OK, so the gentle sleep training is not working because no matter what, Elise always cries 5 - 10 minutes. She doesn't scream hysterically, but she can cry pretty hard.
I really want her to learn how to sleep as well as stop co-sleeping. OK, actually, we love co-sleeping, but really think that she should be learning how to sleep independently. Anyway, we started Ferber tonight, with checks at 5, 7, 9 minutes. OMG. Elise SCREAMED for an hour. I was dying the entire time. The whole time, she was standing at the corner of the crib since that is where it faces the living room. She threw up once over the crib. That was my biggest fear. She's never thrown up before. :( Towards the end of the hour, she fell asleep while standing, with her head resting on the corner of the crib. She was so exhausted. Eventually, she fell asleep after an hour an 20 minutes after her normal bedtime, due to exhaustion. She didn't even learn anything tonight.
I'm going to give this 3 nights. If there is no promise, then I will throw in the towel. From everything that I've read, a small percentage of babies do not respond to sleep-training and are just high-need sleepers. I'm totally OK if Elise falls into this category. However, I need to try to teach her how to sleep, but if she totally resists, then I will accept her uniqueness and roll with the punches. I've read a lot of accounts where some moms just had their babies scream for weeks and weeks until they finally gave up. I'm not going to put any of us through that torture. We've done gentle sleep training twice, both times for weeks, and it didn't work, and so I have a feeling that this might not work either. Oh, and not to mention that Elise is the ONLY baby we know of that can't fall asleep in the car. So yes, I think she's a tough nut to crack in the sleep department!
I have a few friends who fall into the co-sleeping camp. They intentionally chose co-sleeping for philosophical reasons. Their kids transitioned to sleeping independently around 2. If all of this doesn't work, then we are prepared for another year of co-sleeping.
Hate this.
i'm sorry she's having a rough time! i haven't read about the ferber method details because the sleep lady book method went pretty well for us, so i'm not sure what the checks at 5,7,and 9 are, but if it's checking in on her, i will say that i ignored the sleep lady's suggestion of soothing the baby (without picking him up of course) because whenever i would go in the room he'd cry even more. and he usually cries a little when i put him down initially but the longer i stay by the bed to soothe him the more the cries escalate. you know elise and what works for her but i know with elliott soothing him just makes it worse for him. i can see it in his eyes when i'm standing over him..."Why aren't you picking me up what's wrong with you???" haha
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