Sleep Training

Posted: Thu, Jul 24 2008, 4:59 pm Post subject: Sleep Training

someone out there have mercy on an exhausted mom, please!

my 4 month old wakes up every 2-3 hours all nite. I am sick and falling off my face! I need a concrete plan to train him to sleep longer periods of time at nite. (my toddler trained himself at a very young age bh! I never realized how spoiled I was!) I know many women have suggested reading various books on the subject, but I am so sick, even a walk to the library is too much for me right now, and I'm not going to get better until I can sleep for more than 3 hours without being interrupted.

so if someone wants to do a chessed; can u give me some ideas, or write out the method in those famous books?

Posted: Thu, Jul 24 2008, 5:27 pm Post subject: re: Sleep Training

this method comes from the moms on call book (momsoncall.org) but your baby may be a little old for it,

what you need:
swaddle blankets (I like the aden and anais they are lightweight and huge - adenandanais.com)
sound machine or radio

what you do:
feed baby at 6:00
do not let baby sleep longer then an hour at this point untill bed time, do not feed baby until bed time feeding
8:30 give baby bath - every night!
9:00 feed baby well - even though I nursed, I gave dd an 8 oz. bottle of formula at this point
swaddle baby, put on white noise, put baby in crib.
when baby wakes up, push off feeding her for about 15 min, stretching it every night.

the book says that babies need 3 days to get used to something. they also have a pdf book you could buy and download for ages 6-24 months which may have more practical solutions for an older baby.
if you are really desperate, they do phone consultations for $150, then they are on call for you whenever you need them.

good luck!

Posted: Thu, Jul 24 2008, 5:30 pm Post subject: re: Sleep Training

thank u so much for your response, I am going to give it a shot today!

Gold Member Joined: May 17 2007 Posts: 1400

my daughter also started waking every few hours when she was a few months (previously she had slept 6 hours straight!). I would just feed her every 3 hours and be exhausted. now I know she doesnt need to eat that often, so when she wakes up,I just put her right back to sleep (bH shes very attached to blankies and teddy bears so if I give one to her she goes right back to bed). since shes been going back to bed I assume she wasnt waking up because she was hungry and ive been able to push off feeding for 8 hrs! she still gets up a few times though, but bH every night it gets better and better.

Posted: Fri, Jul 25 2008, 9:57 am Post subject: Re: re: Sleep Training

Posted: Sun, Jul 27 2008, 3:10 am Post subject: Re: re: Sleep Training

Posted: Sun, Jul 27 2008, 3:44 am Post subject: re: Sleep Training

Can you take the baby into bed with you? I might get slammed for suggesting this, but maybe if you took a long nap together during the day or got two good nights of sleep you would have the energy/focus to think of a good schedule for you guys and a good way to slowly implement it. Also you would figure out if the sleeping issue is a real hunger thing like a growth spurt or a comfort issue. My baby is nine months and he goes through stages of sleeping through the night but when he doesn't he need to eat and has a good gain that month.
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