Please share your Ferber experiences

AnabelsMama

Disclaimer: I looked through 3 pages of posts and tried to search for "Ferber" and came up with nothing.  Sorry if this has been asked recently!

My 10mo has never been a good sleeper.  I can count on one hand the number of nights she has sleep for more than 4 hours at a time.  Lately a normal night looks like this: 

Nurse to sleep by 8pm, up again at 12am to nurse and back to sleep in the crib by 12:30 am. Up again between 3am-4am and stays up, even after nursing, rocking, patting, etc. for a good hour to 1.5 hours.  I usually get her back to sleep eventually with a combination of nursing and rocking and she sleeps for another 1-1.5 hours.  This schedule is draining me because my DH leaves for work by 3:30 and I have to be up by 6am, so sometimes I am getting LO back to sleep just in time for me to get ready for work. 

I am about to try Ferber and am extremely anxious, only because I have read that sometimes certain personality types don't take to it.  My LO is so willful and stubborn (and adorable and curious ) that I fear she'll cry for 10 hours straight!!

So--please tell me all about your Ferber experiences!  When did you do it? How long did it take?  Did/does it work? Etc. etc.  The more details the better! I have attempted every other sleep training method and each time LO slept worse as a result.

Also:  We are going away for Labor Day weekend.  My hope is that we could try Ferberizing before that so she would sleep better while we are away, but I have also heard that any change from routine is detrimental to sleeping.  Any thoughts on that?

Thank you!