POST YOUR SUCCESS STORIES HERE!!!

[marijke]

Finally I can post my succes story! My ds didn't sleep well at all (severe reflux, waking every 10 mins in the beginning). I kept sleep training him (ok used a paci but no addiction) and last night it payed off... he slept for 11 hours without waking (he's 7 months)!!!!! Our ped referred us to a sleep doctor in the university hospital who told us to use ferber method, but we didn't and he did it all by himself!!!!

[TKDmom]

Hello everyone, I wanted to share a success story. 
My LO was born Sept 3, 2006.  She was colicky for 3 months and then was never a good sleeper.  I felt like a bad mother, my baby slept but not well and not long.  She also only ever had 30 minute naps from the time she was 2 weeks old.  She would stay awake for 2 hours and sleep for 1/2 hour...all day and then she would sleep for 3-5 hour stretches at night.  This continued until she was 8 weeks, then my DH bought a battery operated swing.  We lived on borrowed time (and D cell batteries) until she was 5 months old.  Then she was too big for it and we had to put her into her cot.  We went to a pediatrician who told me to let her cry it out for 20 minutes at a time.   My LO woud cry for over an hour before she would go to sleep...but she always woke crying.  I found myself crying sometimes just as much as she.  Someone had recommended the BW books and I just didn't get any (really kick myself now!).  Finally after just over 9 months I bought the BWSAYP book and another one my DH had recommended to him.  I started with the other book and didn't care for it so I started the BW.  I read the book and just loved it, so I thought, I will do this and I will stick to it...Start as you mean to go...are the words that were in my head.  My DH wasn't much help for the first 3 days, but after that he was on board. 
The book was great, but it didn't seem to work well for my DD.  However, in the book it mentions this site.  I can honestly say I would never have made it if it were not for this site and nursekat, that's for sure!  I wrote almost daily and nursekat was always there, helping me through it...tweaking things and making suggestions. 
After 2 weeks and 2 days of frustration and exhaustion...she slept through the night.  I was ecstatic, she did it 2 nights in a row, she is now and EASY baby. 
I want people to know that if I can over come all my accidental parenting...anyone can.  Now my DD is happy and napping/sleeping well.  It's not every day, but it's most days and I am so thankful for that!  If anyone wants to read the details it posted under General Sleep Issues -Trouble with the S in Easy.
Thanks
Kelly

[Wilsmon]

Well, not sure it this is the place to post this.  I am not sure how much of a "success" story we are, unless you consider we now have a very independent and good sleeper.  It took us two years (with each child) but we made it!

I am mostly a debate board poster as of late, but decided it was time for me to move on.  I have a full time job and cannot devote much time here.  So I guess I wanted to just add some parting thoughts before I go.

The lack of sleep is EXTREMELY hard, I know.  But one piece of advise I would give is to just try hard to stick with it.  Some see results sooner than others.  For us, I never felt we found that "magic" answer, but we just tried hard to stick with the program as best as possible and, foremost, since we did not want to co-sleep, avoided taking either of our lo's to our bed.  We always went to their rooms.  We spent many nights standing over or sleeping next to both our lo's crib or beds or just outside the door - for up to 2 1/2 hrs many nights.  But, like I said, we now have a 2 1/2 yr that asks to go to bed!  And both he and our dd are now great sleepers. 

Anyway, I guess what I am saying is, no matter how bad it seems, they will eventually sleep!  Keep asking for advice and working through things, but know that there is light at the end of the tunnel.  Adenoids, ear infections and teething were our three biggest sleep killers.  It passes, and now we have two very independent sleepers.  They both go to bed without a fuss and rarely wake at night.  We still have some milestones (move to big bed and potty training) but I am confident that we have set up ds for a lifetime of good sleep. 

Hang in there and hoping for lots of zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz's in all of your futures!

[rashpal]

I just want to add my own success story here too. Approximately 4 to 6 weeks ago, I came to this board in desperate need of help. My son, who was 9 months old at the time, wouldn't sleep without falling asleep on the bottle. Once asleep, he would require being held for hours at a time at night.

I followed what people suggested. He, at first cried for naps, but now he falls right to sleep (although occassionally he'll fuss for a few minutes) It's been 2 weeks now and he sleeps by HIMSELF. He soothes himself for naps and at night, when he wakes up, he makes noises for a few minutes and goes BACK to sleep. I feel human again!! And he is sleeping almost 12 hours a night. It's fantastic.

Thank you so very much.

[skatty]

I have what I consider a really big success story even though things aren't perfect. Basically things started going wrong for us around the dreaded 9/10 month mark with NWs and short naps caused by OT, teething illness and milestones 

Basically we were getting short naps or were running out of day for the PM nap, also every night we were getting at least one NW but quite often up to 6  I started logging all sleep in mid August which is when I started to cut the AM nap in order to get a decent PM nap so was starting the 2-1 switch. Unfortunately after a few days success at waking DD at the 45 min mark in the AM she started to wake at 30 mins for both naps and NWs continued. I put this down to her learning to get into a seated position from tummy, learning to crawl, pull up and cruise all within 10 days and also teething but it continued....for another 6 weeks!!! I was at the end of my tether and then 2 days before DD's first birthday she had to go to the doc in her AM nap time so ended up not having a nap for 4hrs 40 and ended up sleeping 1hr and 10 mins which was the longest nap she had taken in months, she then had a 35 min catnap that afternoon and slept through the night  Well the lightbulb went off for me and I decided that the short AM nap wasn't working for us and started pushing the nap towards lunchtime and giving an afternoon catnap, this was a month ago and since then we have only had 2 NWs, one was teething and she went to sleep once given meds and the other was a dirty nappy. After 2 weeks of this new routine her wake up times went from 5.45 -6.15am to around 7ish (sometimes even 7.30am ) She now has one nap a day averaging around 1hr15 which is not much but for her is more than her 2 naps combined and is more restorative as it's in one go, she then goes to bed around 5.30pm at night and sleeps for 13+ hours though I am hoping the nap will extend and she will start going to bed later again. Anyway here is a summary of what I learned through all this, I just hope it can help someone some day  :

*When things are going wonky your LO's sleep has to be your life's top priority so you can both get through it.

* Early bedtimes are your best friend, DD went to bed as early as 4.30pm on more than one occassion and didn't wake any earlier.

*WIWO is the best action for NWs otherwise you can end up a prisoner in your LO's bedroom and actually prolong their wakings.

*Yes teething does cause NWs but it is also easy to blame teeth when OT is probably more often the culprit. DD is now teething molars and as long on bad days she has meds before bed she still sleeps through!!

*All LOs are different and what works for most may not work for you, if you have tried a method for a long time and things aren't improving it's probably time to try something else.

* I used to get really stressed and angry about DD's bad naps but one day I thought about it and said to myself it is not her fault she can't nap and she needs my help to get things on track. This really helped me as instead of getting worked up I would take her out of the pram, cuddle her and tell her she's OT and I am going to try and make it better. I would then put her to bed early for the night and make my plan for the following day.

* I read "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child", I ignored the sleep training but I found it really helped me to understand the importance of sleep and the science behind it.

Well as I said before I hope this can help somebody. Things are not perfect for us but after having a year of inconsistant naps and being a prisoner to our home this is like a holiday for us so if you also have always struggled with naps then at least you can look forward to the 2-1 switch and not be shocked after having two long naps everday like clockwork and then it all goes wrong 

[tkm]

Hi our LO is 6 months today and has slept through the night for 3 weeks now!  He's a very spirited baby and I, too, had to listen to stories about babies of friends and family who slept through the night from 3 weeks.  I knew from the beginning that he was just so tired that he could never get to sleep, nap properly, etc.  Everyone, including my mother, would say 'he doesn't look tired to me' but I knew that wild-eyed fidgeting was not a good thing!!!!  We (I) tried everything, pacifier, sleeping in arms, co-sleeping, PU/PD (which really freaked him out).  I was so tired I just couldn't even bring myself to formulate a plan!  In the end it was two things: 1-listen to yourself!  even though this might be your first baby and it seems like everyone has so much more experience, YOU are the mum and you know and love your baby more than anyone. I knew that the pacifier was probably the culprit and as soon as we got rid of it (and husband backed me up), he put himself to sleep; 2- a support network is crucial - we MUST sleep.  It might be a friend, your husband, or pay a babysitter, but we can't deal with sleep issues until we ourselves are rested.  It took a while, but my husband finally realized that I was about to lose it! This website was also an important part of that network - just knowing that I could come back and read other stories and receive advice made me feel more normal.  Thanks everyone!

[Wriggly]

Hi there,

Wanted to post my recent success battling EWs - my lo is now nearly 6 months old, a spirited textbook baby. We started EASY at 3months when I discovered BW - changed our lives. Got him on good routine, he slept through almost straight away. Was napping well and self soothing great, putting himself to sleep nearly all the time. Then about a month ago he started waking earlier and earlier, would leave him as long as possible but a week ago he woke at 4am, and I went in to ssh him, which worked but took me 40 minutes. DH and I were starting to get stressed about it as it threw the whole day off track, my lo was really tired every morning, grumpy etc, not his usual chirpy self. Naps were becoming difficult as he was obviously OT all day. I spent two weeks bent over his cot at nearly every nap time, putting him to sleep, then doing shush pat through at 30 minutes, it was killing me as he'd then be stirriong by 4.30/5am, so so was I. Tried W2S but didn't work as he wasn't waking at same time. But he wasn't hungry either. Some days he'd have great naps, but we'd still get EW. We tried earlier to bed, later to bed, everything, but still he was waking earlier and earlier.

Our solution - we realised he wasn't tired enough going to bed and down for naps and needed much more A time each day. He was on 4 hour EASY so we dropped the catnap cold turkey, keep him up after his second nap until bed time (that meant 5 hours or more A time) - I know it sounds mad, and not BW recommended as such but he's such a curious baby. He did doze off for a few minutes at catnap time for a couple of days, but we kept him awake, he was very tired going to bed and it seems to be working. He now wakes at aorund 6.30am, and we barely hear a peep out of him. He seems to sleep more soundly. He's eating better. His naps have suddenly improved, and I feel human again!

Think this works as he's spirited, so do consider undertired for EWs as well!

[KitchenerMom]

I just wanted to give moms of Touchy Babies a success story...

DD#1 was AP'ed in the worst way for the first 4 months, DH and I had no idea what we were doing when we cuddled her to sleep or when she would scream herself to sleep on her play mat.  By the time I found BW, she was napping only 20mins, never went to sleep by herself, woke every 2hrs at night to "eat", and I was a walking zombie.  But by using Tracey's suggestions and separating out each problem I would have to tackle, I took it one step at a time.

First, DD's naps grew to 45 mins.  She would take less and less time to fall asleep in her crib.  Moving up her bedtime meant slightly longer sleeptimes at night.  Using a post on habit-eating, I switched her habit Breastfeeds to bottle feeds and she slowly gave up the habit-eating one at a time.  After 5 exhausting and miserable months, DD was a decent sleeper both at night and at naps.  The great thing is, that now she is almost 3yrs, and she can still fall asleep by herself, sleep through most nights (other than for nightmares) and still takes 2 hr naps in the afternoon provided I get her down before her window is missed.  All that "torture" was well worth it, especially because she was a Touchy Baby.

If anyone with a Touchy Baby is reading this and needs encouragement with their sleep training, consider yourself hugged!

[shark]

Aussie Swaddle saved my sanity!

I was going insane because my lo would only sleep if he was being held in someone's arms.  It didn't matter if it was naps or night time, the only place he seemed to be able to sleep was in an adults arms (he would sleep in his carseat, stroller and baby swing as long as they were moving, but woke within minutes of motion stopping).  We tried putting him down swaddled, unswaddled, elevating the head of the bed, darker room, lighter room, warmer room, cooler room, nothing seemed to work!  No matter what we did, if he was asleep and we put him down in his bed he would be awake within minutes.  I was losing my sanity as I had to be his bed for all his naps and all night and was barely sleeping myself.  Then I came across the aussie swaddle on this website and tried it when he was 9wks old, and he has been sleeping in his bed for naps and nights ever since (he's 13weeks now)!
In retrospect, I think the problem was that he needed to be swaddled but the "traditional" swaddling which had his hands pinned down by his body didn't allow him to suck on his hands which he REALLY likes for comfort.  So when we swaddled him with his hands down he screached and hollered at the top of his lungs and when we didn't swaddle him at all he kept startling himself awake.  The aussie swaddle let him have his hands to suck on and at the same time keeps him tied down so he can sleep.  Within days of implementing the aussie swaddle (and finally being able to sleep in my own bed myself) I felt some sanity returning. 
My next project is to get him into a more regular EASY schedule.  We've been doing EAS since birth but with his erratic sleep up until recently it has been kind of hectic going anywhere from 2.5-4hrs between feeds and little difference between day and night.  We never did anything at the same time on 2 days in a row!  But we are slowly getting into a more regular EASY and things are definetely looking brighter.

Thanks!

[fifibobandmore]

So much inspiraction here. I think my DS#2 is finally sleep trained. Went down for his nap today and sleept for 3 hours. Just put him in his cot said nap-time now see u soon and blow him an air kiss and cuddle (this is what his dad does so I was just continueing all his hard work with him being a way on work until monday) checked on him 10 mins later and he was a sleep on his front with his legs pulled right up under his belly. And did the same again at bed time folded DH bed-time routine of bath, massage, pj's, story, bf then cuddle while being carried to bed. Once laid in bed blanket over feet only teddy at top of bed near the wall bars nigth, night sleep time now see u in the morning followed by an air kiss and cuddle. Checked on him 10 minutes later and again he was a sleep. This is the first time in 2 months that I have had to put him to bed as DH decided to take control of sleep training because of him being bfed. I think this helped him as it took me almost 2 years to get my DD sleep trained but she had reflux problems for that 2 years and was attached to me as a paci until she was 18 months. So I have 2 success stories as my DS#1 was sleep trained from the moment he was born. All we had to do with him was milk, nappy change of clothes lay in the crib and with in 10 minutes he would be fast a sleep. DD was the worst for sleep training and DS#1 was the best.

[Colin Macs Mom]

http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=145073.0

[Mom2Allison]

This really works! It took us about 6 weeks but we are finally there!  I had been holding/nursing to sleep from November until February.  I read the baby whisperer and started it immediately.  The first few nights were rough.  She started sleeping through the night within a week.  I was happy with that.  Bedtime was a bigger struggle.  I slowly worked my way out of her room.  Monday night, I put her down and walked out of the room.  I had to return 3/4 times to put her down and leave again.  After that, she was quiet.  The next night we were out of town, I stayed in the room until she fell asleep, because it was a different place.  Wednesday night I had to go back in 3/4 times again.  Last night, I put her down and walked out, no crying.  I'm so happy I found this book and this method.  Crying it out didn't work because she threw up from crying so hard.  I know there will be bumps in the road but now I know how to deal with them and get back on track.  I was starting to think I was never going to get to this point.  Be patient.  My baby was a good sleeper early on and slipped off track from teething and illness.  It may take a while but stick with it. It's worth it!

[Maiwenn's mom]

I want to share my success in extending naps, thanks to a post on this website. My LO is an angel baby, but she was a chronic 45 minutes napper. She also slept well during the night but she would wake a couple of times - I would just have to go in and pop the paci back in her mouth and she'd fall back asleep instantly.
At some point I actually thought her natural rhythm was to have short naps because she was happy enough when she woke up and didn't seem overtired...then I wondered if the NW could be linked to her short naps, so I tried extending her naps.

I followed the suggestion of Heather10 of a modified W2S approach...the first time I went in, I managed to keep her from waking up at around 40 minutes...I stayed with my hands on her for about 10 minutes and then left the room...it took about 2 minutes for her to jolt awake! It took me a good 20 minutes to get her back to sleep - I realized I had left the room too early - she wasn't into a deep sleep yet. The next nap - I committed to staying as long as it would take for her to go into her deep sleep...it took 25 minutes! My back was killing me. But she slept through and had a good 1.5 hours nap. I did the same with all of her naps during the day - I was really hard I have to admit and I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to keep it up for very long...it seemed I was in her room most of the day!
but then, night came and she didn't wake up once! I thought that might have been a fluke. The next day, because of a doctor's appointment, I wasn't able to ensure she'd get a full 1.5 hours nap - following night, she woke up again. For me that was it: the more sleep she got during the day, the more she'd sleep at night! So i decided to commit the next week to helping her fall back asleep for every single naps. Just as Heather10 had predicted, it started taking less and less time. I soon stayed in her room, close to her crib but wouldn't actually touch her unless I saw she was getting restless...and eventually after barely a week I didn't go in at all...It's been 2 weeks and Maiwenn is sleeping solidly 2 hours for her first morning nap and at least 1.5 hours for her afternoon nap...I'm so happy, and so proud of her...and SO SO SO thankful to Heather10 (and Mathewsmommy for putting her post back!).

Sophie

[jashton]

Just wanted to post my success story too. I started the EASY method with my daughter almost two years ago when she was first-born. There were days when I shsh-patted her until I thought I was going to lose my arm I tried the wake-to-sleep thing a bunch too. She was never a great napper, but after months of sticking with it, things REALLY clicked at 4 months! She has essentially slept through the night since. And has become a great napper.

Our #2 (boy!) came along 6 months ago - and he LOVED EASY from day one! I have to say it is easier the second time around. And the hard work and consistency pays off! Now we have a 6 month old and a 22 month old (2 under 2!) and even though people look at us like we are nuts for having them so close - it really is "EASY!" I hear stories of parents up at all hours of the night with their toddlers, and still struggling with their little ones, and I'm so glad I stuck with it. Thank you Baby Whisperer mentors and friends!!

Jackie

Jackie Ashton
Founder, Baby Brain - the ultimate iPhone app for parents
jackie@maternia.us
http://www.babybrainapp.com/

[ALmom]

I found the BW book and then forums when N was about 5 months old, and still waking 2-3 times a night.  We were drained.  I started PU/PD, had a hard first week (but made it through, reassured by people here that we were doing it the right way) and within a month it was so much better - he now sleeps through the night almost every night, only occasionally waking once between 1-3am because he's hungry!

(Of course now he's teething, and cranky when we're trying to GET him to sleep, but once he's there he stays asleep!)

Thank you, ladies, for all your help and support.