Those who've done Ferber or CIO

Cassandra1028

Can you please tell me how your experience went or is going?

I'm still not sure if I want to try Ferber....but I'm keeping my options open at this point. DS has never been a good sleeper and now has gotten into the habit of waking for 2-3 hours every night...he'll cry if I try to put him in the crib and he just wants to be held/rocked/nursed. I only nurse him when he first wakes up and won't let him comfort suck anymore. I tried doing the No Cry Sleep Solution, but I don't think it's working very well. Maybe I'm not giving it enough time and I'm honestly not sticking to it very well. I end up giving in to him and nursing him when I'm out of options to soothe him and he's restless. On top of this, I'm pretty certain he's teething...but this not sleeping thing has been going on since he was born. He literally only slept on my chest for naps/night time for weeks.

I don't mind rocking/nursing at naps at for bedtime...I just don't know how to get him to stop waking for 2-3 hours in the middle of the night. Any suggestions?

(oh, and he has no fever, no runny nose, or anything like that)

ISBJN

I am so with you.  My daughter was a great sleeper until four months old and it has steadily declined.  Last night, she was up EVERY 45 minutes.  Finally at 2 am, I got up and let her play for an hour.  I let her CIO at 3 am and she did eventually go to sleep and slept until almost 10 am.  I feel like I'm at my wits end.  My husband always wants to let her CIO, but I feel horrible doing that.

She will only nap in the swing or if I hold her, so she's not a big fan of  the crib, either.

Good luck. 

busywifey

we did CIO when he was 6 months and it worked wonderfully. it only took 1 night.

then at 7 months he learned his "trick" of standing so i would go in and put him down multiple times a NIGHT! it was awful!!!!!!

at 8 months we did ferber. we did it over labor day weekend and he know goes to bed awake and STTN.

 

NatPhoto09

We have sleep trained and after reading numerous books and my LO using me as a sleep aid, we settled on the sleepeasy solution.  It was the easiest to read and gave step by step instructions on how to night wean from BF.  I still BF him before I go to bed and 5:30am and it has not affected his sleep at all.  I truly recommend it.  It took 1 night of real crying, night 2 & 3 less than 15 minutes total crying and nights 4-6 less than 5 mins.  GL

Christina322

We also did CIO.  DD was about 6 months wehen we started.  She cried for an hour the first night, 30 minutes the next, 15 minutes the following night.  Now when I put her in her crib, she fusses for a few minutes and then falls asleep.  I do this in the middle of the night too.  She was waking up--not to feed but to socialize. She cried for about 30 minutes and then back to sleep.  Her middle of the night wakings have decreased since doing the CIO.  If you chose to CIO, have a plan before you do it.  You and DH should be on the same page with it too.  Good luck--it is tough in the beginning but definitely worth it!

SarahMay77

I'm kind of a mixed bag.  We did CIO when DD was 6mos and had immediately, long-term success.  I still nurse to sleep at night.

I EBF for 6 month before introducing solids, so I wanted to offer night feedings if DD needed them.  She dropped them by 7 months.  My supply did drop some as a result, but I've been able to keep up by tapping into my freezer supply.

Have you read Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child? 

chicagoirish

We did it this weekend... My DH and I were fighting all the time because we were so exhausted. She was a good sleeper up until she started at daycare. Then she was up every two hours..and the last week all she wanted to be held while she slept. So she was finally healthy. And on Friday/Saturday morning from 3am-5am she cried...then she stopped and slept til 7:39am. Then on Saturday we did it and she cried from 9pm-10pm. Then last night she cried a total of 27minutes. It was the hardest thing i have done. I cried while this was going on. It just was not healthy that she was not sleeping.  I could not do Feber because I would just pick her up. And the other Easy Sleep solution was the same for me. So the extinction method was the solution for us. Good luck it is hard!!

KathrynMD

We did CIO at 4.5 months for middle of the night wake ups when she wasn't eating.  First night, she cried for 45ish minutes, slept/quiet for 15 minutes, then cried another 15 and slept for 2 or 3 hours, then woke up, cried less than 10 minutes and went back to sleep for another 2-3 hours, woke up for a 3rd time and cried less than a minute and then woke up smiley and happy at 6 am!  Nights 2 & 3, she woke up one or two times and cried for less than 5 minutes.  By night 4 she STTN and continued to mostly do so through teething, travel, and several bad colds.  She's had a few bad nights here and there b/c of various issues and its rarely lasted more than a day or two.  She got in a rut a few weeks ago - teething and a bad rash and was waking up 3-4 times a night, even after we'd addressed her problems.  I had to redo CIO for one night (maybe 20 minutes) and then we were back to normal.

sterfehr

We tried CIO when DS was 4 months, when he started going from sleeping a 6 hour stretch at night to waking several times per night. It didn't work for me then, I couldn't take the crying. Even though I was comforting him, he would cry for hours.I ended up just letting him sleep with me.

Then, at 6 months, I couldn't take it anymore. I was getting kicked and rolled into in the  middle of the night and not getting any sleep anyways, so I decided it would try it again. The first night it took about half an hour, then fifteen minutes and the last night he just rolled over and went to sleep. I put him down awake too.

There are still nights where he's particularly fussy and he has to cry for a few minutes but it never takes longer than 30 minutes. Maybe he just wasn't developmentally ready? I don't know, but I get to sleep in my bed undisturbed and it's wonderful. He does still wake up once a night (around 2 am) to eat and he eats a full 8 oz bottle, so I know it's because he really is hungry. If he hasn't stopped that by 9 months I plan to bring it up to my pedi at his 9 month appt.