Sleep training

Following this thread. We are coming up on 4 months next week and my heart is already aching just thinking about the cry it out method 😩. Hubby and I still have to discuss what route we want to take.

My husband is all for it and I feel so sick thinking about it. So we decided since I don’t have the heart for it I will go to the mall or grocery shop until he’s asleep. Ugh. Breaks my heart

With my first we tried multiple alternatives to cry it out starting around 6 months but nothing worked. My pediatrician recommended cry it out but I didn’t want to. I was finally at my breaking point around 11 months and we tried cry it out, which was a difficult decision. It was a horrible 4 days, but it did get better each day. In less than a week she was finally sleeping through the night and became a fantastic sleeper. She’s now two and goes to bed at 7 in her room, in her toddler bed with no fuss. She’s potty trained so she’ll occasionally wake up around 2am to use the bathroom, but other than that she sleeps 12 hours every night and doesn’t wake up groggy. With baby #2 I’m going to try alternatives around 6 months and see if it works for her because every baby is different. Doing the cry it out method made me feel like such a terrible mother, but it’s the only thing that worked. And trust me I tried everything, including taking baby sleep seminars, before trying cry it out.

Let me preface that every baby is different ! My son turned 4 months on Sunday and I am 100% against the cry it out method as I just don’t feel like it is a fit for our family.

I was able to sleep train him in 4 days and this is what I did. I want to also say that my baby was 100% contact napped for the first 4 months of his life. Every time I put him down he woke up or screamed.

Consistency is key. You have to do the same thing the same way for every single nap. Bed time the routine differs a bit to signal it is time for overnight sleep.

Naps:
1) we follow all wake windows. Huckleberry is amazing and helped us get his sleep on track. 20 minutes before the end of the wake window I bring him to the bedroom.
2) I change his diaper. This is the first signal to let him know a transition is coming.
3) I sit in the rocking chair and nurse him until sleepy with all of the lights on and the sound machine off.
4) while he is still awake I offer a pacifier (sometimes he takes it and

Sometimes he does not.

5) I tell him I love him and put him in his crib. I did allow him to hold a shirt I had worn overnight so he could smell me. He would bring it to his face and rub it. I do not recommend this for safe sleep as I do take it away as soon as he is asleep.

6) I turn the sound machine on and turn the lights off (the room is completely black out)

7) I stand at the top of the crib and if he starts crying I would offer a pacifier and rub his head. If he got really upset I would lean over the crib so he could touch my face. The key for us was to teach soothing in the crib. I did not take him out when he got upset.

8) I stay in the room intermittently soothing until he fell asleep.

The first day was the most difficult because there was some fussing, but everything clicked by day 3. On day 4 he was falling asleep on his own without assistance.

We also are awaiting the 4 month sleep regression so this could change at any point.
Good luck mama ! Do what works best