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Babies: 3 - 6 Months
CIO -- no choice?
my 4.5 month old suddenly discovered the joys of rolling and won't stop. I kept finding her turned mostly over in her crib after naps still in her swaddleme. It completely freaked me.out and I have stopped swaddling. well, I still wrap the swaddleme around her but under her arms. problem is, she will NOT fall asleep without being swaddled. I can hold her til the cows come home, but she won't settle and when she is kind of sleepy in the crib the startle reflex jolts her back into super awake mode. so for the last four nights she has been crying herself to sleep. it has been taking 45 minutes each time (no decrease) but then sleeps 12 hours. she also cries at nap for 15 minutes. she only sleeps 30 minutes for naps, always has. it is horrible to live through this and I'm not sure she is actually capable of self soothing, but I don't know what else can be done. she stated having what I think is diarrhea witha bad diaper rash. I don't know if I continue with CIO will things get better shortly, so I shouldn't stop, or if I did stop how on earth can I get her to sleep without crying? hope this makes sense, I am not sleeping a lot and using my phone to write this.
how do you know they can self soothe?
what does baby diarrhea look like and could it be related to her doing CIO?
This discussion has been closed.
Re: CIO -- no choice?
We got the Merlins magic sleepsuit to help LO sleep longer (which didn't work) but it did stop him from rolling over for about a month. After that, he figured out how to do it even in the suit.
I put a rolled up blankie in between his legs if he falls asleep on his side or right along his legs on the side he rolls to if he's on his back. I know it's not advised but it works for us.
My LO did fine with CIO and she's 4.5 mos. She's happy, soothes well, and wakes up with a smile, not crying. She didn't cry for long and it wasn't a painful process. She does great with sleeping now - 12 hours at night, 1-2.5 hour naps in the daytime. I never let her cries get escalated. If they did, we'd go in and rock her for a bit. All that to say, I don't have a firm answer for you, but I also don't think CIO is a no for everyone. Every baby is different.
Could you try just one arm out of the swaddle and alternate? We did that with DD and slowly eased her out of it. The first week was not great but I knew she'd eventually get used to it.
What time are you putting her down? She may be overtired.
You say she's only taking 30 min naps and that may be her normal but many babies will go through a transition before entering in a deeper level of sleep at 30-45 mins. Is she stirring when you get her up or crying? I have let my LO stir around a bit for 10 mins (I watch her on the video monitor) after 45 mins of napping and she almost always goes back to sleep for another hour.
I'm sorry for not having great answers. I thought maybe something I said could help - definitely won't hurt
Good luck, I hope it gets better!
I hate the term "cry it out." Sometimes you have to let your baby cry. If she is fed, changed, loved, and clearly tired, sometimes you just have to let them fuss a little. That is my opinion. Would I let my 4 month old full on cry for an hour? No. However, a little fussing is different. My first child was an AWFUL sleeper. He was up every 1-2 hours at this age and was up every 2 hours until he was over a year old. I quickly learned with my second baby that sleep deprivation is not good for anyone.
That being said, I would look into the loose stool issue to make sure she is not sick. Do you BF? If so, the stools will always be loose, but if they smell very bad and are frequent, then you might have a case of diarrhea.