CIO questions for those that have done it!

sarbear2

We have decided to try CIO for our LO (he is 5 months old- ignore ticker). He used to be a great sleeper (sttn) and now wakes up anywhere from 5-8 times a night. He usually just needs soothing back to sleep, sometimes rocking, but he can't do it on his own anymore. This has been going on for 46 nights- yup, I remember when it got bad. Nothing else is working- we tried the no-cry sleep stuff and all that jazz- we have white noise, dark room, bedtime routine, paci, opitmal awake times, naps during the day, never nurse to sleep (except just before bed sometimes). So we were against it, but I think this is what my LO needs. He now thrashes around in bed when you put him down and we have to put our hand on his legs to calm him, and now seems like he needs the paci put back in to fall asleep (just to fall asleep- not to stay asleep).

So for those of you who have done CIO, some questions for you

1) If your child used a paci or lovey did you let them use it while doing CIO? Or did you use CIO to help break them of using it?

2) My LO wakes to eat at 12:30- that is the only feed he has at night. Do I just feed him normally at this time when he cries out, and then start the CIO for the next time he wakes up?

3) If you LO is quite during one of the intervals, but then makes noise toward then end of it, lets say like the last 4 minutes of a 10 minute interval, do you go in when the 4 minutes are up or start over with the 10 minutes since he was quite before? So for example lets say you go in after 5 mintues, soothe, then leave. You are now on your 10 minute interval. Your little one is quite until the last few minutes... do you go in when those few minutes are up or wait a whole new 10 minutes since they weren't fussing before?

4) Do you do anything to help them wind down at all before you lay them down? Do we do our bedtime routine (diapers, pjs, nurse, song while rocking) the same way then just lay him down right after the song or are we suppose to cut out that rocking entirely? Same thing for naps- I usually do a song and rock to almost asleep. Do i still rock for a bit to get him drowsy, or just go into his room and lay him down and walk out? It seems like it would be hard for them to wind themselves down if you just laid them in the bed?

Thanks ladies!

meltoine

Read Ferber's book. It will answer all your questions and you'll have a better idea what you're doing.

LoveMaBaybee

We never did full on cry it out, we just wanted to see what L would do if we let him be in his crib alone. We tried Baby Whisperer and if we were in the room, he would scream and not calm down. He cried the first few times we did it, not full on crying, more like fussing, and now he is happy to be put in his crib with his fan on and his blanket and be left alone to go to sleep.

The first thing was I made sure he was tired enough, so around two hours he goes down. Before he goes down I kind of walk around with him and make sure he is relaxed. I turn on his fan and lay him down and that's it. Like I said, when he was just getting used to going to sleep like that, it took a bit longer, but he goes down no problem usually. If he ever really got worked up, I would take him out of his room and sit with him for ten minutes, and try again. I would never let him cry for long periods of time.

The main thing I have learned is every baby has such different needs. My friend used Baby Whisperer on both kids and it worked awesome, it was terrible for Liam. 

This doesn't really fall under any type of method, just what worked for Liam.

Bluescarf

I never read the Ferber book. What I did was use his lovey as a calming object, so when I would walk in to soothe him I would always hand him his lovey before leaving the room. Eventually he seemed to get the idea of grabbin onto that instead of crying, then would eventually fall back asleep. I never stopped the feeding he always needed, I just didn't feed him at the other times, that is when I used CIO. Eventually he cut out the last feeding on his own. I also started the time over if he hadn't been crying before, but this really depends on your baby's temperament. Some babies will get too worked up if you re-started the time, since they've now been awake without you that whole interval. I never have changed my routine either, though I never did rock him. It seems a little cruel to cut out all soothing by parents, and might set a bad tone for the night. My son needed lots of love and snuggles before bed, and I still love this part of our bedtime routine. He sleeps very peacefully I belive because of this. However, for naps I simply lay him down and walk away. He just knows it's time to sleep and there is no fuss. Good luck!