Invented method: pretend you’re asleep, sleep training

[loves2worship]

Our baby is almost 7 months and I usually feed him down, was planning to sleep train at 4 months and life has gotten in the way. Anyway, the last couple nights we fed him until he was drowsy and laid him in bed between my husband and I and we both (were so tired it was easy) we pretended to sleep. The baby didn’t want to sleep and tried to rouse us: rolled In between us, tried to play, spooned us (it was pretty creative!) and then within 10 minutes fell asleep without crying. Is this real life??

My q: What are the downsides to teaching him to fall asleep by himself this way? Anyone try this?

 

[wahyubudhi]

@loves2worship I know you posted this a while ago. How did it go for you? Did it work once he was older? How can I make the progression from not needing to see me sleeping ?

Thanks in advance

 

[servant1021]

@loves2worship I basically did that with one of the toddlers in my day care classroom. She co-slept at home and as a result would not fall asleep the conventional way during nap when she started daycare. So I laid next to her cot on the floor and pretended to be falling asleep (It's not hard to be sleepy in the nap time environment lol) and after about an hour she fell asleep. A while of doing that and she eventually fell asleep on her own. Kids are hard wired to imitate adults and part of it was an experiment to see if that would work for sleeping, turns out it does.

I can't speak to long term outcomes because I haven't don't co-sleep with mine at home but I know it can at least work for nap time lol

 

[loves2worship]

@servant1021 That’s so smart!! I’m glad it worked for her she must have been so tired. We will keep going and see what happens.

 

[finlandia]

@loves2worship I think you might run into a small issue later on if you plan on having him fall asleep without crying in his crib (I'm not sure of your current sleep situation). Since you can't easily pretend to be asleep in his crib with him, he might make a fuss that he's not right next to you in bed for a while. Maybe you could pull up a rocking chair or even "fall asleep" on the floor next to his crib. Expect him to fuss or cry while he gets used to it, and then who knows? It might blow up if you try to transition between the falling asleep trick to "okay, you're in your crib, Mom's gonna leave the room and you're gonna fall asleep by yourself!" but honestly if the trick is working for you now, give yourself a week or two at least of peaceful bedtime. It's so valuable.

Hope it works out for you guys!!

 

[loves2worship]

@finlandia Good point. This may just be a transition to sleep training. He sleeps in a crib next to the bed but will move into the nursery soon.

 

[javier_is_life]

@loves2worship My baby is a lot younger - not even 3 months yet - but if he starts acting more awake after being put in his crib even though I put him in because he was showing sleepy cues, I will sing him his lullaby and close my eyes during it and blink them really slowly and yawn. He'll copy me and then go to sleep, even if he seems totally wired if I don't do that. It's my last trick I bust out before switching him to a contact nap if he's getting fussy when left in the crib, and it usually works.

 

[loves2worship]

@javier_is_life Ty!! That helps!