Hey Mama- It is extremely hard. I had to tap in my husband several times and even cried myself but it works. Our little has been sleeping in her crib and learned to self soothe. Which is what the Ferber method teaches them. Now we can put her in her bed half sleep. She rolls over and cuddles her blanket and babbles until she is asleep. And sometimes we hear her music machine go on in the middle of the night because she turned it on to help her back to sleep. But at the end of the day you need to feel comfortable with whatever method you use.
Has she ever slept in her room before? We started with naps in her room, nights in ours (bedside bassinet), for a few weeks, then one night put her in her room for night sleep too and shes been fine for the most part. When she does start crying we do a modified Ferber where we give her 5-10 min to give up the fight and go to sleep, then check on her. Try again for 10-15, and then get her out for play for about 20 min, then put her back down and shes usually out after that. Sometimes she just has too much energy to sleep.
Personally I would keep trying. I did the same and still do if she needs me to I’ll come back in and reassure her with her paci. I try to be real quick about it. But once they get that distressing cry just give a good cradle and rock for at least 5 minutes and continue trying. It’s frustrating some times but it’s worth it. I think I’d rather spend all my time for a week or even a couple trying to get the independent sleep because a couple weeks of it will be so worth the full night sleep every night! That’s just what worked for us. Try giving a bottle when you lay her down. At night we give her a bottle with white noise on but light still on and then brush her teeth and she’s out like a light. Even just allowing her to spend little by little time will help her adjust and her comfortable with the crib. Hang in there you’ll find what works !
@Abby thank you for your comment. What do you mean by moving her to her crib and then sleep training? What’s the difference?
With my little girl we started with naps in the crib for about a week before we put her in the crib overnight, it helped her get used to the crib and not be scared of it
@Miri I just mean getting her used to sleeping in her crib first. For my guy he slept in our room for a while then I started having him nap in his room then eventually I moved him to nighttime in his room too but I still went in every time he cried to comfort and/or nurse and once he had been sleeping in his room for like 1.5 months then we did the sleep training meaning I didn’t go in and comfort and nurse like I would normally I did the 5 min, 10 min, 15 min intervals with just going in and rubbing his back and talking to him for ~30 seconds
@Miri also if you don’t have a bedtime routine yet that can really help too. Plus making sure her room is completely dark and using white noise
We did this but because you’re co sleeping you might need to work on that first. Put in crib for naps, start off in room at night and then switch. And when she can be comfortable I’m crib then do ferber. That’s the thing we did and the longest we went was 5-10 min but we also didn’t have to worry about switching from co sleeping. So you might have to change that first
I’m debating on trying this but it pains me when he cries he only falls asleep on own after his lunch
Did you stop co sleeping/move to her own room and start sleep training at the same time? That may be a lot to do at once. I did similar to Ferber method with my babe and it was super hard for a few nights but then made a huge difference. Now he can fall asleep on his own and usually only wakes up once a night. If it were me in your situation I’d focus on one change at a time - moving to crib/her own room first and getting her adjusted to that, and then the sleep training, but that is just my opinion!