First of all crying it out is just not for us. After 6 min. of her crying so hard she was about to get sick I was a mess. DD is not the crying kind and going from laying her down every nap and nighttime and then all of a sudden leaving her alone in a room is just not right. We will figure something else out. But now DD will not go in her crib! We used to lay her in it asleep and she would sleep there till she wakes around 2. But not now. She woke up after being put in her crib last night dead asleep 3 times and screamed. I guess she thought we were going to leave her in there alone again
Any suggestions?
Re: CIO failed horrible plus some
I wanted to say that I've read that there are two kinds of babies. Ones that will start crying until exhaustion and those that will cry and work themselves into a fit without the possibility of exhaustion. DS is one of the latter. CIO does not work for all, we are one of them. But, I also have no problem getting up every 3 hours or so to soothe him for the 4 minutes it takes to put him back to sleep. GL getting DD back in bed!!
And, you're gonna have a PM in a few minutes. I have a question for 'ya!!
At 9 mos, DD decided she was going to wake up every 3 hours and scream bloody murder. We used to rock her to sleep then put her down and she'd STTN. It worked great until she hit the 9 month mark. We did ferber which isn't letting LO cry until they fall asleep, there is an actual chart you have to follow and other solutions to solving sleep problems.
It was HELL the first few days because I was always so used to rocking her to sleep. But I was so sleep deprived, that it was taking a toll on my health, mental well being and our family's quality of life.
During that time, I was afraid DD would begin to fear her crib/bedroom so I made it a point to make her crib a fun and safe place. Before taking her out of her crib in the morning, we'd play and sing a song. We spent a LOT of time in her room during the day, just making her feel like it was just another room, not a punishment. I also made sure she had her best friend in the crib at all times. Turns out her friend is a 22" stuffed Grover doll with huge eyeballs, nose and mouth.
I know Ferber doesn't work for everyone (and there is a lot of controversey), but it worked for us and I recommend reading the book from cover to cover.
We decided to do CIO around 8 months...she was getting to the point where we'd rock her to sleep and as soon as she hit the mattress she'd stand up and cry for us to come back. It was exhausting. So after reading Healthy Sleep Habits Happy Child and learning from my own mother's experiences with me and my brother, I decided CIO is what I wanted to do. Night #1 - 38 minutes of crying. She literally fell asleep mid-scream...I went in just to make sure she was ok because the crying stopped so abruptly. Anyway night #2 was 2 minutes and ever since, there is rarely any crying. We read a story, nurse to calm for a few minutes, put on her music light machine thingy, and when I put her in her crib she curls up and goes right to sleep.
So maybe you do this, but a deliberate calming nighttime routine might help. And yes listening to the crying is hard, but if you turn the monitor down and just watch the lights, then you'll know when she finally falls asleep. It sucks but it's so worth it for her to be happy to go to sleep! I know people who still lay down with their 5 year old kids, rubbing their backs for 40 minutes to get them to go to sleep, that is not for me!