Author Topic: Success stories?  (Read 88899 times)

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Offline SiestaNoMore

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Re: Success stories?
« Reply #15 on: December 17, 2007, 04:06:15 am »
Success at reducing NW for 12 month old and then eliminating them when he turned 22 months.....

When I first joined this site we had a 12 month co-sleeping, paci-addicted, nurse-to-sleep boy who was sleeping for 45 minute stints - including during the night!

We were able to drop the night wakings from sometimes upwards to 12 times/night to about 2 by using Gradual Withdrawal. We had so many things to work on that all at once! We - moved him to his crib, introduced a lovey, got rid of the paci, started putting him in his crib fully awake and then per Gradual Withdrawal we stayed in his room until he fell asleep.

But we kind of got stuck in Gradual Withdrawal holding pattern and were never able to leave his room until he fell asleep - 10 months later we were still doing that and he was still having a couple NW per night.

With the help of success stories on this board (Sarah2 sleep training her boy Henry using WI/WO was an especially big inspiration to me), we took the leap and used WI/WO. In just 2 nights, our DS was putting himself to sleep without us in the room and is using his newly learned technique to put himself back to sleep without us in the middle of the night too! After 22 months, we had our very first sleep through the night and he has been doing so well since!
We are still celebrating over here! Big thanks to everyone on this board!

Offline LaNita

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Re: Success stories?
« Reply #16 on: December 17, 2007, 14:39:10 pm »
What is WI/WO?...I wonder how many other sleep-training methods I don't know about LOL. I pray, talking about my new-found success doesn't bring the NW back! A week ago, my 15 wk DD would only sleep one 3-hr stretch after finally going to bed at 9:30/10pm (and maybe 8:30 pm if we got lucky!) Even that was a big improvement considering when I started BW, she was having melt downs that started as early as 5pm and didn't end until going to bed at 11pm/12am. After the first stretch she would NW every hr. to nurse back to sleep. During the day, she was only taking 45 min-1hr naps and would only take them after being rocked to sleep.

Night 1 of PU/PD it took 2 hrs before she passed out! I was just relieved it didn't take the whole night b/c I honestly thought that it would. She's spirited and very strong-willed. The next day she was going down (and staying down at least 1.5 hrs) for naps w/out any props whatsoever.

Night 2 there was no need for PU/PD!!! She went to sleep at 7pm and woke 3 times. Each time she fell back to sleep on her on in 15-min or less! (I decided to completely wean her of night-feeds cold turkey, including the DF) I had 2 more nights like this before she started rolling over and that started a whole other string of problems! She would completely wake after flipping over and would be up at night sometimes for as long as 2.5 hrs!! Then, she'd only fall asleep after being held down by either me or dad. We also had this problem during naptimes for the next few days!...I really felt defeated

I've stayed consistent and now it seems for the past couple of nights we've been successful! She's going to bed at 7 pm! She's only waking once between 12am and 2a but she's putting herself back to sleep and not waking until 6:45ish in the morning to eat!!! She's not doing so much rolling over...I'm loving it. though I still haven't gotten much sleep b/c I'm used to being up all night so I've just been up (sort of scared to go to sleep) lol We've still had some problems w/naps but we're working them out...my next task will be getting her to sleep in her crib in her own room. She currently sleeps in her pack 'n' play in our room, but I think her and I both are ready for our own rooms b/c currently dad and I are sleeping in the living room. All the noise she makes is starting to keep me awake and vise versa.

Offline SiestaNoMore

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Re: Success stories?
« Reply #17 on: December 17, 2007, 22:28:46 pm »
Sorry LaNita - I didn't realize I just used the initials! WI/WO stands for Walk In/Walk Out and is (I believe) only used for older babies. There is lots about this method on the Toddler Sleep Boards. Here is a link that describes the two methods we used (Gradual Withdrawal and WalkIn/WalkOut) for our Toddler who had many NW and now with the help of BW methods - is a much better sleeper!

https://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=80750.0

« Last Edit: December 17, 2007, 22:30:47 pm by SiestaNoMore »

Offline brenda2

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Re: Success stories?
« Reply #18 on: February 05, 2008, 22:49:19 pm »
ok i think i have a success story regarding NW for our 5.5 month old!

she was waking 8 times a night, sometimes to be replugged with her paci and sometimes from hunger.  we changed 3 things and 2 weeks later things are a whole lot better!!

1) weaned from the paci - this was not as hard as i thought it would be and soooo worth it!  we went cold turkey and introduced a lovey that she can cuddle and control herself.  now she can put herself to sleep and if she wakes in the night she can put herself back to sleep without me.

2) increased A times during the day.  our "ideal" schedule is now 2 long naps and no catnap, which works because she can tolerate the longer A times without getting OT.  i think a lot of the time i was putting her down for naps when she wasn't tired enough and so she would take a short nap and that would throw off the schedule for the rest of the day.

3) started her on food.  she was legitimately hungry when waking up at night, so i was feeding her and she was waking up due to this.  increasing her food and supplementing with formula (BF baby) helped to decrease the hunger related NW.

so, it's been about a week of really good sleep (hope i'm not jinxing myself here) and i am only waking once to feed...which i'll try to wean her from that maybe in another month.

so not sure which was the most important piece, i think all were important...it's tough to figure it out, you really have to look at everything!  and then when you figure it out it all changes right!  anyway, i hope this info helps someone  :)
   

   


Offline Liz627

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Re: Success stories?
« Reply #19 on: April 18, 2008, 02:53:43 am »
I've been encouraged by your stories of perseverance & success. . .my DS (Baby #3) is 7.5 old and wakes frequently at night. Thought he was hungry til recently reading BW. . .DH is in month 12 of a 15 month deployment to Afghanistan. . .so I need all the cheering on I can get. Thanks!

Offline netb

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Re: Success stories?
« Reply #20 on: April 29, 2008, 22:33:06 pm »
I have a success stopry similar to brenda2 and I am very pleased with myself so far! Our DD is almost 4.5mo and was waking every hour after midnight quite frequently. She always went back to sleep quickly when we put the dummy back in so I decided that was the problem and started weaning about 5 days ago. Now, every night (and naps) are getting better and better. Just last night (and todays naps) she has started settling herself when she wakes up and I only got up twice last night (both times were her feed times anyway). Today she has even settled herself off to sleep for her nap without me hanging round/hand on chest/etc. I just left the room and she went off to sleep. Yay!!!

I am also encouraged by brenda's use of starting solids at this age as my LO is also hungry twice in the night so I am feeding her then but maybe solids is the next step. She is showing interest in my food and opening her mouth when I move things close to her while I am eating!

I hope things continue to get better and better but I can definitely recommend weaning from the dummy if you are like me and having to get up to re-plug multiple times in the night. I just went cold turkey and stopped using it in 1 day but I know there are gentler methods if this seems too daunting. Good luck with other successes.

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Re: Success stories?
« Reply #21 on: August 05, 2008, 06:17:09 am »
I think I have a success story .... although I am almost reluctant to post as i don't want to jinx it! Our DD is 9.5 mo and since about 3 mo (when she cut her first teeth) she has been waking anywhere from 2 to 8 times a night. Obviously some of these were for a feed but often she would wake for no apparent reason and take up to 2 hours to resettle!! And it was horrible resettling her as she cried and cried. Poor thing. My DD, DH and I were all zombies. For the last month we have been down to one or two night wakings which are usually for a discernable reason (such as coming out of blankets or loss of dummy) and she is easy to settle most of the time.

The main things we changed were reintroducing the swaddle and dummy! I know this goes against most of the posts on here but it worked for us, so hey! The other big thing, which also seems to defy logic, is that we went away for a week on holiday. Things definitely started to improve after this. I think that sleeping in a different environment just broke that habit of waking but I don't really know. Maybe she just grew out of it!

Anyway, that's our story. I hope that those who are enduring NW's get some sleep soon.

Offline Bryony

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Re: Success stories?
« Reply #22 on: August 05, 2008, 14:29:42 pm »
Thanks for posting, Mumble!

xx


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Offline marty

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Re: Success stories?
« Reply #23 on: August 10, 2008, 15:16:28 pm »
Wow, just a couple of weeks ago I never thought I would be posting my success story here.  My 6-month-old son had reflux and in the beginning woke as often as every 45 minutes at night, with his longest stretch usually just 3-4 hours.  I was going crazy with the sleep deprivation.  I would try giving him the paci when he woke or shush-pat him back to sleep, only to have him wake up an hour later crying again.  He wasn't well rested either, and had very short awake times during the day.  We were <this> close to doing cry it out. 

So what changed??  I had to stop breastfeeding so I could start a new medication.  After his first day on almost all formula, he slept for 8 hours straight.  The next night, he slept almost 12 hours, waking only once for the pacifier!  It's been like this for a week now.  I feel like a new woman.

So there are two morals to this story.  First, my son really was waking from hunger and shush-pat/paci were futile and just causing him to wake more often.  Cry it out would have been cruel!  Second, if you are seriously sleep deprived and your health is at risk, consider supplementing with formula or doing formula all together.  Hope this helps!

Offline Bryony

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Re: Success stories?
« Reply #24 on: August 10, 2008, 16:24:11 pm »
Marty - I am so pleased things are going better for you!!

xx


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Offline lanfear

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Re: Success stories?
« Reply #25 on: August 10, 2008, 16:24:31 pm »
it's 1 week we sleep all night!!!!! ;D
alleluja! davide awoke two or three times a night to have the paci or to drink. first of all i gave him chamomile instead of milk. then i was tired. i apply a mix of tracy hogg and estivill methods. he have no problems to asleep by himself in the evening but not so by night, he wanted the paci. so i tried. i give him 3-4 pacies in the bed but not in his mouth. when he awoke i went and tell him to sleep, i cuddled him (in his bed!) and i went away. more and more.
the first night he awoke at 3, i went to him 2 times and then he felt asleep. then at 6, he grumbled for 1 hour but i didn't go. the second night he awoke anly at 6, i went to him 1 times, and then till 8 o clock ....ahhhhhh
from the third night he sleeps from 9pm to 7-8am!!!!
now i must apply the same method for the naps because after 45min he awake... during the day he uses the paci now, but i must do like the nights....

Annalisa

Offline Lex444

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Re: Success stories?
« Reply #26 on: August 15, 2008, 04:29:41 am »
Success story here with a six-month old. He's sleeping 7pm to 7am, only waking a couple of times a week for a night feed at around 2am which I am more than happy to give.

Before, he was waking up four times a night for a feed and it was killing me.

What we did - and some of it isn't BW so please don't flame!
 
1. Closed his door. I'd kept it open until we went to bed, and I think the light and noise disturbed him.

2. Worked on his daytime naps and getting him down before he got overtired, so he does 2 x 2 hour naps. He already could self-settle.

3. Dropped the dreamfeed. I tried it for three months and while it worked when he was 8 weeks old, by five months, he was waking for it and the df didn't seem to reduce the nightwakings.

4. TIME! He's growing older and moving around more, so he's more physically tired and his naps naturally extended, helping his night time sleep.

5. We began solids and now he has three solid meals a day, followed by breastfeeds.

6. A slightly earlier bedtime. We aim for 6.45pm-7pm rather than 7.15-7.30pmish and it seems to help.

7. Ignored his 10pm calling when he would wake for the dreamfeed.

I'd tried both sshh-pat and PU/PD for weeks on end and neither of them worked. Both seemed to stimulate my textbook/touchy son too much.

So after doing some reading we DID do our own form of controlled crying, just went in every five minutes to check him for two nights.
The first night, he called for ten minutes, the second night for three minutes, and then the next night he suddenly stopped waking at ALL and not just at 10pm, but for the rest of the night for the first time in his life. And it's been that way for two weeks now, with a few 2am feeds.

Again, I know the last is not BW but it worked. I have a feeling that he wasn't "crying" as such. He wasn't yelling his heart out, as my husband pointed out, I simply was rushing in too soon. When I listened, I realised what I thought was "crying" was really just fussing and mantra crying, and ignoring it really helped.

Offline *Nicola*

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Re: Success stories?
« Reply #27 on: August 17, 2008, 13:45:29 pm »
Annalisa :) so glad to read that things are improving for you :D Thanks for sharing with us.

Lex444, great success story it sounds like you worked out what works for your LO.  Lots of people do find that working on OT, day time routine etc does wonders for night sleep. 

Just wanted to post a quick reminder that BW philosophy does not support controlled crying or cry it out.  Reading your post I wonder if your baby was doing more of a 'mantra cry' and simply standing back and listening to him enabled you to read his cues better :)
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Offline louis-mummy

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Re: Success stories?
« Reply #28 on: August 19, 2008, 20:39:37 pm »
Hello

Sorry i haven't been around much lately.

Thought i would finally write my success story....

So, Louis is 1 now and finally sleeps through the night *most* nights - yippeeeeeee  ;D

When i first found this board i was on the verge of a nervous breakdown from months of very frequent night wakings - i  had the BW book but needed more support.  A huge thanks to everyone who helped especially Bryony, Brenda and Zoey.

How did we get him STTN?

Stopping the night feedings (BF) made the biggest difference, i am a huge BF champion so i don't suggest night weaning lightly but it made a marked difference to us.
Getting him onto a good routine (something i was always reluctant to do and if i'm honest i still do often hate it - but he thrives on it) as this resolved his chronic OT. 
Crying, i used to hate hearing him cry and would rush into his room to 'help' him....now i wait and see.  TBH he often goes down with proper crying but this only lasts for less than 1 minute so its his sort of mantra cry  :)
 
It took lots of tweaking over a couple of months to see a consistent improvement and like everyone else says you have some setbacks but its so worth it.

To think, at 6 months old he was getting 2 x 45 min naps and a nightime of constantly disturbed sleep  and even now at 1yr old he gets naps totalling 3-3.5 hours and 10-11hrs at night!!  He is a sleep monster now!

For anyone reading this who is desperate for more sleep, i know it seems impossible to believe now but it will get better.  Be consistent, ask for help and stay strong!!!

Sending sleepy vibes to bubbas everywhere

Laura + big boy Louis xx
« Last Edit: August 19, 2008, 20:42:54 pm by louis-mummy »
Laura




Offline *Nicola*

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Re: Success stories?
« Reply #29 on: August 19, 2008, 20:48:24 pm »
What a great success story!!

Thank you for sharing :)
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