I sleep trained my baby using CIO when she was 5 months old and she was doing really well, sleeping with only 2–3 wakeups for feeds.
Then travel started when she was around 7.5 months old. We travelled continuously for about 10 days (no time zone changes, but lots of road travel, different places, disrupted routine), and it completely messed up her sleep habits.
She’s now almost 8.5 months old, and currently wakes every 1.5 hours or earlier 🥲 and I either have to comfort/rock her or feed her back to sleep. I’ve also been unwell the past 2 weeks, so after the first couple wakeups I usually end up co-sleeping because I’m exhausted. She basically uses me as a pacifier the second half of the night.
Before travel, bedtime was simple: bedtime routine, into crib awake, a few minutes of crying (1–5 mins), then asleep independently. However, during travel, I didn’t want to let her cry because she was already tired and adjusting to unfamiliar places, so I started fully rocking her to sleep and then transferring her to the crib. So now bedtime looks somewhat like this 🫠:
Fully asleep → transfer to crib → wakes before 1.5 hrs → rock back to sleep → transfer → wakes again → I’m too tired → feed + co-sleep → on/off feeding till morning
I’m travelling again in 2 weeks to my residence country, and then likely going back to my home country after 1-2 month stay (there’s 1.5 hour time difference), so there’s still more routine disruption coming unfortunately :’).
I’m really not ready to do CIO again, especially because now she cries MUCH harder and stands in the crib. We also room share, so I feel like if she sees us and we don’t respond she may feel abandoned and that would totally break my heart.
Her current schedule is usually 3/3.5–4/4–4.5
Daytime sleep: 1.5–2 hours (She’s always been a bad napper, but that feels like a separate battle for another day 😭)
Any help would be MUCH appreciated
Would introducing a lovey help with getting her longer stretches? And I’ve also wondered about night weaning, but I’m not sure if she’s ready for that yet.