CIO 4 month old? Need advice.

jasrun80 · October 2012

My 3.5 month old is early into her wakeful month... I'm eager to start sleep training yet know all the fire it can create when speaking this of such a young baby.
My lo nurses amazing during the day and still nurses 2x through the night. I like it, I'm not trying to cut that outI just need some advice to get through wakeful.
How do you still nurse at night and commit to sleep training methods of CIO?

It's my plan to start a very sure routine at every sleep session whether it be nap or bedtime, and to let her cry for about 10 minutes before giving in. I need to do this, I have a 2 year old and I simply cannot put the time into the drawn out hours of sleep training I've read about although I will once she's older. For now it is my hope that the routine along with the 10 minute upset begins the sleep train method.
She is currently waking every hour through the night and 20 minutes after being put down for a nap. She's shrieking over being overtired.
I need advice, not flames please:
My questions:
Is it possible to sleep train this young?
How?
Can I train and still nurse or should I quit the feed?
What was your method if you trained young?
This is my second child. CIO worked in 1 night for my first. I'm open to it other ideas.
No one in my home is getting attention/sleep/naps or much fun....

ktpaladino · October 2012

We did the Sleepeasy Solution, which is CIO with 5, 10, 15 min. no touch check ins. I would suggest reading the book. Although I personally didn't feel comfortable with training until 5.5 months, the book says you can begin as soon as they meet both 4 month and 14 lb. milestones. It also has a night time weaning plan that I followed because my LO was eating every hour in the middle of the night. What I like about the plan is that you can tailor it to keep some feedings if you don't feel comfortable dropping them all. I do a 2:00 am dreamfeed halfway through the night, but weaned away everything else. So you could let your LO learn how to put themselves back to sleep for all of the hourly wakings, yet still dream feed or nurse her twice throughout the night if you wanted to keep that going. I think you have to really commit to following the training rules step by step though...I'm not sure having a 10 minute crying limit would work. Good luck!

jasrun80 · October 2012

Thank you! Ill check it out for sure... I talked to a friend who agrees,,, wait til 4 monthsso I will... I guess my plan does sound funny,,, I just wanted to do something,,,, thank you :

noahchristopher · October 2012

kbruington:

I absolutely think you can sleep train that young and it's important to do so. I think lots of people are hung up on the idea of a "wakeful period" or "wakeful month" but I never experienced that with my LO. People blame bad sleeping on growth spurts or a wakeful period but sometimes babies are just being babies. Things are new and they don't always want to sleep! The key to sleep training is sticking to whichever method you choose. I'm wondering why you choose 10 minutes as being the limit to let your LO cry. I can tell you from experience, sometimes it's longer than that Giving in too early will make it not work so you need to really think about how you feel in regards to CIO. If I were to go into my LO's room when he's crying, just seeing me would make it 10x worse!

I don't BF so I'm not sure what to tell you when it comes to that. If your child can go through the night without eating, then it's up to you if you want to nurse. Maybe ask the pediatrician about that part. All I know is that CIO worked for my LO but it doesn't work for everyone. Good luck!

I agree with this completely! We did CIO right before 4 months for naps only. Our time limit was 20 minutes and luckily he didn't make it that long, maybe once. He'd fall asleep before that amount of time, but we didn't check in. We started at first with doing check ins and paci inserts and learned after about a week that that only made it worse. It would prolong his crying. So we stuck to our 20 min rule for about a week for naps. We even set the timer on the stove so we wouldn't go in before that. It sucked and it was hard, but it was absolutely, hands down, the best thing we could have ever done.

He learned to put himself back to sleep and we never had to sleep train at night, except for camping out on his floor and inserting the paci instead of feeding him, which we did around the same time.

He had gone 9-10 hrs on his own so I just went with that, and made sure I fed him enough during the day. Once or twice the paci inserting in the middle of the night didn't work and I did feed him, but that was it. The paci camp out took about 6 weeks and I thought it wasn't going to work. My friend had done it successfully and kept me motivated.

My son is now 13 mos and has slept through the night since around 4 months because of our vigilence with this in the beginning. I will say, he is a great eater, and his weight was always good, so I never worried about that.

Good luck!!

jasrun80 · October 2012

Thanks!! I like hearing these stories... I'm alright with 2 wake ups for now but my husband I agree that 20 min is not unrealistic to let her CIO once we do decide to do that. I'm not ready yet, but if her sleep depletes, I'm sure I will be. We did CIO with our son and it WAS the best thing we ever did ever. Thanks for the words support.. My concern here was her young age,, you rarely see posts here about babies under 6 month CIO. I'm not as eager as I was yesterday when I posted thisthat being said,,, I actually got to sleep some last night... Thanks! For me, the not checking in 20 minute deal will be our method. My lo screams her brains out to no avail in the car when she's over tired so I Am concerned she will do the same with CIO, because she has screamed for half an hour rides yet never fell asleep.

KateLouise · October 2012

I'm a firm believer in you've got to do what's right for your family, but the reason you seldom see posts about CIO with such young babies is that it's not recommended until they're older.

I know the tiredness can be crazy, but hang in there. You'll get through.

skibunny59 · October 2012

I personally would wait until 6 months. I know that most sleep training methods are not recommended for babies younger than 6 months. Are you opposed to co-sleeping? My DD has been wanting to nurse non stop at night and bringing her into bed with me allows me to meet her needs and get sleep myself.

jeffsjayme · October 2012

I think you can "sleep train" at that age. In fact, I think parents sleep train from day one as they let baby get used to sleeping a certain way or in a certain place...whether that's crib or co-sleeping or rock n play or being held or rocked or nursed to sleep.

At that age, my LO was doing a feeding at night and I wasn't necessarily worried about dropping it. But I did start to make sure when he woke up at night that he was really hungry and really awake. Which meant that he had to cry before I would go into get him. Just fussing wasn't enough to get me up to feed him. Because some times he'd fussed him back to sleep. When he got a little older, then I would let him cry a little bit longer. I think 10 minutes isn't unreasonable at that age...if you're comfortable with it. To be honest, 3.5 months isn't that different from 4 months that Ferber recommends.

At that age, I also made sure that I was putting him to bed awake - drowsy maybe, but awake, so that he got used to falling asleep in the crib.

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