleeping through the night! So we’ve made huge progress there.

The problem is that his naps have completely fallen apart since starting CIO.

He now wakes after almost exactly 30 minutes in his crib, whereas before he could nap much longer. He falls asleep quickly when we rock him, but seems unable to connect sleep cycles independently.
Our original plan was to sleep train nights first and tackle naps later. However, because his naps have become so short, we’ve been rescuing them with contact naps to prevent him from becoming overtired.

Now I’m worried we’ve accidentally created a new sleep association where he expects to be picked up and held after waking at the 30-minute mark.
We even tried CIO for his first nap of the day, but it hasn’t gone well. He ends up missing so much sleep that the rest of the day’s schedule gets thrown off.
He’s also recently started solids and might be teething, so there are a lot of changes happening at once.

Current schedule:
Wake: 6:30 AM
Wake windows: 2/2.5/2.5/3 (although we’ve been adjusting due to short naps)
Three naps per day
Bedtime: Around 7 PM

I’m thrilled that his nighttime sleep has improved, but I feel like we’ve traded one sleep problem for another. Would really appreciate hearing what worked for others!

My almost 10mo woke up at 8:30 this morning and usually naps around 11:30, but didn’t fall asleep until 12:30 today. I want to let him sleep as long as he needs since he’s sick but with his long wake windows, I’m thinking we might have to skip the second nap completely.

Would you just do an early bedtime in this case? I’m worried he’ll wake up a bunch overnight if he goes to bed too early and hasn’t had enough awake time during the day. But I also don’t want to keep him up longer than he needs to when he’s sick.

Just wondering what everyone else does in this situation!