Please help me sleep train my 4 month old

amother

Sun, Jul 05 2020, 12:11 am

So she should go to sleep calmly at whatever time she prefers, and should wake up 2 times max throughout the night.
Currently she gets overtired after refusing to go to sleep earlier, and begins screaming hysterically.
Ocassionally she has a good night or two when she goes in calmly, wakes up 2or3 times but goes right back to sleep- but that's like once every two weeks. Usually she's fussy, overtired, cries when I leave her, cries when I hold her, isn't hungry...

I have the weissbluth book but only used that method on my other kids when they were older, 9 months +. (They slept nicely as infants!) I think she's too young for that...

#Happymom

Sun, Jul 05 2020, 12:18 am

K, heres my advice.

Do you know her awake time limit? For babies her age, she would need to sleep after 1.5 -2 hours of waking up. If you do this religously, then when she wakes up from her last nap arou d 5 ish, keep her up til 6.30/7 and then feed her in a dark quiet room and put her in her crib afterwards.

Even if she wont fall asleep, keep her in the dark room and keep tryinf, she will learn that when its dark, she needs to sleep. And every time she wakes up, keep her in a dark room. At the beginning, just feed her when she wakes up and put her right back to sleep. Very quickly, she will catch on and start doing longer and longer stretches.

Hatzlocha!

amother

Turquoise

Sun, Jul 05 2020, 9:29 pm

Step 1 - be very consistent with wake windows. At that you age you should be doing something like 1.5/2/2/2.5 (this being the amount of hours your baby is awake between naps) Aim for a consistent bedtime even if it varies in a 45 minute range due to wake time from the last nap. You may need to force a short cat nap in the stroller or while nursing so you can make it to bedtime.

Step 2 - Create a calming bedtime routine that is the same EVERY SINGLE NIGHT. The bedtime routine + circadian rhythm of consistent bedtime will help significantly

Step 3 - establish independent sleep. Move nursing/bottle before bath time to remove a feed/suck to sleep association. Baby should go awake in the crib and fall asleep on her own. Make sure the room is dark and quiet, sound machine can help drown at noise in the house.

Step 4 - wean off night feeds one by one by reducing the amount the baby is fed at each feed. Not feeding within the first 5 hours after bedtime also helps a lot with night wakings during the rest of the night. Early feeds can restablish the suck/eat to sleep association.

Rachel Shira

Sun, Jul 05 2020, 9:37 pm

Seconding the precious little sleep recommendation. You need to establish independent sleep and follow appropriate wake windows carefully along with getting rid of any sleep associations. If you want middle of the night wakings to decrease, she needs to have the skills to fall back asleep on her own between sleep cycles, which would be taught at bedtime.