Hi there!
I have some great news about the sleep training that I started doing with Jamie a couple of weeks ago. Last night he slept 6 hours straight before waking up for a quick feed (only 2 oz) and then another 5 hours of sleep.
Before the training I started preparing him for it by not rocking him to sleep anymore, but cuddling in my bed(during the day) without the dummy or nipple. I would lay him on his side, hug him, sing for a couple of minutes( or tell a story in a monotone voice) then go to sleep myself next to him in that position, this way he had to go to sleep on his own next to me.
This way when we starting the sleep training he could do the basic of getting himself to sleep just not by himself. He still does roll on his side to go to sleep.
I know a lot of moms are very reluctant to do it because of the whole controlled crying thing, but I just have to say that it definitely worked for us. The first 2-3 days were quite hard because he would cry for 15-20 minutes until settling himself down. But on day 4 he cried only for 6 minutes and less and less following days.
What I found really helpful is having a “preparing for a nap” routine of a bottle – nappy change – a bit of a cuddle- telling him “good night” and then laying him in his crib (he is awake) closing the door and leaving him alone in his room.
What I was really worried about at first was him settling himself down and crying making him thirsty… I had this fear that he will dehydrate… but after we started sticking to the nap routine the fear solved itself out and he also starting crying less and less.
While researching sleep training almost everyone advices for you to come in every now and again while the baby is settling himself down to sooth the baby, but I found it to be extremely counter effective! So what I did instead, (which got everything on the right track straight away) was not to come in and sooth him until he wakes up( even if he wakes up after 5 minutes of sleeping, I would come in , pick him up, give him a bit of a bottle if he wanted,give him a cuddle, say good night and lay him back). Jamie realised quite fast because of it, what he is suppose to do. He also started waking up with a smile almost all the time because knew that I will come and pick him up any minute.
What I was really worried about him settling himself down was the crying and him getting thirsty… I had this fear that he will dehydrate… but after we started sticking to the nap routine the fear solved itself out and he also starting crying less and less.
We also got a very good baby monitor( Samsung SEW3037 Baby Monitor), the screen of which I would be glued to the whole time in the next room. It has a “sleep mode” which means that the screen comes on if the baby moved or made a noise, which is fantastic! It also has zoom modes, different sound sensitivity, night light and a range of 900 feet. If you have more than one child you need the monitor for you can connect up to 4 cameras to the same handset. The only downside I found is the battery life is only a couple hours, which means that it has to stay on charge. A couple of nights ago I forgot to plug it in and woke up to one pissed off baby screaming for hard that I heard him through the wall because the monitor died and did not warn me that my baby was waking up.
To say the least the whole family sleeps so much better now, even my Vizsla puppy knows when it is quite time and is a lot calmer now!
Hope this helps to all the moms, dads, babies and doggie’s ears out there.
Lia, Jamie and Peanut x
the Dog the Baby and the Mum 