LO Ready For CIO??

Nurse Lisa

So I hear people say that their LO isn't or is ready to do CIO.....what are the clues? How do you know this? I want to do it, but I would hate to do that to her if she's not ready. Right now she wakes anywhere from 1-5 times a night and it usually takes 2-3 "rounds" of bedtime routine to get her down for her first stretch....

SamsMom11

Funny just got back for the Pedi this afternoon and we discussed this very thing.  She said that DD is at the age where it would be ok to let her CIO.  I am sure they are "ready" to handle it...but I am not sure we are.

MrsSewall

We started when are doctor told us he was ready at about 6 months.  He has done well with it. Now at the most he crys for about 3 minutes and he is 9 months, usually maybe 30 sec.  When he is sick it is more.

The_Quiet_One

We weren't very forceful about it to start with, but we gave it a shot around six months. It really took us some finagling and getting used to reading his cues -- putting him to bed before he's really ready makes for a frustrating evening all around, whereas finding that sweet spot between "too tired" and "not tired enough" helps to reduce or eliminate the crying altogether. It was a very trying process to start with; him crying would set me off crying in the beginning. But now it's helped get him used to soothing himself back to sleep unless he's sick, and we're getting more nights of uninterrupted sleep (or we would, if he could stop picking up every stomach virus that makes the daycare rounds, lol).

tlxh7

I'm not sure what the clues are.  Personally, it will take a lot of me to be ready to let my kids CIO.  Lila has been getting up 1-4 times a night, up for 5 minutes-2 1/2 hours at a time, for the last 2 1/2 months.  Some parents might think I'm wrong for going in when she cries.  But, I'm not.  I want to comfort her and help her through this.  I figure she'll have enough time to cry in her life, why not comfort her when I can.

tokenhoser

Honestly, I think a lot of it is when the parents are ready more than the baby.

I mean, I think it's messed up to let a baby cry if they're <4 months, and I think it's kinder to wait until 6 months, but somewhere after that it's really about cost/benefit to the parent and whether you're really ready to listen to the crying. If you're not, that's fine, and if you are, that's fine too. 

We did bedtime sleep training about a week before 6 months (and it took 4 really rough bedtimes to work) and we're doing overnight training now (this is night #3). I wasn't ready to night wean, and I'm still not, but I just can't keep feeding every hour or two all night. So I've decided that I'll feed him at his bedtime (7) my bedtime (10:30ish) and once more around 3. And he can make it less, but I can't let him make it more or it's an all night boob buffet and I get exhausted. 

The_Quiet_One

I will say that I think waiting until six months helped a lot because he started getting solid foods -- the cereal before bed helps fill him up so he's not waking up for yet another bottle at 3 am -- and he was fully formula-fed at that point so I wasn't having to worry about middle-of-the-night pumping sessions even if he wasn't waking up. Plus, at that point, he could roll over freely. He's a stomach sleeper, so having to sleep on his back when he was younger kept him from getting comfortable a lot of the time, I think. Once we could let him decide how he was most comfy, he stopped fighting bedtime as much and CIO became a lot less stressful.

Stellar1

My son will be 6 months soon and I will not let him CIO. He goes to bed fine but if he wakes in the middle of the night to eat, I feed him. Who am I to say if he doesn't need to eat. It won't happen forever and I feel like I should be there to comfort him if he needs me. My daughter didn't start STTN until she was 10 months. F

tokenhoser

Stellar1:

My son will be 6 months soon and I will not let him CIO. He goes to bed fine but if he wakes in the middle of the night to eat, I feed him. Who am I to say if he doesn't need to eat. It won't happen forever and I feel like I should be there to comfort him if he needs me. My daughter didn't start STTN until she was 10 months. F

Said like someone with a baby that wakes up once.

Call me when it's hourly and tell me how you feel.

Megan.10.06

We did with my first son at 4 1/2 months, and after 2 nights, he was sleeping through the night with no problems, just up once to eat.  I was struggling with PPD and didn't know it, but it was the best thing we'd ever done. 

Owen is now creeping up to 8 months, and I'm getting ready to do it now.  As Token said, it's an all night boob buffet.  Now that he's getting to the point he will ONLY go to sleep (or back to sleep) while nursing, it's time for him to learn something else.  

richelleleigh11

I don't know what the clues would be other than age. Pedi said we could do it at our 4 month appointment but I wanted to read Ferbers book before we did anything so it was about 5 months before we did it.  I thought the book was full of great information on the science of sleep and understanding the way their sleep cycles and such work - it helped me be ok with progressive weaning and letting him CIO. It only took us a few nights and he went from waking up every 1.5-2 hours to sleeping from 8pm to 6:15ish am. He will still wake ocassionally in the night but if I just a wait a minute he will go back to sleep on his own.