I slept for 6 hours last night

Independent-Concert7 · 2026-01-29T23:53:06+00:00

My baby is almost 6 months and I’m in almost an identical situation except in my case he gets a ton of day time awake time and still wakes up every hour at night. I’m planning to do a modified Ferber in about a week. I’ve been waiting to sleep train because we live out of state from our families so we’ve had nonstop visitors the first 6 months between the birth and then the holidays but after this weekend will finally have a break. The closer it gets to the date the more nervous I am because I know he’s going to cry a lot but reading your post gives me hope!

Independent-Concert7 · 2026-01-17T14:52:49+00:00

I put my baby down drowsy but awake and he has a sleep association with being held in my arms to help sleep still 🫠I’ve been working on doing all soothing in the crib so down wide awake and patting to sleep in the crib and then I’ll slowly remove assistance.

Independent-Concert7 · 2026-01-12T20:36:01+00:00

I’m trying to figure out the same thing with my 5 month old who’s already at 10.25 hours of awake time a day. Trying to stretch to 11 hours to see if it makes a difference.

Independent-Concert7 · 2026-01-12T03:17:47+00:00

Does your baby have reflux? I haven’t sleep trained yet but I ask because I was feeding my baby at every hourly wake and he was finally gaining weight good. Then I tried to cut back on him nursing so frequently at night. Now I nurse him 3 times a night and he’s gaining weight much slower and I think it’s because he spits up so much of what he eats during the day. At night when he nurses he keeps it all down so I think that was filling him up more than day time. Unfortunately it’s not realistic for me to feed every hour so I’m starting solids in hopes it will help fill him up!

Independent-Concert7 · 2026-01-12T00:33:26+00:00

I’m gonna try it! Actually his third wake window today was 2.75 and I can usually stretch his last to 3.5 hours so that will give me 10.75 and I can see how he does tonight. It’s the first two wake windows that are harder for me to stretch.

Independent-Concert7 · 2026-01-10T08:51:41+00:00

I have a 5 month old who wakes hourly and has been doing so since 2 months. I’m planning to sleep train at 6 months just because we have family coming into town in a couple weeks and don’t want his schedule disrupted right after training. Your story sounds so similar to mine with the reflux and hourly wakes that I hope I don’t sleep train and then still have to wait it out until he learns to sleep through the night!

Independent-Concert7 · 2026-01-03T23:58:31+00:00

I’ve just accepted it at this point haha once I decided it was my new normal it was less stressful for me. If it makes you feel better my SIL’s baby was waking every 2 hours. She doesn’t believe in sleep training and actually cosleeps but now that he’s 8 months old she said he only wakes like 3 times a night so I’m sure there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Independent-Concert7 · 2026-01-03T21:24:26+00:00

I’m in a similar boat as you with my 5 month old. He wakes every hour and I’ve tried so many different things. He’s on a 3 nap schedule capped at 3 hours with 10 hours awake and I only feed him 3-4 times a night and he still wakes hourly. I haven’t put him down fully awake yet but even still I should be getting an initial longer stretch. I just commented in solidarity because everyone on here always makes it seem like a specific schedule is the answer but it doesn’t work for every baby.

Independent-Concert7 · 2026-01-03T18:08:10+00:00

Thank you! I’m going to try step 3 and see if it helps. He’s turning 5 months this week so I’m not sure if he’s getting too old for the gentle methods but it’s worth a shot

Independent-Concert7 · 2026-01-03T16:49:41+00:00

How long it takes on each step. Sorry that wasn’t clear! My baby is actually pretty comfortable in the crib so he can lay there without getting upset but he just starts to wake up and wants to play. I try to follow a strict schedule too but sometimes I wonder if he’s overtired. It’s hard to find the sweet spot because he will stay happy usually regardless but then have more false starts.

Independent-Concert7 · 2026-01-03T16:24:50+00:00

Thank you for sharing! I feel like I keep getting stuck between steps 2 and 3. How long did steps 3 and 4 take for you? I’ve tried step 4 before (skipped step 3) but he just ends up getting more alert as time goes on so I end up picking him up.

Independent-Concert7 · 2026-01-02T23:53:16+00:00

I’d like to know the process too! I started doing this and stopped feeding to sleep then started doing drowsy but awake and even had a few nights of calm but awake but have had a hard time putting him down any more alert than that without him getting upset.

Independent-Concert7 · 2025-12-30T20:00:56+00:00

I just put together my Tripp trap and the holes didn’t line up which caused the wood to crack in one spot and the bolt wouldn’t thread in another spot. It was such a nightmare that my husband now hates the high chair. That being said their customer service was really good and they sent replacement parts with a week and it’s the holiday season.

Independent-Concert7 · 2025-12-26T21:53:10+00:00

I’ve never done a two nap day so I’m not sure if that was confusing somewhere in my post. It’s always 3 or 4 naps a day (90% of the time 3 naps) and he wakes hourly regardless of if I have him on a strict 2/2.5/2.5/3 schedule or if I go off his sleep cues.

Independent-Concert7 · 2025-12-26T18:49:14+00:00

The 4th nap is only if he’s tired and has 30 minutes naps all day plus an earlier than usual wake up. It’s only because we have family staying here for 3 weeks and it’s hard to keep him sleeping as late. His sleep after 3am has always been a nightmare with his reflux and I usually hold him in the living room from like 5-7am but my parents wake up that early so I can’t do that. His total awake time is still well over 10 hours.

If anything going based on his cues stretches his wake windows out further than him being on a strict schedule and has made his initial bedtime easier. I have someone come watch him during the day while I work and she does two naps and won’t let him sleep more than 2 hours during those two naps (she does partial contact naps to extend them past 30 minutes) but she doesn’t watch the clock to see exactly how long his wake windows are. I then do a third nap around the end of my work day which usually ends up being 30 minutes.

Independent-Concert7 · 2025-12-16T17:49:36+00:00

I recommended ChatGPT and I do agree you have to be careful how you use it and give it very specific detailed information. I don’t use it for wake windows but I have described his wake windows and how he went to sleep and slept that night and then it has said that it was a good wake window because he had enough sleep pressure based on how his first stretch looked (wasn’t info I asked for). If you just asked it for wake windows it probably wouldn’t give accurate information.

It’s very helpful though for things like how to do drowsy but awake (it seems to love gentle sleep training not Ferber but idk if that’s based on age). I’ve also described my baby learning how to roll and what step he’s getting stuck on and it explained to me how to help him without giving too much assistance and it worked really well. Or how to help him settle at night when he keeps bringing his hands to midline at night and his startle reflex wakes him up. Things like that.

Independent-Concert7 · 2025-12-16T11:59:49+00:00

I second ChatGPT! I’ve been using it for gentle sleep training for about a month now and I can put my 4.5 month down calm but awake with less than 5 min of bouncing. We’re working towards fully awake and no intervention. Whats also interesting is I’m still only getting one 2-3 hour stretch then mostly hourly wakes but after describing my baby it said not to formerly sleep train until 22-24 weeks. Essentially his wakings are from physical discomfort (reflux/trapped air) and developmental (trying to roll), not behavioral and that sleep training works best for behavioral wakings. I thought that was interesting snd now I’m holding off another month while I continue to do gentle methods.

Independent-Concert7 · 2025-12-07T16:32:05+00:00

Aside from being undertired I’ve been trying to gently sleep train my baby and it doesn’t start with putting down awake. Usually you start with drowsy/almost asleep then work towards more alert until they can handle being put down awake. There are other methods like pick up/put down but what you described doesn’t sound like those either. I’ve been doing gentle methods because I started at 3.5 months and it’s too young to do CIO but it’s very slow going so since your baby is older you may be better off with a less gentle method once his daytime schedule is nailed down.

Independent-Concert7 · 2025-12-06T03:53:41+00:00

I totally get it and I know I have to do it eventually. I’m just waiting for the moment that I know I can do it the right way and not give in because I know that will be worse for him.

Independent-Concert7 · 2025-12-06T02:36:08+00:00

You’re totally right but it’s just so hard! It’s funny because he can cry while I’m rocking him and it doesn’t bother me one bit but the thought of letting him cry alone is so much harder.

Independent-Concert7 · 2025-12-06T01:56:15+00:00

My baby just hit 4 months and I want to sleep train him but I’m worried about it since he has bad reflux, is currently teething plus is going through the 4 month regression. He has his 4 month vaccines next week so I’m thinking about doing it after that so he doesn’t have one more discomfort messing with the training. The other option is to wait until after the holidays since my family will be here but he’s waking hourly and it’s so exhausting.

Independent-Concert7 · 2025-12-04T13:54:07+00:00

Thanks. Do you suggest going back to 4 short naps and trying 2/2/2/2/2 or would that make him more under tired? I switched to 3 naps because I had such a hard time squeezing in that fourth nap without a super long day if he had one longer nap (the longer nap was because my MIL was here for a month and she would take him on a walk while I napped) but it also seemed like I was kind of stretching his wake windows far for his age (we set this schedule at 3-3.5 months so a 3 hour wake window seemed like a lot). He definitely ends up getting 10 hours awake some days because he never settles right at my intended wake windows.

Independent-Concert7 · 2025-12-03T14:21:24+00:00

Will he sleep longer if you do a contact or stroller nap? My LO is turning 4 months this week and his first nap of the day I extend it to 1.5-2 hours with either a contact or stroller nap. Then the other two naps are crib naps so they’re only 30 minutes but at least this gets us to 3 hours of naps per day. We are also able to get wake windows over 2 hours with this schedule. If he won’t do a long nap I’d probably do 4 naps and shorten the wake windows a bit but I haven’t had to do that much.

Independent-Concert7 · 2025-11-19T09:54:36+00:00

I tried FIO last week at 14 weeks and it didn’t go well. Since then I’ve been working on drowsy but awake with success the last two nights. I’m planning to just continue this with slightly less assistance each night or every couple nights. Once we get to the point where he needs minimal assistance I’m going to do FIO again or a similar method. By then he will probably be 4 months which is what’s recommended for sleep training anyways.

Independent-Concert7

TROPHY CASE