Name: Vidya

Dear Reena
You are going to get tired of me and my posts. Whenever I see any sleep related posts from other forums, I think of you only. I think that this might help you. So feel free to stop me. This is from babycenter:(somebody has advised for another person)
Establish a schedule:

This means wake your baby at the same time each morning if that’s the time you want to start your day every day. If your child wakes on her own around the same time each day, then that would be your “start time”.

Try to follow and eat/play/sleep cycle. This means that when baby wakes, feed her. Then play with her until she shows signs of being tired. My ds would rub his eyes, yawn and sometimes fuss or look away from me. Once I saw these things, I would know it was time to start the \";going to sleep\"; process. Then rock her (or whatever you do) until you bring your baby to that drowsy state right before sleep sets in. Then lie her down gently in her crib. If she cries, give her a few minutes to try and resettle.

If you are against the CIO method here is a way to sleep train with NO CIO! It takes time and patience but it CAN be done.

When your put your child down to sleep (really drowsy but still barely awake) and she begins to fuss, give her a chance to resettle. Listen to your baby. After a couple of minutes, go in and try to pat her back or rub her head and see if that helps her to resettle. If not, pick her up and rock her (or whatever you do) but don't rock her to sleep. Rock her to that really drowsy state again and put her back down.

Sometimes you will need to do this 10x or more at one naptime. You put her down and she begins to cry so you pick her up and rock her again and try to put her down again. This can get tiring but, IME, it does payoff.

You are slowly teaching your dd that when you put her down in her crib, it's sleep time and that she will be ok. She will learn this if you stick with it. If you feel overwhelmed have dh or whoever you can step in and do it for you if your dd will allow.

(Thank you Heidi –for the above method. Heidi has sleep trained her last 3 children this way and it has worked for her.)


When your baby is older than 4 months and the above method is not working for your child:

I used a modified CIO with my ds. It took about 3 weeks to train him using this method.

I did all of the above listed things with 1 exception:

If my ds cried when I put him down super drowsy, I would let him cry for 10 minutes. I had to watch the clock because it feels like forever! If he was still crying after 10 minutes, I would go comfort him until he was no longer crying. I would see if he was going to get drowsy again. If he did, I put him back down. If he cried, I’d give him another 10 minutes and repeat process. He only cried for 20 minutes or more a few times.

Basically I used a modified version of CIO which included 10 minute checks/comforting.



Some food for thought:

It will take time. My ds slept thru the night at 8 weeks but this is very early. Expect that your baby will probably wake once a night for a feeding for about 4-6 months. Just keep it dim, no stimulation and follow the daytime schedule (most important not allowing more than 3 hours between meals and never letting baby sleep more than 3 hours stretches), and your baby should go back to sleep during/after that middle of the night feeding.

Sometimes it’s just not going to work at a particular nap. If my child was hysterical, I always just went and got him and tried again later.

If my baby was crying, I’d let him cry for 10 minutes.

If my baby was fussing (or, as I called it, \";complaining\", I’d let him do that and he would fall asleep usually.

Use your instincts! Don’t stress if everything doesn’t go perfectly! All babies are different and if you follow these methods consistently, I believe it will happen and you and your baby will be on your way to blissful sleep! AHHHHHH!

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