I will never forget when my first born hit 4 months old. My baby who used to, by definition, sleep through the night 8-10 hours in a row, suddenly was very “awake”. This is called the 4 month wakeful period and it felt like it would break me as a mother. He was waking more than he did when he was a newborn and I was tired. Luckily a friend recommended to me that I try sleep training, and I’m so glad that she did. It changed our lives for the better and our whole family was well rested again. Not only do both of my kids nap well, but if we’re on vacation or at someone else’s home, they just know how to go to sleep. It might take a bit of fussing or they might not settle as well, but they always do. I used the book SleepEasy to sleep train our babies and modified it slightly to work best. Here are the basic points of this method of sleep training:
- Baby must be at least 4 months old and 14 lbs and not going through any major milestones or illness
- Lay baby down to sleep awake at all times so they don’t associate eating/rocking with falling asleep
- Wean baby from nighttime feedings – breastfeeding or bottle feeding – by doing scheduled dreamfeeds and by cutting the length of those dreamfeeds by two minutes per night
- Dreamfeeds are to be timed for an hour before baby usually wakes
- If baby wakes during the night, baby must fall back to sleep by themselves
- You can go into baby’s room/wherever baby sleeps to give them verbal assurance only at timed intervals. Do NOT pick them up – this is a big key
- After baby falls back to sleep, go in and do a dreamfeed and set the alarm to wake up for the next dreamfeed
- Do not use a pacifier, toy aquarium, mobile, etc. to associate with sleep, instead introduce a lovie of some sort
- Must stay in bed for 11 hours (anything more is bonus) at night and 1 hour for all naps
- They will make up for their missed night calories during the day
Sleep Training Blog Posts
- Tales of a Sleep Deprived Mom – When I realized something needed to change when Braden was 4 months
- Sleep Training Braden – Documented nights 1-5 of sleep training Braden
- Getting Excited for Sleep Training Again – Getting ready for sleep training Ethan
- How to Survive the 4 Month Wakeful Period
- Sleep Training Ethan
- Sleep Training Jonathan
- A Letter From a Sleep Trained Baby – A response to a popular blog post
- Weaning From the Pacifier
- Babies & Sleep: Tips for Safe Sleep Using Common Sense – In response to a new study regard sound machines & effects of swaddling
- Dear Weary Mother Whose Baby Won’t Sleep – Guest post by a certified sleep consultant at SleepWell Baby
- 5 Tips for Successful Sleep Training
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