SleepSense Support Thread 2014

[PetiteMoi]

Hi!

I've seen a few inactive threads for support for the SleepSense programme so thought I'd start a new one if there's interest out there??

We're using this for our 4.5 month old girl and used it for her big sister at the same age too. Night time is going great - after 3 nights of sleep training she sleeps from 7pm till 7am with just one wake up to feed at around 3.30am. The real problem is with the daytime naps. She's taking the full 1 hour 10 minutes before the suggested break, then again at least one hour after to settle. I'm going mad, especially as I've also got a 3 year old to entertain and take care of.

Anyway, I hope I can find some other people using this method so that we can support each other in this difficult process!!!

 

[heres2hoping]

I just started Sleep Sense with my 7 month old. Last night was night 2. Seeing definite improvement, he was waking up 7+ times a night between 7-6, feeding twice. I decided to feed him at 10ish and then not again until 6am. He has been going to sleep on his own with minimal crying within 15mim. Only takes me 5 min to get him resettled at night. He already dropped 2 night wakings last night and resettled himself twice. Then preceded to sleep until 8am. Which is unheard if for him. I have high hopes for this plan. I am not doing naps yet. I think I can only handle one thing at a time. His naps have always been a disaster. He does 3 20min naps. Can't resettle himself. I have to go in immediately after he wakes and if I am lucky I can get him back to sleep. I am hoping that nighttime training will help with naps too. I think nap training is going to be significantly harder than nighttime. Keep at it, hopefully it will only take a few days.

 

[Dollybird]

I'd never heard of this but just taken their quiz thingy. Is it worth trying? My little boy doesn't feed overnight but can wake up almost every hour on a bad night for his soother. Xxx

 

[history_girls]

We used it with great success for dd1 and I think I will use it with dd2 - but not quite yet. I don't know why but I'm not ready with her yet - I'm sure I did it with dd1 around this age. Maybe I'm worried about disturbing dd1. Or a wimp. We did it last time with a dummy and will again this time.


I remember with naps it taking ages. I do sleep sense more for naps with dd2. She will go off with me sat next to her. I just heed to work on going out the room.

 

[Peppermint25]

The website and quiz look quite good. And that you have had success stories!

Id be interested to know what it actually entails and how you go about it. Can someone enlighten me?

 

[history_girls]

It does involve crying so if that's not for you then sleep sense isn't. And there can be quite a bit of crying at the beginning.

Basically you start sat next to your awake baby in their cot, soothing them whilst they go to sleep and you gradually withdraw further from them as the days go by until you can pop them down awake and they go off to sleep on their own. When they wake later you wait 5 mins before going into them and repeating what you did at bedtime. You are meant to do it without a dummy but I ignored that. I liked it because I wasn't leaving her to cry on her own as I couldn't do that. I was teaching her to self settle.

With dd1 we had 3 horrendous nights, a week of not too bad nights, a month of quite good nights and then 4 years of brilliant nights. When she was little she still had a feed at night but then one night she just slept through (7months).

Naps were a nightmare until she was 10 months old. Sorry.

 

[Dollybird]

Well having read the sleepsense info (and the reviews) I think we're gonna do it. Not bought the programme yet but began tonight with exactly what pp suggested. I desperately wanna stop this wakening for soother but not comfortable with CIO (I'm a big soft weakling lol) so I popped him to bed without it and then sat beside his cot stroking his cheek with his lovey each time he cried for soother. After half an hour (oh and I nearly never managed it) he fell asleep. Who knows how tonight will go regarding wakeups and no soother but I've started now so gonna go through with it. I figure that yes his lovey is at risk of becoming another "prop" but at leAst he can get hold of that himself without needing me, and I think the soother falling from his mouth had a lot to do with his frequent wake ups xxx

 

[lanaross]

used it with DD! loved it. partially used it with DS, just for a week and I think it worked because now I just put him down awake and leave and he falls asleep with a smile he was a tricky one though, because he's so into interaction so when I was sitting with him, he wouldn't fall asleep.

 

[history_girls]

Good luck dollybird!

 

[Peppermint25]

This does sound promising from googling and reading your responses. So would you ladies recommend paying the money? It's quite a lot but would be so worth the not getting up 10 times throughout the night!

 

[heres2hoping]

I am so happy we are doing it. There is a free copy online so you don't have to buy it. Google "sleep sense PDF". I would post a link, but I am not sure that is allowed. I will keep you guys posted on how tonight goes.

 

[laila 44]

I love this program!!! I did it with my first at 6 months and it transformed her sleep completely. She's been a 13 hour night sleeper straight ever since! She's now 2.5...

 

[PetiteMoi]

Hi everyone

Great to see some other followers of the programme And that it's been a success for some of you too. For those of you asking if it's worth it and if it works - yes, if you hang in there and follow the programme. It takes a lot of patience so my advice is to properly read through the manual and prepare for it all properly before you start, and if possible do it with your partner or someone else as it's hard work on your own.

Our little one kept waking up every 1-2 hours at night and it was killing me. She used a dummy (soother) and kept waking up for it but most of the time she wouldn't settle again on it but had to be nursed back to sleep.

Since day 3 of the programme (we're now on day 8), she's been waking up once at night to feed and otherwise slept through from 7pm till 7am.

So night time sleep is great (however this morning she woke up at 5am and wouldn't go back to sleep but I'm hoping it's a one-off as her bedtime was a bit different last night due to bad napping).

So the problem is still with the napping. According to the programme napping takes a lot longer to get right. But what bothers me is that I'm not seeing ANY improvement so far and it's been a week now. I'm not too bothered with short naps (she naps for 40 mins) but the time it takes for her to go down! I'm currently spending nearly all her waking hours trying to get her to sleep during the day!!

Good luck to you all out there

 

[PetiteMoi]

I wanted to add that the reason for why I hang in there is that I truly believe in the principle behind the programme, which is the importance of teaching the baby to self settle without a 'prop'. Everyone - children, adults and babies - go through sleep cycles of 30-45 mins. At the end of a sleep cycle you wake up but as adults we've learnt to quickly go back to deep sleep again, sometimes without even realising we've woken up. A baby who gets settled to sleep will wake up at the end of a cycle and will need the same prop which helped them go to sleep in the first place, so they properly wake up wondering where that prop is. A baby who's been taught to self settle will eventually learn to just go straight back to sleep.

I think this makes so much sense and it makes it all worth trying to stick to the programme.

Although I'm not 100% convinced about nap times - yet ;-)

 

[Peppermint25]

I am so happy we are doing it. There is a free copy online so you don't have to buy it. Google "sleep sense PDF". I would post a link, but I am not sure that is allowed. I will keep you guys posted on how tonight goes.

Thanks for that! Iv had a good read (this morning when LO decided it was time to start her day at 4.30am). It looks really good! We tried cc and weren't too successful with LO being sick from crying then she got I'll with a chest infection so we gave up for a while. I like the idea better of staying in the room with her.

Can I ask, did you ladies experience a lot of crying? Did you pick your lo's up to calm them or just shhhhh them? X

 

[Dollybird]

So last night went surprisingly well. Took half and hour to settle to sleep but minimal upset really, just moaned a bit. Woke once that I know of, never cried just moaned for about 2mins then must've went back to sleep. Woke at 5;30 for milk which is normal for him. He was wide awake after it and not pleased at going back to bed without soother but finally settled after about 20mins with a lot of moaning but no actual crying. So what wondering is- is it ok to still use soother during the day for naps? Or is this a no no? Xxx

 

[PetiteMoi]

I am so happy we are doing it. There is a free copy online so you don't have to buy it. Google "sleep sense PDF". I would post a link, but I am not sure that is allowed. I will keep you guys posted on how tonight goes.

Thanks for that! Iv had a good read (this morning when LO decided it was time to start her day at 4.30am). It looks really good! We tried cc and weren't too successful with LO being sick from crying then she got I'll with a chest infection so we gave up for a while. I like the idea better of staying in the room with her.

Can I ask, did you ladies experience a lot of crying? Did you pick your lo's up to calm them or just shhhhh them? X

Hi! We experienced a LOT of crying with our first born bit she was properly used to being fed or rocked to sleep. We didn't pick her up as she got even more upset from being put down again. But we saw quick and great improvement with her - she went from 1 hour crying the first night, to half an hour the following night and then less and less until night 7 when she fell asleep within 3 mins with no cry at all!

With our younger one she hasn't cried as frantically at bedtime and it had also helped picking her up now and then but it works different on different nights really.

 

[heres2hoping]

We have had very little crying. I have picked him up if the crying got bad to calm him. But the crying was almost always worse when I would put him back down, so I have stopped picking up. I also wait 10 minutes before going into him. And last night he almost alway feel asleep on his own. I didn't have to go to him between 8-5! Usually I would have been in there 5+ times. I was also able to put him straight in his crib at bedtime awake and he went straight to sleep, no crying! And we are only on day four today. This plan is definitely working! Hope everyone else's night went well

 

[PetiteMoi]

So last night went surprisingly well. Took half and hour to settle to sleep but minimal upset really, just moaned a bit. Woke once that I know of, never cried just moaned for about 2mins then must've went back to sleep. Woke at 5;30 for milk which is normal for him. He was wide awake after it and not pleased at going back to bed without soother but finally settled after about 20mins with a lot of moaning but no actual crying. So what wondering is- is it ok to still use soother during the day for naps? Or is this a no no? Xxx

Soothers are really a no no when it comes to using them to fall asleep, as it is then a prop, something they are dependent on. But I guess that if they can get used to having a soother at naptime but not at bedtime it could work as I guess you wouldn't mind so much in the day having to help him put it back in? Maybe try and see how it goes? We took the soother away at nap times too not to confuse her.

 

[PetiteMoi]

We have had very little crying. I have picked him up if the crying got bad to calm him. But the crying was almost always worse when I would put him back down, so I have stopped picking up. I also wait 10 minutes before going into him. And last night he almost alway feel asleep on his own. I didn't have to go to him between 8-5! Usually I would have been in there 5+ times. I was also able to put him straight in his crib at bedtime awake and he went straight to sleep, no crying! And we are only on day four today. This plan is definitely working! Hope everyone else's night went well

Well done! Sounds like you're doing really well with the plan. It almost seems to good to be true once you get to sleep at night doesn't it

Have you started on the naps yet or are you doing that later on?

Naps have been great today - for her first two naps she just settled with no crying at all!! Amazing considering she cried for more than 2 hours at each nap yesterday!!! For her third nap she settled without crying too but woke up after 10 mins and then wouldn't settle again. I then took her out in her pram instead as I didn't want to have to struggle like I did the day before and overshadow the success of the first two naps..!