The public health nurse recommended to wait till 6 months of age to put a child through sleep training (aka “cry-it-out”). Joshua is just over 5 1/2 months old now, and we figured he is ready for the training.

It’s been 5 1/2 months since I last slept through the night, and it’s been about 2 months since Cliff has slept through the night. What concerns us the most, is that Joshua wakes up every 1 1/2 to 2 hours every night. We worried that he isn’t getting good quality sleep and it will affect his development.

So last night, we went through the regular pre-sleep routines of jolly jumping and a massage and nursing, and I put him in his crib. Normally I would stand there and pat his back while he cries, until he falls asleep. But last night, I put him down, said good night, and then I sat in the glider watching him.

He was not happy that I didn’t pat his back. He cried, as expected. But what surprised me was that he wasn’t really crying that hard. It was sort of a whiny cry to show that he wasn’t happy, but he certainly was far from hysterical.

What surprised me even more, is that he fell asleep after only 20 minutes!

It was about 10 pm when he fell asleep. After 2 hours, he woke up. We had previously decided to give him 10 minutes before we attend to him. And guess what! He fell back asleep on his own in 8 minutes. AND, he skipped his 2 am feeding and slept till just after 5 am!!

I consider the sleep training last night VERY successful. He cried a lot less than I expected, and slept a lot longer than I expected. Hopefully this good trend will continue, and very soon he will be sleeping on his own through the night like a champ.