If you were successful with CIO...
daniella2727
member
Can you share how/what CIO approach you used and how long it took to work?
My LO is a bad sleeper -- she protests going down to sleep awake and if she is asleep when we put her down she wakes up shortly thereafter throwing a fit. She also only sleeps for 4 hour stretches. I can actually deal with the night wakings but the going to bed is a bit ridiculos.
I am against CIO but my husband has put his foot down and said we need to try it and stick with it for a week since my approaches have not worked.
So this weekend we will be away and when we get back we are putting our LO in her crib and going to cry it out. Stupid pedi told us we could let her cry it out up til 1 hour!! I think that is way to long.
I agreed to 30 minutes and then increasing the increments everyday by 10 minutes and trying this for 7 days. I told him after 7 days if this doesn't work then he needs to accept that babies aren't the same and different things work for different babies.
Anyhow I need to know what you did, how to change our approach etc.
I need confidence as I am already crying about this and we haven't done it yet!!
Re: If you were successful with CIO...
YUP, success!
30min would break my heart though!
We started with 10 minutes of crying and then offered a pacifier. We NEVER took her out of the crib. Just rest your hand on LO's chest.
We are on week 2 now and she cries for maybe 3-4 minutes and then is out! I love it!
Educating my mom was the worst. 10 minutes really is a long time when they are crying.
LO sleeps great now!
Poopy, I agree 30 minutes is too much. With that said, you started with 10 and then went in and rested your hand on her chest did you keep the increments of 10 minutes throughout the night until she slept?
On night 2 did you keep with 10 minutes or extend it to 15?
My ass*#$@ pedi said up to one hour is okay but I don't think she explained over the course of some time, in intervals I mean.
It took 3 nights and she was finally able to put herself to sleep. The first night we made the mistake of doing the intervals and that only added fuel to the fire. The other 2 nights she cried/fussed for 40 minutes before falling asleep. We occasionally have a relapse if she has spent the night at the grandparents, but it only takes her one night to get back into it and she only fusses for about 10 minutes.
There have been times she has done a full blown I am going to die scream. When she does this I go in and hold her to calm her down and then put her back down.
I'm a wuss, I started with 3 minutes on the first night, then waited 5, then waited ten and ten was the most we went for that night until he went to sleep. It took 45 minutes and it SUCKED.
Second night, we started with 5 minutes, then 10, then 15 and 15 was the most we went. Second night SUCKED WORSE; took an hour and half for him to fall asleep.
Third night, we started with 15 minutes and were going to do 20 for the next interval but he fell asleep before we had to go in the second time. Success.
Now, he fusses for up to 15 minutes for naps and bedtimes but most times it's less than 5 and we don't go in to comfort anymore (a video monitor helps me to know he's fine). We are working on night wakings now and will try rapid extinction this weekend for it (no comforting, he does not need to eat, he just wants to hang out).
Choose an early bedtime. Seems weird, but the earlier the bedtime, the later the kid sleeps. Think 6:30.
Very short bedtime routine.
Follow sleep cues. By the time he's rubbing his eyes, he's already overtired. This happens to me all the time: I miss the "napportunity" and he fusses longer than he would have if I had been on top of it.
GOOD LUCK!
Oh, and check out this link for optimal wake times:
https://community.thebump.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/29470977.aspx
We are currently in the process. DD was waking 2-4 times a night, and sometimes took 2 hours to get her back down. She wasn't waking out of hunger either. We did Ferber and started her off really slowly.
The first night started with 1 min, then went and rubbed her back for a minute then left, then 3, 5, 7, 10. The first time it took her about an hour to fall asleep, and then she was up again 15 minutes later, so we started the intervals over again. It took 25 minutes to cry it out that time. Then she had a 5 hour stretch, which she hadn't done in her crib in a loooooooooong time. When she woke up from that we did cio again with the same intervals, and it took 25 minutes.
The next night we planned to do 3, 5, 7, 12. The first time she was up it only took 13 minutes for her to get back to sleep. The second time she was up, it took 25 minutes.
The 3rd night she cried out once in the middle of the night, but I never had to go in there. When she was up later, it took about 30 minutes.
Last night I heard her cry for 30 seconds in the middle of the night and then she went back to sleep. She was then up at 3:45 and I let her cry 5 minutes, then rubbed her back, then she was out, and it's 6:20 and is still sleeping. So she's not fully there yet, but definitely making progress!
Wow, I can go all 30 seconds of listening to her cry ...
30 minutes!?!? Wouldn't she pass out from exhaustion at that point? I get nauseous just reading this ...
Our first night - Epic failure so, we'll count last night as our first night.
Last night went like this:
6:30 - Final bottle
6:50 - Wash up and pajamas
7:00 - cartoon, rock and lullaby with daddy
7:15 - put down very drowsy
7:17 - LO starts crying
7:35 - Daddy goes in and rocks him again to settle him down then puts him back down very sleepy
7:37 - still fussing
7:50 - silence - LO went to sleep.
9:40 - fussing
9:45 - back to sleep
1:30 - crying
1:45 - LO has rolled over on his belly and gone back to sleep
6:30 - up for the day.
It's heart wrenching but our threshold is 30 minutes as well and last night, we only got to that point in the very beginning of the evening. HTH!
We used a modified CIO with our twins. Every other night the babies get a bath. Then either after the bath or if no bath after a little play time around 645-7 we put them in their jammies. Then they get a warm bottle laying in a boppy on our bed with us. We try and read a story or tell them a silly story we make up. Once they are done with their bottle we burp them and swaddle them. They are put down drowsy but we try and put them down before they are fully asleep. The room is already ready for them with drapes pulled and sound machine on.
The first night we did 3 minutes. When we would go in we would just make sure they were ok, put a hand on their tummy and tell them we love them and walk out. It took about a total of 15 minutes for them to go to sleep.
Second night was 3 minutes then 5 minutes. After the second 5 minutes they were asleep.
By night three they went down right away.
Sometimes they still fight sleep for a few minutes but usually for no more than 5 minutes.
Good luck and you will survive...
I am curious about this also...
When everyone says their LO "fusses" - does that literally mean being fussy and not full-on screaming? We have periodically tried this and I could not console him after the 1st few intervals. He was screaming louder than I have ever heard. I decided I was done after checking in every 5, sometimes 10 minutes for almost 2 hours. I just concluded that my LO was too young (IMO) and I'd try again next month, since our sleep issues weren't that severe. I just didn't know if that full on screaming is "normal" for CIO. I saw no indication that my LO was going to stop shrieking and actually sleep.