Sleep train your baby in 3 days? If only I had known sooner!
When your baby is pass the stage of having to feed every three hours, many moms wonder about the best way to sleep train. Some have the time and energy to use the No-Tears Method, where they respond to their older baby’s every desire, no matter what time of night, but working moms might find this challenging. Sleep training this way can take longer than biting the bullet and using the Ferber Method. You’ve heard about it, otherwise known as the Cry-It-Out Method. You’ve heard about how it works wonders when it comes time to sleep train your older baby. However, you just can’t bring yourself to let your baby cry for hours until they fall asleep. You might wonder if there is a middle ground.
There is a way to sleep train your baby in just days without leaving them for hours to cry alone.
My first little boy was spoiled rotten, never got put down, and had to be rocked to sleep for every nap. When he got older, we really paid for all this coddling. He would not sleep through the night, waking just to be held. We put up with it for as long as we could, but as working parents, the sleeplessness was taking its toll. As new parents, we decided to research our options on sleep training. The Ferber Method has a high success rate among reviewers, so we decided to give it a try but with a less-severe approach.
These are the steps to successful sleep training using the Ferber Method with comfort:
Night one: Lay baby down and let him or her cry for five minutes. Go in, rub baby’s back, but don’t pick baby up. Stay for one minute and leave. Repeat the process until they fall asleep.
We spent 27 minutes in night one. It was a heart-breaking night, and I still remember every one of those minutes three years later.
Night two: Repeat the process, but increase crying time to seven minutes.
We spent 15 minutes in night two.
Night three: Repeat the process, but increase crying time to ten minutes.
Our baby stopped crying after we left after his first interval. He didn’t cry on night four.
This sleep training method worked for us, and it was faster than I expected. Sleep training in 3 days! Who knew? It might vary a little from baby to baby, but it beats many months of sleepless nights.
I also have a good tip for brand-new parents who just came home with their baby. By the time my second one arrived, I knew what to do. I always laid him down awake, so that, by the time he was ready to sleep through the night, it was a piece of cake. I never had a problem with that one and never had to listen to my baby cry for 27 minutes. It was the best thing I ever did.
The bottom line is, there is no correct way to sleep train your baby, just the one that makes mommy and daddy feel the most comfortable. No one will completely agree with you (some will be downright confrontational), but that’s okay because you know what’s right for your family. After day 3, and a full night’s rest, what you did won’t seem so harsh.