Update on sleep training

We have been doing the "Ferber" method for the past week with decent success.

I started off buying Solve your child's sleep problems, and reading it. Then I picked a night to start. I purposely picked the first three nights to coincide with night's that Nick was working or at school. It's just easier that way since Nick gets very stressed when Jake cries, and we tend to fight. Don't get me wrong, Nick was totally on board, we both knew that we needed to sleep train and we both agree on the method.

So..the nitty gritty.
Night 1
Was terrible. Absolutely terrible. Jake cried as soon as I laid him in the crib,flipped to his tummy, turned around to face the door, and cried. In total, he cried for 1h15min. It was devastating to listen too. I checked on him as per the intervals suggested in the book (3min, 5min, and then every 10 minutes). He woke up again around 230am, I nursed him, and once again, he screamed when I put him in the crib. He cried for about 35minutes, Nick went in at the same intervals. I'm sure our neighbours hated us that night.

Night 2
Wasn't all that much better. He cried as soon as I put him in the crib once again and didn't settle down for 45 minutes. He woke up just after 5am, and I got up with him and kept him up until his nap time. Though, I strongly feel that I made a mistake and put him to bed a little too early.

Night 3
He cried for 15 minutes and fell asleep pretty quickly.

From then on, he never cried more than a few minutes, or he just fussed for a few minutes, tonight, he went down without a peep!

A few tips that really made a difference for us:

1. We pushed his bedtime from around 7pm to 8pm. Ferber strongly suggested not putting your child to bed until the time he normally falls asleep. Jake wasn't falling asleep until 8ish, so we went from bath time at 630 to bath time at 8pm. It has made a huge difference. Now, we've settled into a bath time around 730. The first few days were a little rough, he was pretty fussy, but I just sat on the floor and played and played until he was really tired.

2. We were consistent. Don't bother starting if you can't go through with it, it's not worth it.

3. Read the book!

4. If he woke up after 5am, we were up for the day. We stopped bringing him into our bed for some extra sleep, we didn't want Jake to re associate sleeping with us. It has made for some interesting mornings, but it does make a difference.

This is all for nigh time sleeping. We are still struggling with naps, but just getting Jake to sleep in his crib at night has made a world of difference in our house. Not to mention, it's nice to share a bed with Nick again!