Sleep training question

I am going to start training my daughter to sleep in her crib on her own. I currently rock her to sleep and try to lay her down without waking her up and sometimes it works but usually she wakes up and then I have to do it all over again. I found a method where you go in at 5 minute intervals if needed and then stretch it to 15 minutes until she falls asleep. But I have a couple questions for those who've done this.

Do you start with just bedtime, or once you start this, do you do it for naps as well?
How long did your baby cry? (I could forsee doing this for at least an hour)
How long does it take before she won't cry, or cry very little?
And do you do the same thing in the middle of the night if she wakes up?

I think I'm going to start this during summer break when I'll be home with her all the time. She's got a cold now and I think it would be better to start it when she's feeling good. Any other tips would be great!

We rocked Sage to sleep about until she turned one.  Then she literally started doing it by herself.  She would scream and get annoyed when we tried to rock her so I just laid her down and she just fell right to sleep.  Now she does that all the time for sleeping and naps. 

I thought we would be rocking her to sleep until she was 12 but she got it.  We tried "cry it out" around 8-9 months and sometimes it worked, most of the time it didn't and just made me upset.  I think a lot of it has to do with age and she may grow out of it on her own! 

I tried to let her cry it out a couple of times and she would scream her head off like she was in pain. I couldn't do it. She's 11 months old today and I just am getting annoyed with rocking her for 20 minutes just to have her wake right up then have to rock her again for 20 more minutes. I have been thinking of doing this for awhile now, but I guess I was hoping she'd outgrow it too.

Just curious, is this your 1st baby?  Because with my 1st born, I always had to rock him to sleep.  I think it's a habit the parents start thinking that the baby needs it and then the baby grows accustomed to it.  I don't recall how long I needed to rock him to sleep but it was way longer than I wanted to and it made going anywhere or camping with him very hard!  How old is your baby now?  I'm not one to tolerate hearing my baby cry, so I never tried the Ferber method (that you mentioned above).  But if you can tolerate it, I would sure give it a try!  I remember I would walk on egg shells after I put my son down hoping he was asleep long enough that he wouldn't wake up again.  Sometimes he would fall asleep quickly while rocking him and other times I spent 15-30 minutes trying to get him to sleep.  I learned with my next 2 children at the newborn stage during the night after I fed them, to burp them good and put them back in bed ASAP.  I didn't get out of my bed to feed them either.  I would either nurse them in bed with me or I had a bottle bedside with room temp water in it and added the formula when they woke up and fed them.  I then put them back in their bassinet and let them settle themselves down.  If they cried, it would be different, I would probably pick them up and hold them or swaddle them, but I NEVER got out of bed (only to change the diaper....but I did this before I fed them).  They usually didn't cry and would have fallen asleep during the feeding or shortly after I laid them back down.

I know this isn't much help now, but hopefully you will find it helpful with your next baby!  I find that we worry and cater way more to our 1st born and learn what we want or don't want to do with the next born.

Best of luck!

This is my 2nd, but with my first, I worked in the evenings so my husband put the baby to bed at night and he let her cry it out so she got used to it. I didn't used to have to rock her to sleep. As a newborn, she'd go right to sleep. I'd feed her, swaddle her and lay her down. But as she's gotten older she's needed me to rock her to sleep. She's 11 months old today. I'm not sure I can listen to her cry very long either. I'm not sure I have that ability.

Do you start with just bedtime, or once you start this, do you do it for naps as well?
We started with bedtime and once we had that down, we did it with naps.

How long did your baby cry? (I could forsee doing this for at least an hour)
The first night, she didn't cry at all.  Just went right to sleep without a peep.  Second night she cried but not even long enough to make it to the first 5 minute check.  Third night, I had to go in at 5 and 7 minutes.

How long does it take before she won't cry, or cry very little?
Fourth night.

And do you do the same thing in the middle of the night if she wakes up?
She doesn't really wake up.  There have been a couple of times where she has woken up litterally screaming and it's obvious to me that she had a nightmare.  Obviously, that's different than just waking up and fussing because she wants to be held so I went in and comforted her for as long as it took to get her back to sleep.  That's been extremely rare.  She does stir from time to time and maybe whines a little bit but never more than a few minutes.

I guess I would say that we were successful because Ruby was just really ready to do it.  We didn't start until 9 months because of her reflux.  We couldn't lay her down awake because she would spit up.  Now she's great about going to bed...in fact she won't LET me rock her to sleep.  Sometimes I want to cuddle after we read a couple books but she just pushes me away and points at her crib.  I miss the cuddles!

Good luck...let us know how it goes.

Thanks. I hope she doesn't cry very long cause I don't know if I can really handle that. I was telling someone else that with my first baby, I worked evenings so my husband did the cry it out, his own way, and she learned to fall asleep on her own. I think she's going to cry for a long time though. I have a feeling I won't be so lucky to have her fall asleep after 10 or 15 minutes.

Hazel rearly likes to be rocked to sleep b/c if i do that and try and lay her down then she wakes up and is mad. So for naps and bed time I simply lay her down with her pacifier cause thats what sooths her and helps her fall asleep and she will eventually go to sleep on her own. I think I moved her to her own crib when she was almost 2 months old b/c she was outgrowing her basinet.

Harmony has a pacifier too so hopefully that will help.

There is a book that I loved it's Healthy Sleep habits, happy child by Marc Weissbluth. I ready enjoyed reading it and it helped out alot. Another is happiest baby on the block. So there's what helped me.
Jessica