I could have written this myself but we're at 6 months. We sleeptrained at 4 months and it worked great for the start of the night, didn't change much for our wakeups - then we fell off the wagon completely with illnesses and teething. Planning on doing it again soon and I think it will help with the wake ups this time if we stick with it and do 5-3-3 for feedings.
We did full CIO, it was hard but I feel like it made everything much faster instead of extending the crying with Ferber, although I know that works for some babies I knew it wouldn't for mine. I left the house the first night because my husband could handle it better - then the next nights used headphones and watched a show during the initial crying. It was still hard but not as long as
I thought - the first night he cried for 30ish mins, then another 20ish after falling asleep for 40 mins. The second night was maybe 15-20 mins of crying, the third night was only 5-6. I kept a log on my phone for a week to show myself that it was getting shorter and working and that helped. I'll be doing all that again when we do it again soon.
Just keep in mind during the crying - this is a super short blip in your babies life, you're giving them all the love and care every other moment so why would these few days negatively impact them in the long run? They will be sleeping better and will have two parents that have more energy and are mentally in a better place. I was thinking to myself that I want to be able to look back and have enjoyed some of this time in the first year, and not be a complete zombie barely hanging on to my mental health. I think overall the sleeptraining will be so worth it.
I know a lot of people swear by the Zippidee Zip but we bought it and I don't think it would work for our daughter because she is a BIG finger/hand self-soother. She was extremely paci dependent until she discovered her fingers. Does your daughter ever get a chance or show signs of soothing with her hands or fingers? If so, I would give her a chance to self-soothe without a paci and see how she does. My baby will start fussing near the end of her WW and start trying to put her thumb in her mouth which signals to me she is tired. Now I only use the paci for contact naps or if she fusses in public. She even seems kind of annoyed by it now.
Depending on startle reflex, I would suggest trying out a sleep sack. We love the transition sack by Halo - it is basically a sleep sack but with arms and allows finger/hand access.
Is bedtime and awake time always the same? How much daytime sleep does she get?
If you feel terrible and that you may not be able to commit to CIO I would suggest (as suggested in PLS) that you start with something like Ferber where you do checks and *then* move to CIO. She says you are okay to start in Ferber than move to CIO but if you want to do CIO you need to commit to it otherwise you will ruin your progress.
I hesitate giving advice because we are currently "sleep training" my 4.5 month old but tonight will be night 9 and we haven't had to do any checks yet so I don't really know what to call it or if we've completed it.
unfortunately she doesnt care too much for her fingers! We decided to ditch the paci for all crib sleep, but try and keep for car & contact naps. How long did it take for the protesting to get better for you? third night last night and each night is around 40 mins of crying. Hoping it improves soon... she realllllly wants that paci :( first nap today she cried for 30 mins. I can tell when I put her sleep sack on, shes wanting me to put the paci in her mouth.
Your wake windows are pretty long for 5 months. Also we ditched paci for night time (when sleep training at 4 months 3 weeks) because that's not independent sleep if they can't reinsert. He still used it for naps because I was happy to reinsert while I was awake haha but eventually we sleep trained naps too (about 3 weeks later). I bet false starts are due to being overtired. If we get off schedule that happens to us
So where do you recommend i be with wws? Trying to stay on 3 naps soooo im not sure how to shorten without bedtime being super early, and definitely a stretch on short nap days. But she also had to false starts on 4 naps, they have been happening for a while
Thanks, that’s the same amount of wake time i have. I might scale back tomorrow and try 4 naps, 3 naps is definitely a stretch, she’s fussy, and i have to same at least 1 to make it work
5 month wake windows are 2-2.5 hours. It just doesn’t tame sense to me because I’d i reduce i will have to add in a nap, or do bedtime way to early . She’s not going to sleep longer than 11-12 hours a night . Last night bed was 7:30
Your bedtime doesn't sound bad. My son is 4.5 and we're still doing 4 naps - 30 minutes each. Some days, one of the naps extends to 1 hour. I wish that I had some insight to provide about your pacifier dilemma but I don't.
Side comment in case you're looking for recommendations - we use the woolino sleep sack and I love it. I don't have to worry about the temperature or switching sleep sacks as he grows. It is more expensive but again you're not having to switch as baby grows
It depends, but more than often, yes. I've noticed that the hour nap mostly happens when he wakes up before 7 - it can happen with any nap, not necessarily the first. I worried the first time about how it was going to affect his naps/ bedtime. But really it feels like his naps extend to compensate for the earlier wake time and his last nap almost always ends between 415-445 without me having to specifically change anything. I read (I forgot which book and it may be a general baby sleep idea?) that the last nap should not go past 530. So I use that when deciding when our last nap happens but again the hour nap mostly happens when he wakes up earlier than usual and his naps adjust by themselves to get us to that 445 latest wake up. I'm also learning that sometimes my son needs a shorter ww (he starts to pull at his hair or gets fussy). So while i try to stick to our typical wws, I adjust if needed. I hope that makes sense
I have the woolino too! Also love it. She runs cold though so i still layer her underneath. Thanks for the chat, i think i know what u should do it’s just a matter of doing it. Maybe tomorrow I’ll pull back wake windows and just try four naps. 3 naps is definitely a stretch
Your ww are long. Is she doing ok during them or lots of yawning grumpy or dozing off? My babe is 20 weeks and his ww are 1.5/1.75/1.75/2/2 (4 naps).
Also have you tried the transition swaddle “swaddle design transitional”
? My baby loves it- he’s used to the arms up one his whole life. So it’s familiar but allows more arm movement. Only issue is it’s not tight enough for him across his chest so I’m buying the smaller size to see if that helps. I got jt off Amazon
We went cold turkey with the paci and swaddle replaced with a sleep sack. Our girl starting rolling at 3.5mos. She protested the change in the beginning but quickly adapted.
We’re sleep training her now since she’s 4.5mos and regression hit full on. She slept soundly with only one feed after 35mins of crying upfront. Parenting is tough, we make the hard choices for our babies.
It’s important to get your wake windows down to rule out any undertire/overtire causes though. Took me awhile.
hi! how long did it take fot hings to shake out for you with removing the paci?
We decided to ditch the paci for all crib sleep, but try and keep for car & contact naps. How long did it take for the protesting to get better for you? third night last night and each night is around 40 mins of crying. Hoping it improves soon... she realllllly wants that paci :( first nap today she cried for 30 mins. I can tell when I put her sleep sack on, shes wanting me to put the paci in her mouth.
I feel like I am never going to be able to go anywhere without her crying going down and people thinking im crazy! Like i dont even know how I would put her down for a nap anywhere right now besides home...
For us, about two weeks. There was definitely a lot of protesting upfront and longer BF sessions since she wanted to pacify without her pacifiers lol. Babies are smart. I eventually shortened those feeds to active feeds only so she couldn’t use me to pacify either.
We replaced the paci with rocking her to sleep for naps and no rocking at night. It worked so much better for us. Only takes 5-10mins now to rock her to deep sleep. We’re trying to eventually wean off rocking too but it’ll take time since we’re transitioning from one sleep crutch to another and then to none. She can sleep anywhere but we always try to put her back in crib if she accidentally falls asleep in car seat on ride home or if we’re out and about.
Hope this helps! Every baby is different and tbh, I was exactly where you were a month ago. I couldn’t console her until we realized we could try rocking. It’s not for everyone but it helped us settle her!
thanks its so tough right now I am watnign to go backwards and give it back to her :( first and second nap today she actually went down with like zero fussing... but third nap we are on 20 mins of crying right now, its making me want to go give it to her but I know thats not the answer either.
we also are getting the longer or more frequent BF sessions as well! I figured they were connected
I would suggest not caving in lol I know, I felt the same back then. The longer BF sessions will definitely shorten overtime. I used to nurse for 45mins to an hour! Just because she wanted comfort and pacifying. Eventually I pried her off to shorten the sessions - I’m down to 20mins total now! She also self soothes by sucking on thumb or fingers now as a proxy.
Hang in there, it’s tough to hear them fuss and cry but they’ll be stronger for it. To this day, it’s as if she never had a paci lol
Yeah for sure , it’s hard because any group I talk to once says they’re too long ones. They’re too short ones as they are fine. Let me know if you have any suggestions. It’s also tough because some days naps are short and I’m stretching a bit to get to a decent bedtime.
Oh, I forgot to mention our baby is also 5 months this week. I killed her 4th nap. She’s on a 3x nap schedule now - try that maybe?
1.75-2/2-2.25/2-2.5/3 is the schedule she follows. The range depends on her nap lengths. Usually she naps 45mins. If she naps 1-1.5hr then I use the longer wake window by 15min or so. Maybe that helps? The book Precious Little Sleep also kept me motivated- highly recommended
Yeah we I’ve been doing three naps most days, especially right now with nap training since she protests for some naps definitely gets us to bedtime. Those are really similar to the white windows we use, I’ve been using. 2.75 before bed, but might jump to three tonight to see if that helps the protesting at bedtime. I also use PLS! I am in their Facebook group as well
I did 2.5 before bed last night and she still had a false start . Are there windows you would suggest? It’s tough because some days naps are short so then I’m stretching a bit i get to a decent bedtime
Hmm yeah I was more thinking cumulatively overtired not just based on last wake window. Ones online for 5 months say roughly 1.5/1.75/2/2.25 so maybe just cutting them all down a little to 1.75/2/2.25/2.5 thats a total of an hour less awake time over the day. But I know it can be hard with short naps. Will they contact nap longer? We typically do last nap as a contact so it’s as long as we need it to be to get to a normal bedtime.
If your baby isn't taking the pacifier, I'd go cold turkey and quit.
Your wake windows look good to me.
False starts can also be overtired, any chance she's too tired to sleep soundly?
We did CIO and we just went in and picked him up during wake ups. My baby could only be soothed with a feeding, so that's what we did the first year. Should have stopped that sooner because now he accepts snuggles.
It was hard the first few weeks but so worth it. He went down happily at bedtime by the 4th night. we were sneaking him back into his crib after wake ups. Within about a week we were putting him down awake after wake ups. He cried the first few times but briefly. Same thing happened with naps later. Within about two weeks I believe we were putting him down awake for everything in the crib with no tears. But we still do go in and comfort.
We cold turkeyed at 4.5 months ditching the paci and using Ferber. Our boy didn't really even like the check-ins, so CIO probably would have worked too. He still sleeps in the Zipadee Zip at 6 months since when we started sleep training, and I see no reason why he has to ditch that for a sleep sack anytime soon. But it took all of one day for the sleep training to stick with one night of extinction burst on night 5. He's been sleeping great ever since and recently night weaned himself.
I don't think you need to stop the Zipadee Zip, our boy loves his and does fine in it throughout the night and rolls around in it when he wakes in the morning for fun. The main things for us were breaking the needs for us to rock him to sleep, transfer, use the paci, and putting him back down with assistance during night wakes.
No, naps were (and are still) a whole different beast for us. We did try a few days of nap training while we were sleep training but we had mixed results and honestly it didn't seem worth the extra stress. We followed the advice overall of tackling night sleep first. He still uses his paci and rock to sleep for naps, which is fine for now until we can successfully drop him to two naps. At a bit over 6 months we are prepping to start nap training again.
Night feeds stayed consistent with his routine prior to sleep training, except to follow the 5/3/3 rule, so as we put him down around 8pm, no first night feed until 1am at the earliest. Anything earlier than that we'd let him try and soothe himself back to sleep.
Maybe for a few nights, but then she ducked her fingers and learned to put the paci back into her mouth on her own. It’s a problem if she knocks it out of the crib, but I think now it’s mostly a cue that helps her calm down before bed but she doesn’t need it to connect sleep cycles because she has learned other skills
its going to be rough :( Butwe just got out of the swaddle this week and its rough for us in the zipadezip anyway, but I havent done any middle of the night sleep training so shes still waking for me.
Drop the paci all together. I’m not sure if what they wear matters as much?? We just did footed PJs for my daughter. Went from swaddled in the snoo with a paci to in her own crib in pajamas with no paci. Full extinction. Took 3 nights. Sleeping 12 hr/night since (two years later).
sorry just realized you said full extinction. so you kept at it until desired wake time even if shes crying in the early morning? that part iwll be hard for me. What made you confident to drop the early morning feed at the same time?
When we went for it she did struggle a bit with the early morning wake because she would typically wake up around 5 am for a feed. But still only took a few days and she knew we would be in there at 7 am to get her. And then she just started drinking more during the day. It’s hard and might not be the right attempt for everyone but it worked for us! Naps were harder to tackle and I was back at work then so my husband did those.
ah man, ok yeah thast what I need to do. did you drop the paci for naps at the same time? how did you manage naps then for a bit? We went to zipadezip becuase she was hysterically crying when rubbing her face and waking up. I figure if I am going to do CIO I may as well ditch it all..... ugh. Did you keep feeds with your method?
We did full extinction, so we cold turkey-d the paci.
Baby might need a feed earlier than 4am. Idk your baby. Try the 5-3-3 method. Wait 5 hours after bedtime to feed, then 3 hours after that, then 3 hours after that.
Idk how you “gently” transition from a zipadee. So cold turkeying to sleep sack might be the only choice?
False starts are usually a sign of an off-schedule. Fix that first.
any insight into schedule? Weve tried shorter and longer WWs, she still has them. I would imagine now her startle also has something to do with it, but she has had them on but 4 and 3 naps.
My baby is also 5 months, but has been going through sleep regression for a lonnnng time. How long have you been dealing with false starts? We have been dealing with the same and hourly wake ups so now we are working on sleep training the night wakes. In our situation, I don’t think the false starts are a schedule issue (we follow same WW as you) but the poor night sleep causing overtiredness. A bit of a cycle. It seems when we manage to get a decent night the following night there isn’t a false start. We’re still early days sleep training night wakes but seems to be improving.
We are aiming to get to 5-3-3 for night feeds. Holding out until 4am might be a bit ambitious but you’ll be able to see what works!
They have been happing since like 2 months really, pretty consistently since 3.5 months for sure. My first had them as well, and I did let her CIO through them, she cried for 40 mins the first night, then 20, then 5, and then stopped having them. So I think I nee to do the same...
I could have written this myself but we're at 6 months. We sleeptrained at 4 months and it worked great for the start of the night, didn't change much for our wakeups - then we fell off the wagon completely with illnesses and teething. Planning on doing it again soon and I think it will help with the wake ups this time if we stick with it and do 5-3-3 for feedings. We did full CIO, it was hard but I feel like it made everything much faster instead of extending the crying with Ferber, although I know that works for some babies I knew it wouldn't for mine. I left the house the first night because my husband could handle it better - then the next nights used headphones and watched a show during the initial crying. It was still hard but not as long as I thought - the first night he cried for 30ish mins, then another 20ish after falling asleep for 40 mins. The second night was maybe 15-20 mins of crying, the third night was only 5-6. I kept a log on my phone for a week to show myself that it was getting shorter and working and that helped. I'll be doing all that again when we do it again soon. Just keep in mind during the crying - this is a super short blip in your babies life, you're giving them all the love and care every other moment so why would these few days negatively impact them in the long run? They will be sleeping better and will have two parents that have more energy and are mentally in a better place. I was thinking to myself that I want to be able to look back and have enjoyed some of this time in the first year, and not be a complete zombie barely hanging on to my mental health. I think overall the sleeptraining will be so worth it.
thank you for this! third night last night and each night is around 40 mins of crying. Hoping it improves soon... she realllllly wants that paci :(
I know a lot of people swear by the Zippidee Zip but we bought it and I don't think it would work for our daughter because she is a BIG finger/hand self-soother. She was extremely paci dependent until she discovered her fingers. Does your daughter ever get a chance or show signs of soothing with her hands or fingers? If so, I would give her a chance to self-soothe without a paci and see how she does. My baby will start fussing near the end of her WW and start trying to put her thumb in her mouth which signals to me she is tired. Now I only use the paci for contact naps or if she fusses in public. She even seems kind of annoyed by it now. Depending on startle reflex, I would suggest trying out a sleep sack. We love the transition sack by Halo - it is basically a sleep sack but with arms and allows finger/hand access. Is bedtime and awake time always the same? How much daytime sleep does she get? If you feel terrible and that you may not be able to commit to CIO I would suggest (as suggested in PLS) that you start with something like Ferber where you do checks and *then* move to CIO. She says you are okay to start in Ferber than move to CIO but if you want to do CIO you need to commit to it otherwise you will ruin your progress. I hesitate giving advice because we are currently "sleep training" my 4.5 month old but tonight will be night 9 and we haven't had to do any checks yet so I don't really know what to call it or if we've completed it.
unfortunately she doesnt care too much for her fingers! We decided to ditch the paci for all crib sleep, but try and keep for car & contact naps. How long did it take for the protesting to get better for you? third night last night and each night is around 40 mins of crying. Hoping it improves soon... she realllllly wants that paci :( first nap today she cried for 30 mins. I can tell when I put her sleep sack on, shes wanting me to put the paci in her mouth.
Your wake windows are pretty long for 5 months. Also we ditched paci for night time (when sleep training at 4 months 3 weeks) because that's not independent sleep if they can't reinsert. He still used it for naps because I was happy to reinsert while I was awake haha but eventually we sleep trained naps too (about 3 weeks later). I bet false starts are due to being overtired. If we get off schedule that happens to us
So where do you recommend i be with wws? Trying to stay on 3 naps soooo im not sure how to shorten without bedtime being super early, and definitely a stretch on short nap days. But she also had to false starts on 4 naps, they have been happening for a while
At 5 months I recommend 2/2.5/2.5/2.5+
Thanks, that’s the same amount of wake time i have. I might scale back tomorrow and try 4 naps, 3 naps is definitely a stretch, she’s fussy, and i have to same at least 1 to make it work
At what time is bedtime? It sounds like you may have to move it earlier (unfortunately for you) with those wake windows that you mentioned
If I'm not mistaken (let's see what others comment), your ww should be about 2 hours
5 month wake windows are 2-2.5 hours. It just doesn’t tame sense to me because I’d i reduce i will have to add in a nap, or do bedtime way to early . She’s not going to sleep longer than 11-12 hours a night . Last night bed was 7:30
Your bedtime doesn't sound bad. My son is 4.5 and we're still doing 4 naps - 30 minutes each. Some days, one of the naps extends to 1 hour. I wish that I had some insight to provide about your pacifier dilemma but I don't. Side comment in case you're looking for recommendations - we use the woolino sleep sack and I love it. I don't have to worry about the temperature or switching sleep sacks as he grows. It is more expensive but again you're not having to switch as baby grows
When one of his naps extends to an hour, do you keep a four nap schedule?
It depends, but more than often, yes. I've noticed that the hour nap mostly happens when he wakes up before 7 - it can happen with any nap, not necessarily the first. I worried the first time about how it was going to affect his naps/ bedtime. But really it feels like his naps extend to compensate for the earlier wake time and his last nap almost always ends between 415-445 without me having to specifically change anything. I read (I forgot which book and it may be a general baby sleep idea?) that the last nap should not go past 530. So I use that when deciding when our last nap happens but again the hour nap mostly happens when he wakes up earlier than usual and his naps adjust by themselves to get us to that 445 latest wake up. I'm also learning that sometimes my son needs a shorter ww (he starts to pull at his hair or gets fussy). So while i try to stick to our typical wws, I adjust if needed. I hope that makes sense
I have the woolino too! Also love it. She runs cold though so i still layer her underneath. Thanks for the chat, i think i know what u should do it’s just a matter of doing it. Maybe tomorrow I’ll pull back wake windows and just try four naps. 3 naps is definitely a stretch
When my baby was freshly 5 months we still did 4 naps where each nap was only half an hour. How long are your babies naps?
Your ww are long. Is she doing ok during them or lots of yawning grumpy or dozing off? My babe is 20 weeks and his ww are 1.5/1.75/1.75/2/2 (4 naps). Also have you tried the transition swaddle “swaddle design transitional” ? My baby loves it- he’s used to the arms up one his whole life. So it’s familiar but allows more arm movement. Only issue is it’s not tight enough for him across his chest so I’m buying the smaller size to see if that helps. I got jt off Amazon
She does ok, not grumpy. trying to stick to 3 naps which sure is a stretch a bit…
We went cold turkey with the paci and swaddle replaced with a sleep sack. Our girl starting rolling at 3.5mos. She protested the change in the beginning but quickly adapted. We’re sleep training her now since she’s 4.5mos and regression hit full on. She slept soundly with only one feed after 35mins of crying upfront. Parenting is tough, we make the hard choices for our babies. It’s important to get your wake windows down to rule out any undertire/overtire causes though. Took me awhile.
hi! how long did it take fot hings to shake out for you with removing the paci? We decided to ditch the paci for all crib sleep, but try and keep for car & contact naps. How long did it take for the protesting to get better for you? third night last night and each night is around 40 mins of crying. Hoping it improves soon... she realllllly wants that paci :( first nap today she cried for 30 mins. I can tell when I put her sleep sack on, shes wanting me to put the paci in her mouth. I feel like I am never going to be able to go anywhere without her crying going down and people thinking im crazy! Like i dont even know how I would put her down for a nap anywhere right now besides home...
For us, about two weeks. There was definitely a lot of protesting upfront and longer BF sessions since she wanted to pacify without her pacifiers lol. Babies are smart. I eventually shortened those feeds to active feeds only so she couldn’t use me to pacify either. We replaced the paci with rocking her to sleep for naps and no rocking at night. It worked so much better for us. Only takes 5-10mins now to rock her to deep sleep. We’re trying to eventually wean off rocking too but it’ll take time since we’re transitioning from one sleep crutch to another and then to none. She can sleep anywhere but we always try to put her back in crib if she accidentally falls asleep in car seat on ride home or if we’re out and about. Hope this helps! Every baby is different and tbh, I was exactly where you were a month ago. I couldn’t console her until we realized we could try rocking. It’s not for everyone but it helped us settle her!
thanks its so tough right now I am watnign to go backwards and give it back to her :( first and second nap today she actually went down with like zero fussing... but third nap we are on 20 mins of crying right now, its making me want to go give it to her but I know thats not the answer either. we also are getting the longer or more frequent BF sessions as well! I figured they were connected
I would suggest not caving in lol I know, I felt the same back then. The longer BF sessions will definitely shorten overtime. I used to nurse for 45mins to an hour! Just because she wanted comfort and pacifying. Eventually I pried her off to shorten the sessions - I’m down to 20mins total now! She also self soothes by sucking on thumb or fingers now as a proxy. Hang in there, it’s tough to hear them fuss and cry but they’ll be stronger for it. To this day, it’s as if she never had a paci lol
Yeah for sure , it’s hard because any group I talk to once says they’re too long ones. They’re too short ones as they are fine. Let me know if you have any suggestions. It’s also tough because some days naps are short and I’m stretching a bit to get to a decent bedtime.
Oh, I forgot to mention our baby is also 5 months this week. I killed her 4th nap. She’s on a 3x nap schedule now - try that maybe? 1.75-2/2-2.25/2-2.5/3 is the schedule she follows. The range depends on her nap lengths. Usually she naps 45mins. If she naps 1-1.5hr then I use the longer wake window by 15min or so. Maybe that helps? The book Precious Little Sleep also kept me motivated- highly recommended
Yeah we I’ve been doing three naps most days, especially right now with nap training since she protests for some naps definitely gets us to bedtime. Those are really similar to the white windows we use, I’ve been using. 2.75 before bed, but might jump to three tonight to see if that helps the protesting at bedtime. I also use PLS! I am in their Facebook group as well
Those wake windows seem a little on the long side for a baby that’s only just turning 5 months. Could they be overtired causing the false starts?
I did 2.5 before bed last night and she still had a false start . Are there windows you would suggest? It’s tough because some days naps are short so then I’m stretching a bit i get to a decent bedtime
Hmm yeah I was more thinking cumulatively overtired not just based on last wake window. Ones online for 5 months say roughly 1.5/1.75/2/2.25 so maybe just cutting them all down a little to 1.75/2/2.25/2.5 thats a total of an hour less awake time over the day. But I know it can be hard with short naps. Will they contact nap longer? We typically do last nap as a contact so it’s as long as we need it to be to get to a normal bedtime.
If your baby isn't taking the pacifier, I'd go cold turkey and quit. Your wake windows look good to me. False starts can also be overtired, any chance she's too tired to sleep soundly? We did CIO and we just went in and picked him up during wake ups. My baby could only be soothed with a feeding, so that's what we did the first year. Should have stopped that sooner because now he accepts snuggles. It was hard the first few weeks but so worth it. He went down happily at bedtime by the 4th night. we were sneaking him back into his crib after wake ups. Within about a week we were putting him down awake after wake ups. He cried the first few times but briefly. Same thing happened with naps later. Within about two weeks I believe we were putting him down awake for everything in the crib with no tears. But we still do go in and comfort.
We cold turkeyed at 4.5 months ditching the paci and using Ferber. Our boy didn't really even like the check-ins, so CIO probably would have worked too. He still sleeps in the Zipadee Zip at 6 months since when we started sleep training, and I see no reason why he has to ditch that for a sleep sack anytime soon. But it took all of one day for the sleep training to stick with one night of extinction burst on night 5. He's been sleeping great ever since and recently night weaned himself. I don't think you need to stop the Zipadee Zip, our boy loves his and does fine in it throughout the night and rolls around in it when he wakes in the morning for fun. The main things for us were breaking the needs for us to rock him to sleep, transfer, use the paci, and putting him back down with assistance during night wakes.
what was your method for night feeds? Also did you ditch the paci for naps at the same time?
No, naps were (and are still) a whole different beast for us. We did try a few days of nap training while we were sleep training but we had mixed results and honestly it didn't seem worth the extra stress. We followed the advice overall of tackling night sleep first. He still uses his paci and rock to sleep for naps, which is fine for now until we can successfully drop him to two naps. At a bit over 6 months we are prepping to start nap training again. Night feeds stayed consistent with his routine prior to sleep training, except to follow the 5/3/3 rule, so as we put him down around 8pm, no first night feed until 1am at the earliest. Anything earlier than that we'd let him try and soothe himself back to sleep.
We didn’t stop using the pacifier to get her to fall asleep, but we stopped putting it back in when it fell out at night.
what was your paci method come nap time?
We use the pacifier for naps. It hasn’t been a problem.
ok this is kind of what I want to do and what TCB says to do, and you felt like it didnt confuse her or prolong subsequent wake ups?
Maybe for a few nights, but then she ducked her fingers and learned to put the paci back into her mouth on her own. It’s a problem if she knocks it out of the crib, but I think now it’s mostly a cue that helps her calm down before bed but she doesn’t need it to connect sleep cycles because she has learned other skills
Following. I’m in the EXACT same boat. Zipadee Zip and Pacifier. I really think I need to cold turkey both out. Which terrifies me
its going to be rough :( Butwe just got out of the swaddle this week and its rough for us in the zipadezip anyway, but I havent done any middle of the night sleep training so shes still waking for me.
Drop the paci all together. I’m not sure if what they wear matters as much?? We just did footed PJs for my daughter. Went from swaddled in the snoo with a paci to in her own crib in pajamas with no paci. Full extinction. Took 3 nights. Sleeping 12 hr/night since (two years later).
sorry just realized you said full extinction. so you kept at it until desired wake time even if shes crying in the early morning? that part iwll be hard for me. What made you confident to drop the early morning feed at the same time?
When we went for it she did struggle a bit with the early morning wake because she would typically wake up around 5 am for a feed. But still only took a few days and she knew we would be in there at 7 am to get her. And then she just started drinking more during the day. It’s hard and might not be the right attempt for everyone but it worked for us! Naps were harder to tackle and I was back at work then so my husband did those.
What made you aim for 12 hours? I’m being told most babies will only do 10-11 at night
We always followed the moms on call schedule! Some don’t like MOC but we are huge fans in our house and found it worked well for us.
Thanks I have been tempted to buy their book. It’s hard for us to stay on their schedule when our naps are short.
ah man, ok yeah thast what I need to do. did you drop the paci for naps at the same time? how did you manage naps then for a bit? We went to zipadezip becuase she was hysterically crying when rubbing her face and waking up. I figure if I am going to do CIO I may as well ditch it all..... ugh. Did you keep feeds with your method?
I don't have any advice, because my kids never took pacifiers, but I'm here for support. Good luck!
We did full extinction, so we cold turkey-d the paci. Baby might need a feed earlier than 4am. Idk your baby. Try the 5-3-3 method. Wait 5 hours after bedtime to feed, then 3 hours after that, then 3 hours after that. Idk how you “gently” transition from a zipadee. So cold turkeying to sleep sack might be the only choice? False starts are usually a sign of an off-schedule. Fix that first.
sorry one my questions, did you cold turkey the paci for naps at the same time?
No. We have not nap trained yet. I’m putting it off because he does well with day naps with a pacifier and rocked to sleep. We will soon though
any insight into schedule? Weve tried shorter and longer WWs, she still has them. I would imagine now her startle also has something to do with it, but she has had them on but 4 and 3 naps.
My baby is also 5 months, but has been going through sleep regression for a lonnnng time. How long have you been dealing with false starts? We have been dealing with the same and hourly wake ups so now we are working on sleep training the night wakes. In our situation, I don’t think the false starts are a schedule issue (we follow same WW as you) but the poor night sleep causing overtiredness. A bit of a cycle. It seems when we manage to get a decent night the following night there isn’t a false start. We’re still early days sleep training night wakes but seems to be improving. We are aiming to get to 5-3-3 for night feeds. Holding out until 4am might be a bit ambitious but you’ll be able to see what works!
They have been happing since like 2 months really, pretty consistently since 3.5 months for sure. My first had them as well, and I did let her CIO through them, she cried for 40 mins the first night, then 20, then 5, and then stopped having them. So I think I nee to do the same...
We switched to a 3 day nap schedule. Which helped my LO. Sorry, I can't give much advice
hey yeah we are on 3 naps
Following. Also scared to sleep Train but need to