How are your littles going to sleep?

We have always rocked or held our son to sleep at night and transferred him to the crib once he’s asleep. He sleeps through the night fine and has been since he was 13 months old (thank goodness, it was a rough first year). But I’m due in less than two months with another little boy and we are considering trying to sleep train him at night time too. Over the last month I’ve nap trained him and he will cry for like 2-5 min now and then just kinda roll around and babble until he falls asleep for naps which has been great since I’m too big now for either of us to get comfy in his chair. But me and my husband are super torn on what we want to do for night time sleep. Part of me isn’t ready to fully give up holding him bc he’s only little for so long…but part of me really would love for him to be more independent especially with a newborn on the way. My husband has taken over night times now and we’re both just so torn. No one I know personally still holds their 20 month olds to sleep anymore so I’m also feeling like am I holding on too long and it would benefit him to learn this independence?

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I used to rock and sing mine to sleep but now she’s asking for her bed after we finish reading time. I wish she’d let me rock her to sleep… I miss it 🥺

Sleep training is only something that mostly is practiced in the U.S. your little ones brain hasn’t finished developing & their sleep patterns won’t regulate for him to sleep the night until he’s maybe 4-5 years old. With so much new information and learning and awareness the little one is going through, it’s almost like going to bed with a lot of things in your head. Have patience and honestly it’s tough but remember they’re having a hard time too & they’re in a situation when they have no control over the situations that are happening

We coslept since night one (: we do contact naps in the back carrier, I don’t like laying him down “sleepy but awake”, kids gotta be asleepy before I lay him down he started laying himself down for his own naps at 14 months old, by 21 months he’s been asking to sleep in his own bed, and staying there until the morning (5am so we don’t immediately get up, but yanno it’s the morning) I did a method called “camping” but modified it from day one, I’d always sneak away until I actually got tired enough to sleep myself so my son had opportunities to self sooth. It worked out well I’d say (:

We still nurse to sleep 😅 I dread the day I have to change it up but I am layering in other sleep connections to help when that day comes

@Chrissy we were too until he was 15 months old, but the pregnancy hormones dried me up completely around 10 weeks pregnant so we made that change already. I felt really bad bc he was not ready for that emotionally but he got the hang of it after a few weeks. My husband just took over night times back then until he got used to it. It’s a hard transition for sure!

We nurse or read books to sleep! Letting her sleep develop naturally without intervening as much as possible. It’s cool to see her make new sleep advances without us pushing anything… like she recently asked to sleep in her own bed 🥲 which she does until midnight, then us back in bed with us. Going to miss the snuggles she doesn’t need us close by for sleep.

@Anne oh man that sounds great! I don’t think my kid would go to sleep until like midnight though if we tried that 😂 he is go go go all the time

For naps: I shut her in her room with a few blankets and pillow on the floor after lunch time. After 5-20 minutes of independent play, I hear complete silence. Every time I check on her, she’s laying on the “bed” cuddled up with stuffed animals out like a light. Letting her put herself to sleep after wearing herself out with a full tummy is the way to go. At night: My husband takes her into our bed with a movie (usually Monsters Inc or Finding Nemo) or a Hey Bear YouTube video. She won’t sleep if she sees or smells me near (we’re weening off the boob). They lay down around 8:30pm and she’s always asleep by 9pm. Then he transfers her to her crib. Stuffed animals help comfort her a lot. I love that my husband feels purposeful and I can have some quiet time alone at the end of the day. This is pretty much her only screen time of which we use as a tool.

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