Alright y’all… our 6 month old is finally sleeping through the night. Cheers to another successful sleep training experience thanks to the same method we’ve used for all three of our babies. SIDE NOTE – we did this with Drake at 6 months and Ford at 4 months. We waited a little bit longer with Shay because Ford was still in the nursery and we needed to get his room in order before we made the switch. Anyways, we kinda created our own system by taking a few tips from this book + a few random articles/videos we found online. At the end of the day, you should always do what works best for your family. Parenthood is not one-size-fits-all! This sleep training method works really well for us. 🙂

And this is how we introduce it. We’ll go through Shay’s bedtime routine (bath, lotion, read, say night night to things in his room), and feed him a 6 oz. bottle of formula. We make sure he’s burped, the room is dark (sound machine, humidifier, and nightlight are on), and he has his binky. We then rock him until he’s drowsy and put him down awake in his crib. I’ll explain why this is important later. We then close the door… and BOOM, HE’S OUT. haha, just kidding. If he starts fussing (which he will – fussing is a nice way to say scream), the checklist comes into play.

MAKE SURE THAT BABY:

☐ is dry

☐ fed

☐ not too hot or cold

☐ doesn’t have a fever, isn’t teething, gassy, etc.

If these 4 things can be checked off, then we give him time to learn how to fall asleep on his own. I once read that if the above bases are covered, chances are your baby is just crying because they want you, they don’t need you. Sounds harsh, right? That’s what I thought at first. But now we have 3 kids who go to bed without a fight, sleep through the night, and wake up well-rested. PRAISE BE.

We use what we’d call a gentle cry it out (CIO) method. When he’s just learning how to put himself to sleep, we’ll go in ~8-10 minutes to check in. We’ll replace his binky (if he wants it), pat him, make shushing sounds, and say, “We love you bub. It’s time to go to sleep.” We won’t pick him up (unless we think he might have a dirty diaper or something more serious might be going on… always trust your intuition). We then close the door behind us and repeat the cycle until he falls asleep.

The first few nights of doing this require a lot of patience, deep breaths, and wine. It’s not fun to hear your baby crying from their room. However, they’ll surprise you with how quickly they learn – once they’re in bed, it’s time for them to SLEEP. 🙂

Let’s talk about why it’s important for them to go down awake. I wish I could remember where I read this analogy, but it totally resonated with me. Imagine that you fall asleep in your bed, and then wake up in the middle of the night and you’re suddenly in your kitchen. You’d probably think WTF, right? That’s how your baby might feel if you put him down in his crib asleep. Hey, I remember falling asleep in my mom’s arms… and now I just woke up and I’m suddenly in this dark room by myself… how did I get here? *cue crying baby*

If baby goes down in his crib awake, he’ll remember where he’s at if he wakes up in the middle of the night and may have an easier time putting himself back to sleep. This will help everyone get a full night’s rest… no more in and out of bed every time baby fusses!

I also love the idea of baby soothing himself back to sleep if he wakes up because that can help you determine if something more serious may be going on. If he’s wailing in the middle of the night, then chances are he really needs you. And let me tell you, this is so helpful now that we have two toddlers who know how to fall asleep on their own. If we hear crying from either of their rooms, it’s because they’re sick or had a nightmare – and they need us. There’s no “boy who cried wolf.”

If you follow me on Instagram, I mentioned that I would include Shay’s progress in this post. *I’d suggest testing the waters at nap time the day you’re going to start just to get a feel for it.*

DAY 3

• NAP 1: fussed for 24 min, went up for 2 check-ins. slept 1 hour.
• NAP 2: fussed for 10 min. slept for 1.5 hrs.
• BED: fussed for 15 min, went up for 1 check-in. woke up 1x to nurse.

DAY 4

• NAP 1: fell asleep in carseat (school drop off) + didn’t go back down in crib once we got home
• NAP 2: fussed for 4 min. slept 45 min.
• BED: fussed for 15 min, went up for 1 check-in. woke up 1x to nurse.

DAY 5 – started weaning (breastfeeding)

• NAP 1: fussed for 5 min. slept 1 hr.
• NAP 2: SCREAMED for 18 min, went up for 1 check-in. slept 1.5 hrs.
• BED: fussed for 8 min. woke up in the middle of the night at the time he usually would to nurse so we gave him a 6 oz bottle + he zonked after that.

DAY 6

• NAP 1: NO FUSSING! slept 1 hr 45 min, praise be.
• NAP 2: fussed for 5 min, slept 1 hr.
• BED: fussed for 16 min, went up 2x to check-in. THEN HE SLEPT 13 HOURS.

DAY 7

• NAP 1: no fuss, slept 1 hour 45 min.
• NAP 2: took just over an hour to go down. Basically screamed the entire time. Went up every 10 minutes. Last 20 minutes I let him go until he fell asleep because he was exhausted but fighting his sleep. Slept for 50 minutes.
• BED: went down with no fuss, woke up 1x for a binky replacement in the middle of the night.

DAY 8 – ditched the Merlin Sleep Suit (we love this thing but it was preventing him from replacing his bink himself)

• NAP 1: slept 50 min, no fuss
• NAP 2: slept 1 hour 10 min, no fuss
• BED: fussed for 4 min, slept 12 hrs.

DAY 9

• NAP 1: fussed for 8 min, slept 1 hr 30 min
• NAP 2: no fuss, slept just over an hr
• BED: no fuss, slept 12.5 hrs.

DAY 10 – this is when we noticed he was barely making a peep once we left the room

• NAP 1: slept 1 hr 15 min
• NAP 2: slept 1.5 hrs
• BED: slept 12 hrs

DAY 11

• NAP 1: slept 1 hr 30 min
• NAP 2: slept 1 hr
• BED: slept 13 hrs

It’s been just over 3 1/2 weeks since we started sleep training. We have finally found our groove as a family of 5 and are in a decent routine. I swear, every time we sleep train one of the boys and everyone is sleeping through the night you feel like you’ve entered the next chapter. 🙂 Shay is going down without a fuss three times a day and sleeping at least 12 hours through the night. I didn’t include the timing for Nap 3 in the progress above because that took about 2.5 weeks to add in. But he’s always tired in the early afternoon so we’ll put him down for a power nap around 3pm.

Shay’s Sleep Routine (at 6 months old)

• 6:45 am: wakes for a 6 oz bottle, goes back down
• 7:30 am: up for the day
• 9:30 am: Nap 1
• 12:30 pm: Nap 2
• 3 pm: Power Nap (~30-45 min)
• 6:30ish pm: down for the night

I hope that this has been helpful in some way! Please feel free to leave any questions or comments below. I’ll also include some of our favorite products that we’ve used to sleep train the boys + some stuff that they still use to this day. XOXO