Well ya’ll, we did it. We sleep trained our (almost) 11 month old baby.
We ended up taking a much longer break than anticipated in between our initial attempt and this last attempt because, as always, life got in the way. Originally, we were planning on giving him a week or so to catch up on his sleep and hopefully diminsh his fear of the crib. After about 2 weeks his sleep was still all over the place so we decided to extend our break to a month. During this month “break” we were supposed to be doing research and coming up with a plan that we both agreed on. If you’ll remember, during our first attempt at sleep training, my husband decided to tell me that he didn’t agree with the Ferber Method…after we were already a week in. After a month had gone by, we had to extend the break yet again because (drum roll please) – my husband still hadn’t read any of the books he had downloaded and he still wasn’t sure what method he wanted to try. Finally, we decided that we couldn’t wait any longer & we settled on trying the Ferber Method again, but without the nap training this time. Ethan’s sleep was still absolutely terrible and he was getting closer and closer to walking every day so we felt like we had to do it now or never.
Here’s how the week went, once again following the above referenced Ferber Method chart:
Night 1: It took him around 40 minutes to fall asleep, crying almost that entire time. He stood up as soon as we put him into the crib and walked around the perimeter of the crib until he eventually sat down and passed out. He slept soundly throughout the night, waking just before 6 AM.
Night 2: He fell asleep before we got him into the crib and we weren’t able to wake him up so we went ahead and laid him down in the crib, fully expecting him to wake up at some point during the night. Sure enough, he awoke at 2:30 AM and it took about an hour & a half to get him back down. You could tell he was exhausted and wanted to go back to sleep but he fought it HARD. He ended up sleeping in until 7:15 AM.
Night 3: He cried until we went in at 1o minutes for our first check & then calmed down significantly after we laid him back down. After we left the room he played with a spare pacifier for about 5 minutes and then fell asleep. He slept until 5:30 AM but was exhausted all day, taking frequent naps throughout the morning and afternoon.
Night 4: It took him about half an hour to fall asleep but he would have been asleep in half the time if he had just let himself lay down. He stood up crying for a while, then sat himself down and started dozing off. If he had allowed himself to lay down, we would have been golden. Instead, his head would drop and he’d jerk awake and cry out. Finally, he laid down on his stomach and fell asleep almost instantly. He woke up at 4 AM and refused to go back down. We tried until 5:30 AM and then gave up and let him out of the crib.
This is the point where we started losing hope. We were discouraged by the early morning wakings and felt that he should have been getting himself to sleep much quicker by this point. We decided we weren’t going to give up this time. We’d keep going for a full 2 weeks and if things hadn’t improved, we’d make an appointment with a sleep specialist.
Night 5: He once again fell asleep before we could get him into the crib but we were able to wake him up. He cried for a few minutes and then stood silently in the corner of the crib for about 1o minutes. Right before we went in for our first check, he started crying again and continued to cry for another 20 minutes. Overall, it took just over 35 minutes for him to fall asleep. He woke up a little before 1 AM and it took him 15 minutes to get himself back down. He slept until 5:30 AM.
Night 6: This was the night that turned our attitudes around. We were starting to get discouraged and then night 6 came around and Ethan decided to cut us some slack. He went into the crib, fell asleep almost instantly and stayed asleep until 5:30 AM. We were SHOCKED.
Had we done it? Had we really sleep trained Ethan in less than a week?
Night 7: The answer is no. As much as we were hoping for a repeat of the night before, it didn’t happen. Ethan had hardly napped all day and crashed after his last bottle. We couldn’t wake him up so he went into the crib asleep and sure enough, woke up a few hours later crying out. He fell back asleep after we gave him his pacifier but he awoke again around 2:15 AM and was up for about 20 minutes. He slept until 5:45 AM.
Somehow, after a full week of sleep training, something just clicked. From Night 8 and on, Ethan has been a total rockstar. He goes into the crib awake, plays with his pacifier for a few minutes – completely silent – and then falls asleep. He sleeps throughout the night until almost exactly 5:30 AM every morning – occassionally waking up at 4:45 or 5 AM.
Our only issue now is his wake-up time. 5:30 AM isn’t terrible, but you can tell he’s still tired when he gets out of his crib. We’ve tried to get him to stay in his crib a little longer, hoping he’d fall back asleep, but despite our best efforts – we can’t get the little guy to sleep in any later.
For now, we’ll take it. He has added in an extra nap, to account for the early wake-up, so he now naps 3 times a day. I allow him to nap whenever he wants and wherever he wants. If he wants to be held, I hold him. If he wants to lay in mama’s bed, we lay in mama’s bed. Eventually, I’ll put him in his crib for every nap and one day I hope to be able to have him completely nap trained – but not anytime soon.
I do believe that trying to sleep train for both nighttime sleep and naps was way too much for him and that’s why our first attempt failed. I want to make sure we have consistent nighttime sleep for at least a month before I start messing around with his naps. I’m also hoping that after a while, his body will naturally adjust to the new schedule and he’ll start sleeping later and eliminate that first nap. Hopefully, falling asleep on his own at naptime will follow naturally as well.
Have you successfully sleep trained for naps? Let me know in the comments what worked for your little one!
