👩🏻⚕️I always thought I’d use the Ferber method for sleep training. In reality I was naive to how my heart would soften in becoming a mother. The Ferber method has its advantages, it is very simple AND it works. However, I felt it was missing a piece and I worked out my own style for how to sleep train my daughter using it as a framework.
1️⃣In the first 3 months of life most babies need to eat every few hours and will not yet be able to consolidate sleep. To me, sleep training does not make sense in this period of time. I focused on the overall daily pattern and building a routine for feedings, walks, and naps. I nursed her to sleep during this time.
2️⃣Once I started noticing that I was nursing/holding my daughter to sleep and then trying to put her in her crib without awakening her only to fail, that’s when I knew it was time to sleep train her.
3️⃣My husband and I agreed to start on a Friday night. We picked a movie we were looking forward to watching. We did the bedtime routine (bath, books, music, singing, play) and then put her down knowing she was going to cry. She cried for 21 minutes then slept through the night. The second night she took less than ten minutes then slept through the night.
4️⃣Regressions happen and the way I explain it is my daughter has different cries. I can tell when she really needs something or has pooped. Sometimes my hunch is wrong and I go in the room, check her diaper, pick her up and reassure her, put her back down and start the process over again. Sometimes we sing one more song to reassure ME.
Did you use the Ferber Method?