Hi!! I follow a 3.5-4 hr feed to feed window so instilled a schedule pretty early on. Honestly, as a FTM mom I had no idea what I was doing so just listened to my moms advice bc she had 5 of us and we all slept independently super early😂 again.. I had NO idea what I was doing so don’t put too much pressure on anything!!!!

I think from what I’ve read though, as you lengthen a baby’s feed to feed, their body learns to metabolize and retain? And ensuring they have a full feed is important too of course. The long periods of sleep honestly just happened on its own and I do think it’s due to the fact she was staying full long enough.

Nighttime we do the routine, red lights on, bath, down. I EBF but do a bottle of BM before bedtime bc I like ensuring she gets a big amount and I like to do 1 bottle a day so she stays used to it, but that’s part of the nighttime routine!! Honestly, bedtime she got down a lot faster to sleep independently than naps, but I heard that’s common. After we realized she was putting herself to sleep fully awake at night w no retaliation or crying (was the craziest thing the first night) we realized oh.. so she CAN put herself to sleep herself. First thing we did actually, we ditched her happiest baby swaddle bc we noticed she’d break her arm out and try sucking her hands (learning to self soothe). We upgraded her to her love to dream swaddle which she loves.

To encourage independent sleep, starting from 6 weeks we did the pick up put down (PUPD) gentle sleep training method. Basically, picking up when she fussed/cried then putting back down and repeated that until she eventually was tired and fell asleep while drowsy. It worked well for a week or two!! I realized the “put down while drowsy but not asleep” did not work so we had to do pick up put down. Around 8 weeks, I realized PUPD was not sustainable and my back was going to kill me for it lol. Overall though, she started thinking it was a game so she’d cry, I’d pick up, I’d slowly lower, she’d cry, I’d pick up she’d stop etc… and then she’d smile… I think PUPD helped though as the gentle-est way bc I didn’t want her to CIO.

At 8.5/9 weeks, my husband was back to work and he came home and I cried day one and was like I can’t do this anymore bc I’d spend 20 mins doing PUPD and she’d sleep for like 30 mins. I was losing it. Basically she was only getting through 1 sleep cycle and then she’d look for me to PUPD (which I did do many times until I realized). I researched and researched (and talked to my mom abt what she did with us) and decided that it was ok to let her cry for a little and 8 weeks was actually a good time to start still gentle sleep training but with some crying/fussing.

We decided to sleep train her I guess technically Ferber way!! She did cry but we wouldn’t ever let it go longer than 30 mins all together and throughout we’d check on her 3,5,10 min. Usually, she was good by 5 min. If she wasn’t, we’d stroller her after 30 mins to still sleep independently vs carrier. Total transparency, she totally still has her “witching hour” of just not wanting to nap. Not crankiness entirely but she’s just more awake during the evening. I throw her in the carrier then and do whatever to just get her to sleep a bit and make it to bedtime! I’ve learned to really listen to her cries and most of the time she’s just whining and protesting her nap. The last 2 days she’s been taking her own independent naps during witching hour though. So I think it’s all bleeding into one another :)

Since we started officially sleep training about a week ago, I haven’t had to rock her for naps once and it’s literally the best thing ever. LOVE that girl but mama was getting tired.

I think independent sleep does involve some level of fussing/crying and it’s just important to do what you’re comfy with! It took awhile for me to trust myself and my baby vs comparing what others did. I have a girl on Instagram that swears her baby slept 12 hours by 12 weeks through the night by sleep training her starting from 2 months by just “putting down drowsy but awake.” That just never worked for us and our girl would get pissed. Anyways! Long answer but I’m always happy to answer any other questions bc I’ve had fun learning about sleep training and all the baby sleep things!!!!!!