Our CIO story and suggestions needed....(long)

battybtags

DD has had some very bad sleep habits if you remember me posting about them at all-it has been taking us 2+ hours for her to fall asleep each night and she's waking 2-3 times overnight---we try soothing for awhile and I usually end up nursing her to calm her down.

 Anyways, her pediatrician suggested at her appt last week to let her cry-definitely when putting her to bed and overnight as well if it has been a short time since she was last up.

We started last Wed and the putting her down thing has gone really well-the first 2 nights she cried 20mins, 10min the 3rd night and barely anything since.

Our problem is overnight-she seems to wake like clockwork at 1130 and 4am (ocasionally between them at 2am)....the 1130 one we tried having her cry-she usually will cry 20-30min then fall asleep but last night it went for an hour-I finally fed her because I had to be up for work today (yes I was being selfish). The 4am waking I always feed her since it's a long stretch. Any advice on the night waking ones? I hate to feed her if shes not really hungry (she'll eat if its in front of her no matter what)-I dont want her in the habit of waking at that time-and I'm fearing she might already be since she does wake up within minutes of that time every night.

xKimx

How old is she?

battybtags

She's just over 4mos-I know it's young, but the doc highly suggested it and my SIL did the same with her kids at the same age-and like I said, so far so good except overnight.

xKimx

I would personally still feed her if she was waking up overnight. 2x really isn't that bad.

June4bride2be

I feed when he wakes, some nights it is 2x (12:30 and 3:30) others it is 1x. I don't get him if he is fussing, but when he cries it is his way to tell me he needs me. I am ok with that.

He is EBF, he IS hungry! I am not liking that your ped suggests she should not need to eat during the night at 4 mos. Heck, I even wake up hungry at night sometimes.....but I know how to ignore the hunger where he does not.

Telyco

We started sleep training at about that time...but never did CIO during the night. We only did it for naps (beginning and during) and when we put him down at night. He was waking up at 4am and then he just phased it out on his own. If he woke up after 5 to eat...I would rock him to sleep and try to stretch it to his normal am feed at 7ish.

I think in your situation - I would try to get her over the 11ish feeding hump - by CIO, rocking back to sleep, binky, etc. Or try to feed her less and less at that time. But I would still feed her at 4...in hopes that she will phase herself out of it soon. If not, she will be used to CIO by then so you can use CIO in a month or so to drop that last feeding.

MelissaSue81

Ferber has a whole chapter on dealing with night wakings. Basically you let them go for a little longer every night and feed them a little less.. (you decrease it by an ounce if you are bottlefeeding)

kac0807

Could it be that she's being put to bed too early...and maybe not active enough or awake enough during the day for her to be tired enough to make it through the night? I have read this can be a reason and that they should be awake for approx. 9 hours a day total. DD usually gets her last feeding for the night btw 9-10:00. Then we put her to bed, she usually sleeps untill anywhere btw 5-7:30. We also never put her to bed without being pretty sound asleep, if we don't she will lay there and cry and I just feel she's still too young to let her CIO.

I think if DD was doing what you said I would feed her, as tough and exhuasting as that may be.

day194

I personally didn't want to try CIO until after 6 months, even though the ped recommended it at 4 months.  I had read some online and that was the decision we made.  I was hoping we'd avoid it all together as I wasn't a fan of letting my LO cry, but we did end up doing it around 6.5 months.

However, before we tried CIO I tried some of the things in the No Cry Sleep Solution and we tried to reduce wakes during the night.  I set a rule, that I wouldn't feed L before 2 am and then not again until after 6am.  So, if he woke up outside of those windows then DH would go in and try to get him to sleep.  It was easier for DH to get him back to sleep as he didn't expect to nurse when he saw DH like he did when he saw me.  This worked and he started to not wake up till after 2. For awhile he only got up once a night, sometimes twice.  Then he took some big steps back a little before 6 months and we were up a lot and he wasn't going back to sleep (which was the real problem, I didn't mind waking up a couple of times if he just nursed and went back to sleep).  Eventually, we were exhausted and ended up doing CIO.  I have to say after 2 days he was going to sleep quickly on his own and hardly ever even whimpers going to sleep and almost never wakes up in the night.

Cutemin

OK, I am going to flat out say it because I know there are others thinking the same, and also others who will flat out disagree.  But pediatricians should not be giving out sleep advice, they aren't sleep experts, they are medical doctors.  They give out this advice because it is a quick and easy answer for them with the limited amount of time they spend with you and your child.  Babies wake for all different reasons at night.   And the sleep experts all say not to let LO CIO until they are at least 6 months old.  I have read a LOT on sleep by various sleep experts since my son never slept from the day he was born, yet it is also worth mentioning that my daughter has been a great sleeper from the day she was born.  We really don't have as much control over out baby's sleep habits as we tend to think!