How to train
4 Month Old To Nap
Sleep Training | How I Sleep Trained Connor at 4 Months Old
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hey guys so today we're gonna be talking
about sleep training Connor this is
probably the number one topic that I get
messaged about on Instagram so I decided
that I would do a video to talk about it
share with you guys our experience I'm
not a sleep consultant or an expert so
please note that the advice in this
video was tailored to Conor and he just
had a really good nap so hopefully he's
cool about being in this video with us
so we never actually officially sleep
trained Tommy and as a result he was
never really a great sleeper we never
had a schedule or a plan so I knew that
with Connor I didn't want to make that
mistake and I reached out to a sleep
consultant right around when he was 16
weeks old because he was waking up
multiple times in the night he was
sleeping next to me and so this advice
was from the sleep consultant that we
hired from Boston naps here in Boston so
first she asked me what we were doing
what was working what wasn't the first
thing that she told me was that we
needed to put him to bed sleepy but
awake this is something that we had been
doing next she said we were going to
ditch the swaddle this was not something
we had attempted yet then she
recommended that we move Connor into the
room with Tommy where I am right now as
you can see his crib and Tommy's bed are
very close together we moved to Tommy
out of his crib a little early I would
say because we didn't want to buy
another crib temporarily we really
didn't need one for very long next she
told us that we needed to abide by the
ten twenty forty rule what that is you
put the baby down if he cries for ten
minutes you can go in tap the baby say
hey buddy you okay you're okay and then
you leave ten seconds
Connor is in a hair phase Thank You
Connor for eating my hair in this video
then you go ahead and you leave the baby
and you double the time that you just
gave them to put themselves to sleep so
next you would wait 20 minutes so yes
that means you're listening to them cry
for 20 minutes sadly and then you can go
in again give him a little pat hey
you're okay buddy and then leave again
for 40 minutes when it came to going
down to go to bed
Connor really didn't cry very long we
rarely had to
the whole 20 minutes and the idea is
that you want to stay consistent with
what time you're going to bed and kind
of your routine our routine is really
short
I bring Conor up I read him a book I put
on a new diaper I put on his sleep sock
I nurse him in a quiet dark room and
then I bring him into his crib with a
sound machine we used the dome sound
machine I sing twinkle twinkle little
star I put him down I say goodnight baby
Connor and then I leave I shut the door
that's when the ten minutes starts so
going down to go to bed was not a hard
thing for Connor to learn he's pretty
good about it what we struggled with was
him waking up in the middle of the night
of course number one because I was
breastfeeding him I was nursing him so
this is what our sleep consultant
recommended in the beginning I chose to
nurse him once during the night she said
if he wakes up before 2:30 do not go to
him let him cry do the 10 20 40 will you
had asked what I did about him sharing a
room with Tommy so yeah sleep training
two kids in the city was challenging the
fact of the matter is a couple times
Tommy did not wake up and other times
Tommy would wake up and he would get out
of his bed and he would come in our room
and he would sleep with us we're not
totally cool with that but while we're
sleep training Connor that's fine so
that's how that is working in our house
we finally got to a point where Connor
was just waking up that one time in the
middle of the night but then he would
wake up again at 3 or 4 or 5 sometimes
you know we would get that big one chunk
we would get that big stretch and then
he would continue to wake up so again
with those additional wake up's you have
to use that 10 2014 6 30 week ago and we
could get him for the day in the end we
ended up just doing the extinction
method which is you just don't even go
in at all you just let him cry that was
really hard to do but eventually we did
get him to go back down after that one
feed until 6:30 or 7:00 or 7:15 if he
was crying for a little bit longer then
Connor got the croup we had to move him
back
to our room we basically had to start
the sleep training process all over
again which took about four days total
but then I decided that I wanted to get
rid of the middle of the night feed we
successfully got rid of it cold turkey
again he would wake up at 3:00 if we'd
have to let him cry 10 20 40 then it
moved to four then it moved to five and
then he just slept through the night
then we went away for Thanksgiving and
we had to do sleep training all over
again
you need to stick to your guns your
child needs to learn how to self-soothe
there's nothing in their crib there's no
binky's there's no lovey's nothing all
they're wearing is their sleep sack they
need a dark room and they need a little
bit of ambient noise like a sound
machine and they just need to learn how
to put themselves back to sleep you and
I we don't sleep straight through the
night we wake up we go to the bathroom
we go back to bed and we put ourselves
back to sleep that's what we're trying
to teach these infants that they can
learn these skills that they can use
honestly throughout the rest of their
lives of course there are different
cries and you know a lot of times I
can't let Connor cry it out I can't last
night even though we've been doing this
for over a month now I did feed him in
the middle of the night the sleep
training consultant that we used she
said to drop that have your pump next to
your bed all set ready to go just pump a
little bit to take the edge off of you
and within a few days it will regulate
if you have any questions let me know
down below in the comments I didn't want
to make this video too long but I kind
of just wanted to give you the tools
essentially you just need to decide
before you go to bed we are not gonna go
in tonight we are gonna stay strong okay
and that's kind of what Nick and I had
to do I felt bad
letting Connor cry because I thought he
was ruining Nick and Tommy and my nights
sleep when I knew I could go in and
nurse him and he would go right back
down and go to bed however I stuck to my
guns two or three nights in a row by the
fourth night
Connor was sleeping 7:00 to 6:30
of course we just went to New York and
that kind of you know we now have to
start from scratch again but already he
did a longer stretch last night and I am
confident in two or three days we will
be back to our seven to seven or seven
to 6:30 routine that's all I've got to
say today don't leave your troll
comments below because each mom has to
do what's best for her and I'm just
sharing what works for us I'm Sarah
subscribe to my channel and I'll see you
soon
