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Babies: 9 - 12 Months
CIO with a 1 year old.
My little guy is almost 1 year old now and still wakes up 4-6 times a night. Not to feed--he dropped those a few months ago, but usually just to be held until he falls back asleep. Sometimes he won't go back to sleep even then, he gets super fidgety and just sort of ends up waking himself all the way up.
So we're starting CIO tonight--he fell asleep on his own but woke up about an hour later (which is normal, he wakes up about once every hour-three hours every night) and I went and comforted him a little bit and then laid him down, which of course caused him to completely meltdown and stand up in his crib and scream.
We check on him in 5-10-15 minute intervals but... what should we be doing during those check-ins? I've been going in assuming we were supposed to calm him down a little bit and lay him down but he is not having that, he freaks out even more and is unconsolable and refuses to lay down at all, let alone even just sit, like he gets pretty pissed off if I try to touch him in any way that isn't picking him up and sticking his pacifier in his mouth and soothing him. Is this about how it goes?
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Re: CIO with a 1 year old.
I think this is how it goes... very difficult the first 3 nights or so, but then it will get dramatically better.
My son also just turned 1 and we did CIO to get rid of the pacifier (we had already weaned from night wakings and rocking to sleep). A little different reason, but we still had full on screaming, just like you described. During the check-ins, I would lay him back down, give him his paci/blanket, and talk to him for a few seconds before leaving again. Even if my son was consoled during that time (rarely), he screamed harder when I left. If your presence still doesn't seem to be helping, you might just try 100% CIO without going in. I know I couldn't let that persist for more than an hour (personally) without a check in.
Whatever you do, I would suggest NOT lifting him back out of the crib for soothing.
The screaming will eventually turn to sobbing, which will turn to whimpering and he'll fall asleep. It's so hard the first few nights, but night 1 was our worst and we were amazed by night 3.
Tonight will be day 4 for our 1 year old...it is so hard...he gets so upset when we go back in. If/when he wakes tonight we may just let him try to CIO on his own...fingers crossed we will be turning the corner soon!