On this wonderful Friday, we have a collection of stories from several mamas. Huge thank you to Carissa, Colleen, Christa, and Laura for contributing. This series generated so much interest, we will continue with MORE STORIES next week! Check back and enjoy!
The first story is written by Carissa.
Her daughter is named Chloe and was sleeping through the night by
6 months of age.
She achieved this using the cry it out (CIO) technique.
Chloe was 6 months old when she first slept through the night thanks to CIO. But a month later 2 teeth came through and a nasty cold and she didn’t get back on track until she was 9 months old. My biggest mistake was rocking her to sleep from the start…I know not to do that with my next child. Chloe is now 10 and a half months old. She goes to sleep at 6:30 pm and wakes at 6am with 2 hour naps twice a day.
The next story is written by Colleen.
Her son is named Shawn and was sleeping through the night by 8 months of age.
She achieved this using the CIO Ferber method, and having an established routine and using night weaning ahead of CIO.
My baby and I co-slept from 2 months of age until 8 months of age. We started co-sleeping to survive since I was a full-time working mom with little help from my husband.
I decided to do cry it out when my son was 7 months old. At this point in time my son began waking up multiple times a night for no reason and it took hours sometimes to go back to sleep. After Christmas I did my 1st try at cry it out Ferber method, well I failed on night 2. Things weren’t working and I came up with tons of excuses. Two weeks later I decided to try again doing the Ferber method and failed horribly on my first timed check in my sons room. I gave in went back to co-sleeping again which meant no one sleeping. Well two weeks later when my son turned 8 months old I decided after 3 nights of no sleep that it was time. I told my husband it was time for cry it out extinction and there was no turning back. We established a routine by this point and I was confident this was going to work. Well, third times a charm because my son was sleeping through the night by the third night. It was so amazing after 8 months of no sleep that I was finally sleeping, it felt like a dream.
I think we failed the first two times because my son was still getting a bottle during the night whenever he woke up. He knew if he cried he would get a bottle to go back to sleep. I decided for cry it out to successfully work in our home we needed to night wean my son. We took a slow approach to night weaning and it worked like a charm.
If I have to do this again I would start at a younger age, establish a routine for baby as soon as possible and have baby sleep in their crib the first night home.
The next story is written by Christa.
Her daughter Olivia was consistently sleeping through the night by 3 months of age.
She achieved Babywise eat, wake, sleep routines throughout the day.
I will start out by saying the first three months with my daughter Olivia were the hardest of my life. Before she was born everyone said “you won’t sleep” but until those sleepless nights came I couldn’t have imagined how hard it would be. My daughter, like many other newborns, just wanted to be held all the time. At first it was very hard but as she grew she gained more independence and felt comfortable sleeping on her own. And at three months it was like a light switch went off and all she wanted to do was sleep by herself, in her own bed.
We followed babywise from the beginning by establishing an eat, wake, sleep cycle every three hours. She fell into a three hour schedule and like clockwork knew when it was time to eat as well as sleep. It was around 8 weeks that she no longer woke up in the middle of the night for a feeding after the 10pm feeding. Around three months we started with a bedtime routine and around 7pm she would get fussy and I knew she was ready for bed. At 10pm we would give her another bottle and she would stay asleep for it the majority of the time. She consistently would sleep until her wake time around 7, sometimes even 8am.
Now at 6 months she has started solids and successfully, dropped the dream feed and sleeps from about 8pm until 630am and happily lays in her crib until 7am. Looking back, I could have dropped the 10pm feed about a month ago, but being a first time mom I was worried and hesitant to do so.
Babywise saved my sanity and truly helped structure our days when I felt all was lost! As with any parenting book take everything with a grain of salt and the biggest thing is to be in tune with your baby. Really listen and take a step back and see what they are showing you and everything will eventually come together!
The next story is written by Laura.
Her son Kai was sleeping through the night when he was 6 weeks old.
She achieved this using Moms on Call accompanied with short CIO sessions.
Kai started sleeping through the night at 6weeks.
The biggest thing I did (a suggestion from moms on call) was to pump and bottle feed the last feeding of the day. I have an EBF babe. That way you can make sure they get a full feeding. I started with 4 oz and worked up to 8 oz. and pumped that feeding until my little was 6mo and eating solids.
The key for me was teaching him to self soothe from the very beginning. He just talks himself to sleep. The few CIO sessions we did were short and worth every minute. So thankful for moms on call suggestions and the freedom to let him work things out!
