Maine Nesties
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Mommy Poll: Did you sleep train you baby
I'm just curious because I'm reading national boards and I feel like an outcast because I'm not sleep training.
[Poll]
Re: Mommy Poll: Did you sleep train you baby
Oh wait, like CIO?
We didn't do anything in particular until 6 months. Then we set a routine and failed many times until finally hit success at around 10-11 months.
Teaching your child to self-soothe so they can go to sleep on their own. Some babies can do it naturally and some have a harder time and need "training". It's not something you should do with a baby younger than 6 months and after that it's up to the parents' discretion. There are different methodologies but most involve checking in on the child at regular and lenghtening intervals and letting the kid cry it out until they realize that they can manage to fall asleep by themselves
I avoid the national boards most of the time. But we did it with Nolan around 7 months. His issue wasn't STTN, it was falling asleep on his own. It used to take me an hour to hour and a half to get him to sleep. And when we did start it, he barely cried. First 2 nights, he didn't cry at all. The 3rd night he cried 15 minutes, and since then he's been going down no problems, smiles and all! It makes for a nice bedtime routine. I used to dread bedtime, but now I look forward to the rocking, singing and snuggles knowing that he's enjoying it just as much as me. Then he goes in his crib, shoves his puppy in his mouth and that's it until morning! Of course, everyone has to decide for themselves what they feel comfortable doing.
I think it probably seems like most people sleep train because people who don't sleep train don't have as much to talk about YKWIM? I'm sorry if anyone makes you feel crappy for NOT sleep training. What works for each baby/family is different, and I really don't think sleep training/not sleep training is going to harm a baby either way. It definitely is one of those dumb mommy wars things - like BF/FF and WM/SAHM.
We did/do sleep training for DD. I read the books by Ferber and Weissbluth (both MDs and sleep researchers) and, after applying both principles, found that Weissbluth worked best for our DD. We did it at four months per the recommendation of our pediatrician because she would only sleep in the swing and MH, I, and our pedi believed we needed to break that habit ASAP. It took ONE night. She cried hysterically for 30 minutes and then went to sleep and never needed the swing (for night sleep) again. Then, we did it again at 5.5 months because she was nursing every 1-2 hours all night long and I was about to die from exhaustion. That was more work - we had to gradually extend the time between her feedings, so there was crying for several nights. And, now, after travel or sickness, DD still develops this habit of waking up way too early (like 4:45) and we don't go to her for at least a half hour until we've got her sleeping past 6 again. If we go to her, she just continues to wake at that time.
It works for us. DD does not like to be rocked or patted or shushed. The only thing that soothes her back to sleep is nursing, but, if I nurse her, she starts waking to nurse again, and then she starts waking more and more.
I will say that it is really hard and I totally understand why it isn't for everyone, and I would never judge another mom for not doing it. I always feel a little nervous when I tell people I DO sleep train, because I'm wondering if they are judging me as some heartless mom.
We didn't have to for nighttime, Felix was in his crib at 3 weeks (noisy sleeper and was keeping us up) and he has (knock on wood) always been good about going down on his own.
But, for naps we are going to have to. He will only nap in his swing and it's getting to be a problem bc he is getting so big!