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Moms: Sleep Training?
DH and I are looking for some help/guidance. We're trying to teach Mia to go to sleep at 8:00-9:00pm....instead of her normal 12:00-1:00am and STAY down.
Mia has always slept well since 9 weeks old, right now she sleeps about 2 long naps during the day [average], a few 10/15 min ones and at night she goes down at around 1:00am and only wakes up the next day by 10:30am-ish. No night feedings. So she does sleep! But the late nights are killing me, DH wakes up to go to work at 5:30am so after 10pm it's just me all night long + If I want to go out, by the time she wakes up, eats etc. we only leave the house at 12 noon....and that sucks!
We've been trying her bedtime routine earlier and she's been pretty good. In bed asleep by 9:00...then at 10:30 wakes up to eat, I feed her in her room - no/little activity, lights off and back in bed. She will not go to sleep! She cries & cries & cries...
Before DH and I find a plan in which we agree will work for us & Mia, we want to get as much advice & information from those who've done the same!
I'd appreciate any tips!! :-)
TIA!
Re: Moms: Sleep Training?
I don't really have experience with a baby that goes to bed late but I'll give you some advice that may help.
First, I think this is going to take you a while. Any time I have tried to change some of Evan's sleep habits (whether naps or at night) it has taken 2-3 weeks for him to get into a really good routine. At 6 months I think they are supposed to be getting between 12-14 hours of sleep per day in total.
I would try bumping her bedtime earlier by only one hour at a time to see if that helps. 4 hours is a pretty big jump.
I like reading and researching so I read a bunch of books before DH and I made a sleep plan for Evan. We used lots of the techniques from the NCSS and implemented them first. Then we waited until the appropriate developmental age, as per BedTiming and then ended up doing a modified Ferber. In the end we achieved success! So, I would also suggest reading up on some sleep training methods - for no other reason than to help get you into a routine and to create a plan that both of you will follow through on.
Good luck!
You need to shift her WHOLE day, not just her bedtime. She probably thinks you are just putting her down for another nap, not for bed, if you don't shift everything in her day.
At that age, you can go cold turkey and in the morning, wake her up at 7am and adjust everything from there (naps every 2-3 hours, bed at 8 or 9). It will be rough, but it will be the quickest in getting her on the preferred timing quickest. You should pick up Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child... I think is the best for the kind of "resetting" you want to do and explains what times to do it and all that.
Or you can put her to bed 15 minutes earlier every 3-4 days, once again shifting everything in her day 15 minutes earlier, until bedtime is at the time you want.
GL!
I am not sure what type of method you want to try, we did the sleep sense, with both our boys and had wonderful success. With RJ it took only 2 nights and he was sleeping on his own for 11-12 hours a night with two 1 1/2 - 2 hour naps a day. He still to this day sleeps 11 hours at night and a 1 1/2 - 2 hour nap a day. With little man it only took him a couple days as well for the night time routine to work but a week or so for the naps, it was a little harder. The sleep sense is a monitored CIO method and I swear that it works, it is tough but honestly works. You will need to get your hubs on board as well as Daddy does most of the night time stuff. We make sure it is a set routine at night, both the boys get a bath at 7pm and then are in bed no later than 730, sometimes they cannot make it and are in bed by 7pm but we just adjust the time of bath. So our night is dinner, then playtime, then bathtime (7pm) followed by 2 stories, I say a goodnight poem and sing to them then they are in their respective beds. No crying, but awake when we put them to bed.
THe program states to sit with a chair in the room and keep repeating to them, it is okay night night " Mommy or daddy" are right here, and just keep repeating do not pick them up, it will be a while, I think with RJ he cried for 45 minutes the first night then the next night it was 20 minutes then the third night he was out by himself. FOr the little man it was the same first night was longer it was about 1 hour then the second night was 25 minutes then the third night out by himself.
Since I nursed RJ and still nurse little man, for the first few months they woke 1-2 times for a quick feed, but I fed in their room, changed their bum and then right back to bed, once RJ was 7 months he slept right through without a night waking. As for little man he is only 6 months and sleeps right through, it is amazing and I love the program and recommended it to our good friends and they had the same amazing success.
You can purchase the program on line, and it is super easy and quick to read, adn helps with all sorts of problems that can arise.
GL.