Sleep chaos and sleep training (Ferber method?) - help!

Our little boy (one in early Jan) was sleeping very well - 10 or 11 hours per night as recently as mid November - but for the past month it’s been totally chaotic, a period of refusing naps til super late and now though napping ok is waking every hour or two in the night and sometimes staying awake for ages. He had never really self-settled for bedtime (sometimes for his naps), but would go down fairly easily after a bottle and be easy to resettle if he did wake in the night occasionally. Now trying to get him into the cot is like bomb disposal, we sit with him for ages til he’s seemingly in a deep sleep but as soon as we transfer him he’s awake kicking his legs and crying. Have resorted to co-sleeping at times when I’m super tired and he’s happy then but definitely don’t want to do that routinely. Have been making excuses for him - a series of horrid colds, teething - but starting to worry this is the new normal. Hubby wants to try sleep training - Ferber method - but when tried once before he just escalated from whingy cries to really hysterical screaming and I can’t bear it. Anyone got any advice? If you did the Ferber method, did they really scream and scream - and then settle?

Show your support

You might find this a reassuring post, that this is all normal (but difficult!!!) https://www.instagram.com/p/CrY5gdrogq1/?img_index=5&igsh=bjl5ZHE2dnlmMGts

Hello, I did the Ferber method, and keep going back to it to retrain if my boy has had a period of illness. (When poorly we Co sleep as you never leave to cry in this case) For us the first time we trained him was 7 months. It took 3 nights. Night 1 he cried for an hour (with me going in every 5 mins) then fell asleep. And again another hour cry sesh in the middle of the night. Night 2 & 3 were a bit less crying. Then perfect sleep. We have retrained him after illness or teething about 5 times now. Each time it’s much easier and quicker. The Ferber method for me 100% works. And most importantly I don’t feel like it’s as distressing as people make out. I’ve had him cry for solid hours in the car seat when I can’t physically see to him every 5 mins. He still can cry at nappy change, so I think he’s just a baby that cries a lot 😅 For this reason I don’t feel like an awful mother during training. We also use a dummy and a soft teddy that’s long and skinny (no worry of suffocation)

He specifically puts his face into the teddy and this soothes him. Sometimes now I hear him winging in the night and go in, put his dummy back in and his teddy to the side of his face. I just retrained last week after 2 weeks Co sleeping with his cold. He barely needed much training and now sleeping 8pm to 8am. He used to wake every hour as you say. All babies are different. I think if the training involved him crying to the point of horrible stress, and hours in the night, I wouldn’t have done it. I do it because 2-3 nights of 2 hours max disturbance and then done x

I'm pretty sure someone told me there's a regression at this age. My little ones been like this for 2/3 weeks now but the last 3 days he's slept right the way through and seems to be easier with naps. I think this is developmentally normal sleep change you just have to ride it out from what I read.

We recently went through this with our little one and we decided to give him a toddler pillow a little early, complete game changer only wakes once now compared to previous 3/4 times a night x

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌

‌

‌
‌