Baby Monitor by Angel Care (Use Promo CODE: ATV25)
Giraffe here and here
Are you tired of sleepless nights? Comfort feeding? and difficulty putting your little one to bed? (Gosh, this sounds like one of those infomercials, haha!) Well, I hope this post can help you in some way. Keep reading to learn how our sleep training experience is going. Also sharing about our baby monitor system, read along for more..
As a new parent, you learn many things in that first year. For example, I didn’t know you have to teach babies how to fall asleep on their own. I always thought it was one of those things they just did. I had no issues putting Esmae to sleep (birth – 4 months), mainly because she was always nursed to sleep. Well, come to my surprise we hit a few hiccups around 4/5 months. It was getting harder and harder getting Esmae to fall asleep and most nights I didn’t know what to do. I had a relative recommend to me the Dana Obleman program. It worked for her, so she said it would work for me. I was very tired and desperate so I bought the program that night.
I read through the program and it seemed pretty simple. It does allow the baby to cry it out just a little in the beginning, but the end seemed promising. I wasn’t sure I could do that, I mean I always asked myself: “is this ok?”. Long story short, I decided I will let her cry it out, but I will stand next to her crib and let her know I’m there and that it’s ok. I figured how hard could it be, right?
Prior to us trying this, she slept in her bassinet by my bedside, so we decided to just go ahead and sleep train her in her crib across the hall. The program highlighted the importance of developing a “nighttime routine” and that it is vital to do this every single night. So we did just that, I would give her a bath, read her a book, nurse her for her last feeding, kiss her goodnight, and I placed her in her crib. Within a few minutes she began crying. Realizing that I’m not going to pick her up, she began to cry harder and harder. As the book said, I comforted her first with my voice, and then I stroked her back, face etc. This did nothing for us other than make her more upset. I think by touching her, it gave her hope that I’m going to pick her up now, and when I didn’t she only got more upset. Ultimately I just had to walk away and let her cry it out. It was the hardest thing to go through mentally and emotionally for me.
The first night is the hardest, and it took her about 1 hour and 50 minutes to fall asleep. It was rough, crying on and off, but we got there. That first night she fell asleep around 9 and she slept all night, did not wake once, sleeping in until 9/10am. Honestly I couldn’t believe it. That first night I was waking up every hour just to check on her. I couldn’t believe she was sleeping so long without waking up. After the first night, I was convinced this is for us. Night two was quicker, about half the time, 1 hour just about. Third night it took about 20 minutes, fourth about 10-15 minutes. And each night only got better and quicker. Once there was even a night where I just placed her in her crib, she just turned to get comfortable and shut her eyes and immediately fell asleep. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I remember checking to make sure she was breathing (first time mom syndrome, haha!). I loved to keep an eye on her using my AngelCare monitor.
This monitor made my life so much easier. I love that you can watch your little one rest from any room in the house. This monitor helps you maintain a healthy baby temperature in the room by letting you know what the current temperature is. The image is very clear on the screen, there is no latency, and the set up is very easy. It had been a lifesaver for when I need to get things done during nap times. I highly recommend it!
Overall, we had such a good outcome, and it only took about 5 days. What a small sacrifice you have to make for a lifetime of good sleep right? Well, it doesn’t end there. Around 5.5/6 months Esmae started teething and well, everything changed unfortunately. She teethed so well during the day, but at night she just kept waking to nurse about 5-6 times (yup, that’s just about every hour). Before she would wake 1-2 times max for night feedings, so this was a huge change. It was incredibly difficult, and I was literally not getting any sleep. So I let her sleep by me for one night, and one night turned into one week, and now it’s impossible to get her out (comment below if you are with me on this one). So here we are at 10 months with 6 teeth and she still wakes up 1-2 times for night feedings. I don’t mind her cuddling with us, but to be honest I never thought I would allow her to sleep with us. Prior to baby, and motherhood you have a lot of thoughts that changed very quickly! I am thinking to retrain her again. But now at 10 months she is hard to trick, so we will see how this will go.
I would love to hear about your sleep training tricks and methods, please comment below if you do something that really helps!
Thanks for reading this essay of a post!,
Xo, Victoria
Thank you AngelCare for partnering with me on this post!
I have the AngelCare AC510 Model, and I LOVE IT!
Read more about Angel Care here
Use Promo CODE: ATV25 for 25% off your mode
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We are in the same boat! Except I put her to sleep in her crib, and half way through the night she ends up in our bed. One piece of advice is to just do what works for you and your family at the moment. Their routines are constantly changing and they are little for such a short time! In a year or two she will be sleeping by herself and won’t need you anymore. It’s such a small period of time when they are babies and depend on us, and I really don’t mind having her next to me (at least for now) Once that changes I will figure something out, but for now I will enjoy my baby 🙂
Exactly the same situation with us. My daughter turned 10 months on the 15th and she has been waking up one – two times a night to eat and I place her on my bed during the second feeding (if there is one)
She was sleeping through the night at two months old with just a simple night routine. I tried the CIO method but it wasn’t for us, I couldn’t let her cry. We just started a routine and stuck to it and she eventually got the hang of it up until nine months when she changed her bedtime by an hour and now wakes up an hour earlier than before. We had stopped the bed time routine since I’m not over four months pregnant but we will be starting it again tonight because when the next baby is due we don’t want to be getting up all throughout the night with TWO of them lol
maybe it’s just a phase, fingers crossed
My baby just turned 5 months and we’re sleep training. Our pediatrician recommended a book called “Healthy sleep habits, happy child” and that’s what I’m following. It seems really similar to the program you described, but there are a lot of tips for correcting habits in older babies in there too! I think it might help you! I started a blog and just wrote about this last week. 🙂
Yikes! I did everything that you did with my first child, but 4 kids later I realized that sleep training is stressful on both mother and child. Time passes by so quickly, although it goes slower as a new mom trying to figure it out, that “going with the flow” of your child’s needs is MUCH less stressful and WHO CARES if she is sleeping with you? Babies have different sleep cycles as they are going through growth spurts and while learning new things — their little brains are on overload and they can wake often when developing. So, my advice, as a Mom of 4 kids, is to use your motherly gut instincts on what your baby truly needs, and throw away the books – they dont know YOUR baby!! And, your next baby will be entirely different – trust me!!
Dear Victoria! Please don’t do sleep training! 🙏🏻❤
Thank you Gena! I think the same! As a Mom and as a psychologist I recommend the same. Through out every book that’s about sleep training, because when the teething comes or just developing your child every training become useless. Not worth it! those 5 days just made your baby desperate, and you were stressful as well! And you see, now you could start it again… Babies learn to sleep by their own when times come! You can read a lot of study about crying it out method how bad it is! Please just listen to your heart! I know you are tired but I promise you this years go so fast! Lots of love! Erika
Thank you doctor for your professional opinion! Because when I tell people of other generations that we let our princess sleep with us they are like what? Are you mad? Honestly what I say is respect your baby, and their needs as you say they will understand to sleep alone when they are ready, don’t force them especially with this method wich seems heartless to me honestly and I may imagine how much Victoria suffered knowing how much she and her husband LOVE Esmae so someone should abolish this method imo!
Thank you for sharing your experience. We are in the same situation 🙁 but our baby is now 10months and teething / still no teeth and days are good but nights are just tough!!! We went from me not nursing her at night to nursing her 1-2 times now!! The monitor looks amazing!!! Please do a giveaway that would be amazing to win!!!!
Thank you again for sharing!!!!
Oh goodness yes you should def. do a giveaway :))) we really need to move our darling over to her room, but I’m so nervous cuz we need a monitor for her and I can’t get one right now :/ she’s 6 months and sleeps in her own crib in our room, she sleeps through the night and we don’t have any issues so I’m sure she’d be fine in her own room, but I’m nervous to move her over till we have something I can keep an eye out for her on!
I totally agree about doing whatever works for you and ur family though!!! I feel like so many people are pressuring us to move her out of our room and although I agree that baby’s need to be in their own nurseries, I don’t think it’s horrible if the parents and child share a room for a bit!! I think sharing a room is different than sharing a bed, that kind of makes me nervous!
Most certainly right about opinions changing once you have your own child ! 😊- Because each child is different. We tried the CIO method for 2 weeks. It didn’t work for us. The giveaway would be awesome 👏🏼
My daughter is about the same age (10 months on the 2nd) and sleeps 7pm-7am. We did CIO early on and that worked for us. Every now and then she’ll have an off night but for the most part it has stuck. Oh, and definitely do a monitor giveaway! ☺️
Hi:) Unfortunately I can’t give you any advice regarding the sleeping of a baby as my baby girl is just 2 months old, but I read with interest in order to know what to do or not to do with her. I have been told by one of my mama friend not to put the baby in bed with us at night because it’s very difficult to change her routine afterwards. Good luck in all you do!
To do a giveaway would be lovely! I woudn’t mind to win one 🙂
Yes been there ! Lareen was sleep trained and did so well until she started teething. And honestly with the pain and discomfort they go through I don’t think babies can actually do their nights without comfort. I ended up listening to my grand mother lol! She told me until baby reached her 24 months and boy was she right! It’s not an easy phase for them so just do what you think baby needs! God Bless <3
Hi Victoria and Esmae! This comes from a mother of a toddler and 1 month newborn. Sleep regression is a stage in infancy without a cause and can last indefinitely. This is where you don’t give in as you know babies learn behaviors quickly. What I did that worked with my toddler is at nap time and bedtime I would place her in the crib in a sitting position with her favorite toys and let her play while I walked out. I didn’t tell her to sleep I just left her telling her to play and amazingly she would play sitting up and then would lay down and continue to play until she fell asleep. So my secret was to not lay her down on her back but simply sit her up. You Laying them down freaks them out! Hope you find a method that works!
Yup sounds about right! All those things you promised not to allow to happen in a blink of an eye are happening. I also never imagine having my baby sleep with us and it happened. Both my babies slept in a crib in my room up until 8 month. Finally around 8 almost 9 months we moved them to the nursery and they do sleep well at night, but putting them to sleep as never been easy. Sometimes I allow my baby to sleep in my bed for a few hours before I slowly transition her to her bed. It’s motherhood and everything is unexpected!
Our nights are some what similar! Just last night my husband decide it would be better for him to sleep in a different room to let me and baby (11m) sleep in the same bed with all the room we needed. She wakes up and comes to our bed early in the night and wakes up at least 5 times for her pacifier or a bottle. I was actually considering to wean her from the pacifier very soon and get her off the bottle in the night. Just so no one is kicked out of the bed at night 🙈. This worked for my first child and she started sleeping all by herself and all through the night after this, she was about 1 year old when this happened!
Ps I would love to have that monitor so I’m not constantly running up and down the stairs to see if baby is up or not 🙈 This being my second I feel like I should have got one for myself a while ago!
Hi we actually did the same program with both of my kids and it worked out really well . There were draw backs with teething and sick days but we always went right back to it as soon as babies felt better . We even went on vacation and that messed up the sleep routine but as soon as we got home we’d start it again and honestly there was almost zero crying after the drawbacks . It’s never too late to retrain and it doesn’t take as long as the first time , at least for us it didn’t 🙂
my baby girl is 1 year and 7 months old, and she used to wake to nurse 1-2 times per night until she was 13 months, just after her birthday, buuuuut she still sleep with us, but that will change soon because I’m expecting my second baby and God help us with the transition
And yes for the giveaway please!
I love reading this- gives me some reassurance that we’re not alone!! 🙈 My LO is almost a year and she can’t stand sleeping alone in the crib, and we have really given up trying! We put her in there after she falls asleep but when she wakes up to eat at 3am she won’t go back down.. and I thought by now they have to sleep the entire night haha I’m not alone!! But time goes by so quickly we will only look back at this as our little ones run of to bed on their own.. enjoy each stage ❤
thanks for the mama support:)
Oh we are on the same same page Victoria!! She was sleeping so well when smaller now from 3-6 feedings at night and halfway thru the night sleeps with us because i’m too tired to put her back and get up so often! Everyday I fall asleep hoping this is the night I sleep thur the whole night! And that giveaway is awesome if you get to do it!!!
Dear Victoria, as a first time mum of a 20 months old, I just want you to know it gets better. So much better as time passes. In just a couple of months she’ll be sleeping like a dream and you’ll forget all about your sleepless nights. My mum in law told me something that helped me get through similar times. She said that it’s only in the first 2 years that your little babies need you the way they do. They will never need you and your snuggles and cuddles like this again. Kids grow up to be so independent so fast. So savour these moments with all your heart. Let them sleep in with you. It’s only for such a shot time in the bigger picture. Take it all in and enjoy it. Hope that helps.
My daughter is 11 months and she’s beeen sleeping with me and my husband since she was about 3! I am italian and here in Italy most hospitals teach you how important it is to keep the baby with you in your bed at first so you can feed them without letting them wake and you can stay in bed laying down. Of course not everyone does so, some never put their baby to sleep in bed but that’s the best thing for mine since now… of course now with the heat reaching 35° C and her temperature beeing so hotter than ours it is a little more difficult but as long as she is ok I am ok, I honestly could have never use the method of letting her cry until she falls asleep, I immediately and literally RUN as she just complains a little bit I know this could be wrong even but that’s it, can’t help it. Esmae sleeps with you now because that is what she needs now, she will decide when she is ready to sleep alone again, don’t worry! Just be patient and accept your baby’s decisions they are very important and it is important for us parents to practice since now 😉
I’m with you! I know this is an old post but I’m curious to know how she sleeps now. Do you still put her on your bed or in her crib? Does it get better? I have a 7 month old that is teething and waking up every 1-2 hour. We put him on our bed sometimes which makes it super difficult to put him in his crib. He can’t comfort himself to sleep and I need to rock him. Thanks!