r/sleeptrain • u/undergroundladybird • Apr 08 '26
Success Story Night 2 Ferber: Baby slept 12 hours
I can’t believe it.
For ref:
- baby is 5.5 months
- routine is 2/2/2/2.5
EDIT: Now baby is sleeping more overnight his wake windows are longer. Routine is usually 2.15/2.5/2.5/2.75
All naps were contact naps. At night baby would sleep no more than 40 mins at a time. I would feed to sleep or husb would rock to sleep and then we transfer to his bed. It was becoming almost impossible to transfer him as he would immediately wake, regardless of how asleep he was.
The last straw was when he refused be put into his bed at all at night and would only sleep in our arms. One night of that and we decided to sleep train.
My husband and I were so exhausted I don’t even think we knew how bad it was.
We are only on day 3 and have seen immediate success with Ferber.
Night 1: Baby cried for about 20 minutes total (with appropriate check ins) and then went to sleep. He still had multiple wake ups during the night but he did 2-3 hour stretches of sleep which felt like a miracle in itself.
Night 2: Baby cried for total of about 35 mins (with appropriate check ins). Baby then slept from 7:30pm to 7am. I even woke him for a feed at 3:30am and he went back to sleep after without any crying.
Maybe it’s too early to be this confident - but I feel like a new person. I am now so relieved and excited for the next part of parenthood. I’m so happy to have some of my life back and some personal space back. I love my baby so much but I breastfeed too so he was attached to me all day and all night.
He’s currently napping in his bed, for over an hour.
If you’re on the fence about trying it (we were deciding for a few weeks) I honestly can’t recommend it enough.
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u/diabolikal__ 23 m | modified CIO | complete Apr 08 '26
That’s amazing, congratulations!!!
I just want to point out that those wake windows seem a bit low and you may have to adjust in the next week or two.
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u/undergroundladybird Apr 08 '26
Thank you! Yeah I’m keeping an eye on it. At this stage he is definitely ready for his nap by 2 hours, but I expect the wake windows will lengthen very soon.
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u/undergroundladybird Apr 10 '26
Okay you were so right! Now that he is sleeping so well overnight, his wake windows have lengthened! Thank you for the heads up.
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u/Yodasaidso Apr 08 '26
Mine falls asleep independently after Ferber but still wakes up every 2 hours for boob 🥲
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u/l_eihpos Apr 08 '26
What's your bedtime routine and your schedule? People might be able to help if you detail those in a standalone post.
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u/sugartots0520 Apr 08 '26
You might have to wean them off of a couple feeds at night. Check out the book Precious Little Sleep. It helped me a lot!!
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u/Mysterious-Yogurt374 Apr 08 '26
Had a nearly identical situation. My baby will be six months old next week. We started Ferber eight days ago. Also exclusively contact napped, fed to sleep, and was becoming impossible to transfer. We were sleeping in two hour shifts and holding her all night. Here we are, a week and change into Ferber… I swear we have a different baby. I’m afraid even saying that might jinx things!! But I’ve had eight straight nights of uninterrupted sleep ;)
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u/sketchycake Apr 08 '26
Omg are you me?! Baby is also 6 months next week and we started Ferber 6 days ago which has been pretty successful from day 1. The sleep is delicious! Only thing needed is to tweak our schedule to make DWT at 7am work as he keeps waking at 6:30am ready to start his day.
How are your baby’s daytime naps? Mine is still currently fed to sleep and exclusively contact naps in the day. Waiting till night time sleep is fully trained before attempting daytime.
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u/Mysterious-Yogurt374 Apr 08 '26
We started naps after 3 solid Ferber nights and it’s still a crapshoot BUT improving! Yesterday she did do two 45 minute crib naps which was a huge win! We still do one contact nap with her to make up sleep and/or set us up for bed but eventually we will drop that!
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u/Longjumping_Bar585 Apr 08 '26
Can you share what check in intervals you used and what you did during those check-ins??
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u/undergroundladybird Apr 08 '26
Absolutely- we just used the traditional Ferber method. We looked up the Ferber method chart online which gives you the intervals. For example: Day 1: 3 mins, 5 mins, 10 mins Day 2: 5 mins, 10 mins, 12 mins Etc etc
We reset the timer if he stops crying for 20-30 seconds.
During the check ins we just go into the room, pat him on his back and say reassuring words like “it’s okay, we love you, it’s time for bed now, good night, mum and dad are right outside and we love you”. We keep the check in to about 30-60 seconds. We don’t pick him up.
The aim of the check in is not to stop him crying, but to reassure him that we are there.
Good luck xx
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u/monzzbonzz Apr 08 '26
We had a similar experience. We really didn’t want to sleep train but once we made the decision to (same story as you, LO would get up several times an hour at baseline then suddenly one day screamed if put down at all) it was the best decision ever. LO sleeps amazing now. I would give the advice to all parents to give it a try. We are all so much happier!
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u/shweezy6 Apr 08 '26
This gives me so much hope. We’re on night one and it’s going horribly 😑
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u/diabolikal__ 23 m | modified CIO | complete Apr 08 '26
So sorry to hear! You may want to make your own post with your schedule? If baby cried over an hour it’s probably a schedule issue
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u/Kolla73 Apr 08 '26
Ours was perfect too! By night three he slept through the night and only took 3 mins to fall asleep. 2.5 and still a great sleeper
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u/sugartots0520 Apr 08 '26
Ugh I’m so jealous 😭 congratulations tho it’s not easy!! Our LO is 4m3w and we’ve been trying to sleep train her for about 16days now. There’s been some progress so I’m hoping it just gets better from here. Originally I was cosleeping with her (didn’t want to but no choice) and I was so desperate to get some of my life back too lol I’m also exclusively breastfeeding with occasional bottles so I feel you. She was on me 24/7 it felt like. She hated the bassinet. And then we bought her a bedside crib and I started out for a few weeks just putting her in it and playing with her so she’d get used to it and not associate it with being left alone. The sleep training has been…all over the place lol. We’ve tried appropriate Ferber check ins but she’ll just keep screaming. She wouldn’t stop. She hates pick up put down. We just had to push through no sleep for about a week with reassurance through the night before we saw any difference. Now after 16 days she falls asleep quicker. Some nights no crying other nights she’ll yell at us for about 5-10min. We usually do one or two check-ins and then she’s out. Her longest stretch so far was 6 hrs. The past couple nights it’s been 5h15m. I’m hoping she gets better with time. Her naps were also all contact naps but we decided to nap train her too starting yesterday since she’s gotten more used to the crib. It’s honestly gone better than I thought. Just had her first long nap (1h35m) in the crib. I’m starting to feel like myself again a little bit lol.
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u/undergroundladybird Apr 09 '26
It’s so hard!! It sounds like you’re on the way up though. I hope she gives you some good stretches of sleep soon! Xx
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u/Professional-Sea7297 Apr 08 '26
Similar! We are doing modified Ferber at 5 months and 1 week. We decided it was time & also he would just scream when we picked him up. We tried pick up our down, gentle sleep training, etc. I dont think any of us were ready until now. It’s night 5 and he’s done beautifully, we’ve only had one night when I went to do a 15 min check in & honestly it didn’t even help. I did a pat, a pickup and he cried harder until I just put him down and he was then out in 2 min after that. We are still doing contact naps during the day which I don’t mind & he is being put in bassinet in our room because we aren’t ready for him to be in his own crib in room lol
I think once we’ve established more for the next week I will try to incorporate at least one nap in crib a day. But dudes nap schedule is all over the place
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u/yuniorsoprano Apr 08 '26
Hi! Would you mind describing how you modified the Ferber method? Was the difference that you picked him up?
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u/undergroundladybird Apr 09 '26
Yeah we also tried pick up put down at about 4.5 months and it did not work at all for our baby. His crying was really intense and he wasn’t calming down, he was escalating. Picking him up was just confusing and teasing for him.
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u/Constant-Garbage9192 Apr 09 '26
when he woke during the night, how did you handle?
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u/undergroundladybird Apr 10 '26
We just applied the same check in intervals. So far he’s only woken himself on the first night. So when he woke, we gave him the 3 mins, 5 mins, 10 mins for check ins. I think he only needed 1 or 2 check ins. He was really sleepy so it was quick.
At this stage we also still need to feed him at night for his weight so we agreed that if he woke and it had been at least 3-4 hours since his last feed, we would feed him and then put him down awake after the feed.
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u/pianogirl2008 Apr 09 '26
Congrats! How did you tackle switching from contact napping? Struggling with that currently.
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u/undergroundladybird Apr 09 '26
To be honest I’ve only tried the first nap of the day and have been successful that once! My baby has just come down with a cold so I’ve been giving him some extra support with contact naps :( Once he’s better I plan to get back to it. I am expecting it to be much harder than night sleep due to less sleep pressure though.
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u/Disastrous-Bike-6209 Apr 09 '26
Congratulations to you and your husband. I tried sleep training my 5.5 month old baby. He was rocked to sleep and held for all his naps. He takes 3 naps 2/2.25/2.25/2.5. He wakes up 3-4 times at night for feeds. Only after 11:00PM feeds, he sleeps next to me. Until then, he has to be held. My sleep training by Ferber was a disaster as I had to stop on day 3 because my baby fell sick with fever after all the crying. On the first night, he cried for 30 mins and slept. On the second night, he cried for 45 mins and didn't sleep. When I had enough and picked him up, he slept after seconds. The next morning he was burning with a fever. I am scared that I broke my baby. Planning to start again after he turns 6 months.
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u/undergroundladybird Apr 10 '26
Oh no, that sounds really hard and just unlucky timing. Definitely not your fault. Poor bub just needed a bit of extra TLC while he was sick. I hope you have more success when you try next.
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u/stefalexander Apr 15 '26
Congratulations! How many naps does he take and how long are they? What are his wake windows? I have a 7 month old that only naps 3x a day for 20 minutes. Wakes 2-3 times a night but false starts up to 5x a night. We try to put down between 7-8pm and he fights it until 10pm some nights. We’re exhausted.
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u/EducationalLiving962 Apr 15 '26
i don’t think LO is getting enough sleep during the day, leading to fighting sleep at night!
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u/stefalexander Apr 15 '26
I 100% agree this is the issue. I can not get him to sleep longer stretches during the day though. He is my 3rd and so the house is loud, plus some days during his first nap we have to be in the car. I don’t know how to improve the situation.
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u/undergroundladybird Apr 16 '26
So at the moment he’s having 3 naps a day. First nap is in the cot, and it’s usually around 1-1.5 hours. The second nap is at least started in the cot and is 30-60 mins and the third nap is contact nap for around 30 mins. I try to keep his naps between 2.5-3 hours for the day. Usually the first nap is easy in his cot, but if the second nap fails I rescue it with a contact nap.
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u/EducationalLiving962 Apr 15 '26
i want to start sleep training using the ferber method, but idk if LO is ready? he’s 17 weeks and starts the night out in his crib but is up every 1.5-2 hours bc he’s eating every 2.5 hours during the day. if he cosleeps with me he can go 4 hour stretches. idk how to differentiate between him waking up to eat vs waking up and able to be soothed back to sleep. did you notice. a difference between 4 month and 5 month sleep? and should i just wait until he’s a little bit more independent?? any advice would helpful!
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u/undergroundladybird Apr 16 '26
If he’s eating that much in the day and his weight gain is good he should be fine to do some long stretches at night. You may still wish to feed him 1-2 times a night. As a general rule, when we started sleep training we agreed I would only feed him if it had been more than 3-4 hours since his last feed. For any other wake ups, we used the Ferber intervals. We find that “dream feed” when we go to bed is an easy way to make sure he’s full overnight.
My LO’s sleep went out the window at around 4 months so I think he was ready for sleep training then, but we waited till over 5 months due to bad timing with house guests and being away (and some indecisiveness tbh)
Everything I have read says over 4 months is okay to start sleep training, but you know your baby best.
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u/yuniorsoprano Apr 08 '26
Congrats to you, your husband, and your baby!
My wife and I are thinking of taking the Ferber plunge tomorrow night with our six-month-old. Super nervous. But posts like this help.
How old is your baby?