Failed Ferber

Our baby used to be a great sleeper around 3months, but then the sleep regression hit around 4 months and now teething at 6 months. He has been constantly waking up every 3h at night. Sometimes he eats a tiny bit and falls back asleep, which makes us think he’s not really hungry. As a result, we decided to try the Ferber method to help him learn to connect sleep cycles. We thought we were strong enough to support the crying, but we didn’t pass the first 10min. Our baby was crying and yelling, and we decided to stop and not try Ferber anymore.

Unfortunately, the Ferber method seems to have created a negative association with the crib for our baby. We used to be able to put the baby in the crib for a little while without trouble. He would happily look around and chill there. Now, he starts fussing and almost crying immediately when placed on the crib when he’s awake.

I’d like to try more gentle sleep training methods in the future and this will require being able to put him in the crib without him complaining about it while I’m next to him. Any tips? How do you get rid of a crib aversion?