Crying it Out??

bratni13

I need advice!!! My DD's are 6 months old and their sleeping has gone down hill at night. We are waking up constantly to go pop the paci's back in their mouths and then they contently go back to sleep. Mom and Dad are tired and I think babies are learning bad sleep habits. I think they need to learn to soothe themselves to sleep so I think they need to cry it out. But I'm struggling with do we take the pacifiers away all together? Or is it okay to give them paci's to get to sleep and then let them cry it out during the night? If you did the cry it out method did the other twin wake up while the other cried?

Or is there a better method? I need help...so tired!

altee9

I don't have any advice really because obviously I'm not doing things right either! My boys are over 8 months old and they are still waking up at 3:30/4 am (along with other times to replace paci's)....I'm exhausted! I'm curious to see what kind of advice the other ladies/experts have to offer you!!

 Good luck!

MrsLnt

At maybe 7, 7.5 months, they got really good at replacing their own pacis.  Of course, we had all sorts of other sleep issues going on at that time but the late-night paci replacing wasn't an issue.

We did rush in so one wouldn't wake the other and I think we over-responded.  At just shy of 9m old, and going through the 8 month sleep regression, we hit rock bottom and basically let them CIO.  Last night DD screamed for 30m before it woke DS and even still, he put himself back to sleep in the middle of it.

Listening to them CIO pains me beyond belief, but, if it's either that or hold a baby all night and then be a zombie the next day, it's better for all of us for them to CIO. 

2shihtzus

We had this problem too and we lasted until they were 9 months old and then we could not take it anymore.  I read the book The Sleep Easy Solution and it is pretty much CIO with periodic check ins.  As far as pacifiers, the book said that if your baby could replace their own pacifier 100% of the time, then you can sprinkle a few pacifiers in their crib when they go to bed so that there are pacifiers there for them and they can just put them back in themselves.

My boys could not replace their pacifiers for themselves at all (or rather, wouldn't) so the book said in that case, we needed to get rid of them at night since it was hurting their ability to soothe themselves back to sleep.  Basically, you had to look at everything you used to get them to sleep and if it wasn't something that they could duplicate for themselves in the middle of the night, it had to go.

My husband and I were really worried about not giving them their pacifiers at night but it actually went better than we thought it would.  We had maybe 2 or 3 tough nights (which I really don't think were related to the pacifiers) and then they started sleeping much better and everything (naps included) got much better.  Now they sleep 8-7ish with no problems and very rarely, someone will wake up in the middle of the night but can very quickly soothe themselves back to sleep.

It actually ended up that with them not using pacifiers at night, we sort of just stopped using them during the day too (we didn't even really intentionally do this, it just sort of happened) and so they were off pacifiers by a little after 9 months.  I don't know if you are comfortable being off pacifiers yet but I would definitely suggest the book, it helped me so much. 

xxyankeegrl823xx

We took the pacis away at about 6 months. At that point they were only using them for sleep but the middle of the night replacements were getting out of hand (some nights every 15-20 minutes!). They only cried for about a day or two then were fine without them.

DD still woke up several times a night but not nearly as often as she did with the paci. At about 8 months we decided to let her CIO and it was like magic! By the 3rd night she was sleeping straight through the night. They still cry when we put them down but its only for maybe 5 minutes and then they go right to sleep and rarely wake up. When they do wake up they will cry for probably 30 seconds and go right back out. DD woke DS maybe twice during the night when we first started the CIO method but he went right back to sleep.

jamie217

Paci replacements were awful for us!  I got wubbanubs and sewed one side to their sleepsack and pinned the other with a diaper pin.  Then I went in and "helped" them put them back in at around 4.5 mos.  within a couple days they were sleeping so much better!

They did not start STTN until 5 mos.  At which time, I already had pacis rigged and it was more an issue of waking for a bottle out of habit, drinking an oz and going back to bed. Once they had ea STTN on their own at least 1x we did CIO, It took Mia 3 nights and Keira 2 and wasn't too bad.  I did find that after the first night going in for check ins made it worse, so we stayed out - if it would have gotten really bed, I would've gone it, but it didn't.

Also, before the wubbanub sleepsack comb, we tried eliminating paci after talking to pedi since I was going in 15-20x per night to replace them and it was AWFUL.  They still sleep with a wubbanub and can get it themselves now. Sleeping and car rides are the only time they get a paci.  Once they are able to face forward they aren't getting them in the car and during my spring break next yr. we getting rid of them period...I am dreading it!  They LOVE them, but I want them gone before they turn 2yrs.