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Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months
Did you/do you "CIO"?
I'm having a hard time this past week with the fact that we're letting DD put herself back to sleep. She stopped STTN around 5-6 months. I swore I would never let her just cry, but there are nights that she's up for 3 hrs. Not sick, teething, hungry, etc. Since last week we've had a few nights that she woke and we let her "CIO" - after checking on her and sometimes laying her back down and soothing her. She doesn't wake crying, she can talk, etc. for I'd say up to 1/2 hr. Then she starts to cry and that can last up to 1/2 hr. 1/2 hr. of her crying seems harsh to me and it's killing me and makes me cry, too. DH is convinced that this is what we need to be doing. I feel it's bad for her and I hate the fact that the last thing she's feeling before sleep is scared, sad, etc. Am I crazy? Do babies remember this stuff?
Advice, thoughts? TIA!
Oh, as of right now she gets a bottle before bed. After the bottle she's rocked to sleep, which usually is a quick and easy task. Tonight, though, she just wanted to stay up so we let her put herslef to sleep. 1/2 hr. of happy baby and 1/2 hr. of crying baby (and mommy). Oh boy.
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Re: Did you/do you "CIO"?
I did CIO w/DD#1 when she was 10ish months old. I didn't do any particular 'method', but in retrospect I think I should have. Although I understand w/Ferber you go into check on them at certain intervals & when I tried doing that she would freak the eff out even more. So I think that really depends on your kiddo. Honestly- if you know that she isn't hungry, sick, teething, etc. I would absolutely agree with your DH. They have to learn that nighttime isn't play time and any contact you give her just reinforces her wanting to stay awake & be with you. I would have paid good money to have ONLY a 1/2 hour of crying. Seriously- you don't even want to know how long that kid could scream for.
The end result is that once she "got it", she's been a fantastic sleeper ever since. She's 4 now and such a big girl. The good news is that not all babies are so hard like that. DD#2 was a great sleeper from the beginning & while she didn't actually STTN consistently until she was 10mos or so, I always knew it was coming because she was just able to soothe herself better. IMO, bite the bullet & do this now before you have a 2, 3 or 4yo wanting to wake up every night. It's hard, I know- but worth it.
we never did cio....
however, i also have a 14 month old that still doesn't sttn. he wakes 1-2 times a night and i am ok with that.
~after 34 cycles we finally got our 2nd little bundle of joy~
My IF blog
Ditto - and my DD has been sleeping 12 hours a night for a while now.
Listen, cio is NOT necessary if you are not comfortable with it. There are other methods to help her sleep, they take a while and you have to be dedicated to it but they help significantly. Try reading the no cry sleep solution for toddlers if you want to avoid cio. And your toddler will not wake up every night for the rest of their life if you don't cio now, try not to buy into that......
good luck
DS doesn't sleep through the night by any means, but part of the reason I'm not interested in CIO for him is that he's well-rested during the day, you know? If he was miserable, then I'd rethink what we're doing, but as of now, meeeeh.
anyhoo, www.askmoxie.org/sleep has a huge amount of posts about sleep, and the comments are really good to read, too.
And one other thing - could you be putitng her to bed too early? My own personal rule (I usually nurse and rock DS to sleep) is that if it takes more than 20 minutes for him to fall asleep, he's not really tired, and we go do something else and try again later. hth
DS2 - Oct 2010 (my VBAC baby!)