Sleeping situation seems to be better with our 15mos old.
Some history for those who are looking for sleeping advice.
So, our daughter was a great sleeper from like 4mos -> 9mos. 7 to 7 almost every night, would take up sometimes but not often... And a bottle would put her back down. At 9 or 10 months she started regressing, around when she was teething, and she's wake up at 2-4am and just... not go back to sleep. When we were on vacation with her this happened and we were exhausted/jet lagged and took her into our bed when she woke up, and she went RIGHT to sleep... So we got into the bad habit of when she'd wake up, we'd take her into our bed.
Well, fast forward several months and the waking up thing wasn't sporadic... it was every night... and instead of her going rigt to bed... she'd WIRED and awake for 1, 2, sometimes 3 hours. My wife is aheavy sleeper and would fall asleep immediately, but I'd basically be up all night unable to get the baby to sleep.
So I resolved to try some sleep training stuff. After reading some stuff online and chatting in this thread, I did a kind of hybrid extinction method.
Here's what I do:
- Like normal, put baby to bed at 7, 715ish. Shes' really good about going to sleep at night, only takes a few minutes to be honest after I lay her down. Sometimes longer but rarely.
- When she wakes up at night, say midnight, 3am, whenever, I go into her room... shes' up, screaming, I lay her down and just kinda rub her back for a while -- I don't take her out. After a few mins when she's calmed down, I leave the room.
- I set a timer for 10mins on my phone and let her cry, after 10mins, I go back in and do the same, but I stick around a little longer this time, either rubbing her back or sitting in a chair in the room. After 5-10mins, I get up and leave, set a timer for 20mins on my phone.
- Repeat, if she's still crying, and let her cry for 20 mins when I do the same, repeaat that, and set a timeer for 30 mins. FInally, after 30mins if she's still crying, I'll take her into our bed and call it a night.
Results:
I started this on MOnday and Monday was a kinda rough night. She woke up at 2am or so, and I was in and out of her room for the full hour, maybe hour and 15 mins. BUT, when I finally stopped the training for te night and took her into our bed she fell RIGHT asleep and slept hard till ~7am the next morning, so it wasn't bad. I was resolute and stuck to the plan so while she didn't go to sleep on her own, I was okay with it because that was the plan.
Tuesday, she actually woke up at midnight which is unusual so I suspect a loud car drove by. But, on this night, she actually went to sleep the second stint in her room when I rubbed her back. I was able to sneak out and she slept thru the night till 630am which is when I'm usually getting up for work, so that's great.
Wednesday, she woke up again around 330am or so, and likewise, during the second stint she was getting tired but this time she actually put herself to sleep while she was sitting up and crying when I left... so like 5mins into my 20min timer it's quiet and I look at the Nest cam, and she's laying down, and within minutes she's out...a nd she slept till 6ish again, which again was great.
Thursday night ... she slept through the whole night! 7pm to about 615am! She onl woke up when my wife was leaving for work.
I'm still anticipating some regressions, but it's gone better and better every night. My wife's away this weekend which I think actually makes it easier for me at night because I'm better at shutting her door and letting her cry than my wife is, when my wife is awake if the baby's crying then my wife is really uneasy and can't let her cry it out. So, I'm hoping that by Monday, one full week, we'll be in for a really good routine.