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REAL MOMS, REAL STORIES: Sleeping Through the Night- Story #3

Today’s story is about Harrison. 
Harrison is now 1.5 years old, and has been sleeping through the night since 6 months of age.
At 6 months Harrison’s mama did a sleep training method called “The Ferber Method”.
It worked wonders!

Brought to You by The Cry It Out Guru…   😉

My son was a terrible sleeper up to the age of 6 months when we started using the Ferber method. By terrible I mean would not even sleep for 4-5 hours on a regular basis. It was causing him to be extremely cranky and in a bad mood all day. I knew that I would not be able to allow it to continue because it would eventually jeopardize his health. Sleep is very important for not only adults but children as well. I had set a goal of 6 months and that if by that age he was not sleeping at least 8 hours straight I would be sleep training him.

Before six months he had only done four to five hours about two or three times. And two to three hours a few times. He would normally wake up every 40 to 60 minutes all night especially for the first four or five hours. It was taking a huge toll on both him and myself. He slept in the bassinet first and then the rock and play in our bedroom from birth. We transferred him to the crib around four to five months, but it was pretty horrible because he would cry a lot or sleep 10 mins then wake up. And so we brought him back to the rock and play. We did, however, try to get him to nap in the crib between 4 to 6 months. There were many times he did nap but not long. However, I needed him to get partially used to the crib before sleep training.

The first night I actually tried the Ferber method I was not fully prepared. I ended up picking him up at a certain point and the whole method did not work out. The next day I started my cry it out support group on Facebook and was much more prepared mentally and emotionally. He did very wonderfully that first night and after crying for about an hour he slept 10 and a half hours. As you can imagine that was pretty miraculous. He had off days but he continued to do very well because of this method.

He is now one and a half years old and has slept great since then. Of course, like every child he hit regressions but he reverted back to sleeping well. I definitely account that to sleep training and my strength in taking control of my child’s poor sleeping habits.

Looking back I don’t know what I would have done differently. Maybe not feed him every time he woke up after the newborn age. But at that point I didn’t really know what else to do. I had also tried rocking him before using any form of cry it out but it did not help him sleep. Also tried gentle ways to get him to sleep and that didn’t work either.

Cry it out is very misunderstood and controversial but if properly implemented it can mean a great deal to your child’s health.



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