Did anyone successfully get baby from bed to crib without CIO?

st.augbride · July 2013

I NEED to get dd in the crib, which is in our room. I tried Ferber and it was a disaster (got worse each night despite doing exactly what the book says). It was traumatic for all involved and we just can't do it again. So, what ELSE will help?? I don't want CIO so I don't mind if it's a slow transition and takes a while. I just need a strategy that may actually help. I'm in the middle of reading No Cry Sleep Solution, and while I haven't finished it yet, so far there isn't anything new...

minervacullen · July 2013

I didn't do CIO, but I did let her cry for few minutes before I'd pick her up and nurse. It took time, but she does great now, well most if the time. We still have some tears here or there, but mostly she's fine. She sleeps much better too.

st.augbride · July 2013

Thanks! So did you basically just do your routine, put her down, and then when the crying started go in and nurse and put back down after? How many times would that tend to repeat before LO would settle?

minervacullen · July 2013

Yes. I'd let her cry for a few min though. Not long or anything. Um I'd say 2 weeks and now months later we have a few nights a month where she cries. Usually if she's teething she cries and I have a hard time with motn feedings. But hey she's teething, I'm going to comfort her.

bumpuser7698452 · July 2013

minervacullen said:
I didn't do CIO, but I did let her cry for few minutes before I'd pick her up and nurse. It took time, but she does great now, well most if the time. We still have some tears here or there, but mostly she's fine. She sleeps much better too.

This is exactly what we're doing. I read No Cry Sleep Solution and, like you, was rather disappointed.
I nurse her to sleep in my bed like I've always done and when she's asleep I move her to her crib down the hall. She usually wakes up when I'm setting her down and if she starts to cry I'll let her go until it starts escalating and I can tell that she's actually mad and not just whining. If she is mad i'll pick her up and nurse her until she falls back asleep which is usually only about 30 seconds. I keep doing this until she's finally asleep. We've gone from it taking an hour or two to transition to the crib, to her only waking when I put her down and she'll roll over and go back to sleep.

st.augbride · July 2013

Thanks so much! This seems like the best approach to me. I will start working on this tonight. I know it will take a long time as dd is a stubborn monkey, but it would be better for her now that she wants to move around so much in her sleep.

JJ_13 · July 2013

We followed the Kim West Good Night Sleep Tight book with a lot of success.

*LrCg* · July 2013

I'm a Mom of 3 and I never did CIO. We bedshared with all of them too. My first was just shy of 6 months old when we put him in his room (at 5 months old we put him in a PNP next to our bed, then moved him up); For baby 2 we moved at 5 months upstairs and with our 3rd we tried at 6 months and she woke up 2 hours later and cried (she never wakes up at night) so we brought her back down knowing that she obviously wasn't ready. 2 weeks later we tried again and no issues. I know they have a mental leap @ 6 months old, perhaps yours is going through that now. Do you allow your LO to nap in her crib? We started naps in cribs at @ 4 months old. Also, I always nurse my babies to sleep. They've always went to bed @ 6:30-7 pm and wake up @ 6-7 am. I've never had issues with nursing to sleep or bed sharing, I've always said that's the one reason why they STTN so early- they were just very secure sleepers.

st.augbride · July 2013

I nurse dd to sleep, but she wakes frequently (used to STTN in the RNP but stopped when we moved her to the bed and she had an unlimited supply all night). It is definitely possible that she is going through a big developmental period right now since for the last three nights she has gotten at between 1-2am and felt like it was party time, which she never does. I have no trouble feeding her at night. That doesn't bother me. I just want to put her in the crib before and after (even if in our room).

st.augbride · July 2013

Also, she naps in the crib at daycare but not at home (I wear her usually).

minervacullen · July 2013

I highly recommend starting with naps.

alysie89 · July 2013

I'm doing the same with my dd now. We are starting slow and putting her in the crib for naps and at night we are rocking her to sleep then putting her Dow in the crib. And just repeating as necessary. It's just been a really always process for us. Some days go better than others but we try to stay consistent.

st.augbride · July 2013

Ok, she's in there right now! So I already count tonight as a major success (no matter how the rest of the night goes). I just kept nursing her when she cried until she fell asleep and then after a bit placed her back. I also moved the crib right next to my bed so I could leave my hand on her for a while once I put her in there. No matter how long this ends up taking to become the norm, it's so much better than CIO.

GrantHenson · July 2013

We did the sleep sense program for our baby. There was one night of crying for 48 min the first night but 5 or less after that. There is almost always going to be some crying as it is the babies way of protesting to the change

st.augbride · July 2013

So to update, we did have lots of night wakings, but we always do (that's for another time!). But I managed to get her in the crib much of the night. At 3am, she protested a ton and I lost resolve so she joined me in bed, but I still view this as a big success! I think after a while she will get it that the crib is a good place. I will worry about night weaning when she is older. And only fusses, no crying at all : ) (fyi, when we did any kind of graduated cio, it went 30 min night one, and then 2 hrs night 2 and over an hour night 3 wth it starting again 50 min later, so we pulled the plug....not worth it, not working, and she seemed sad and clingy in the days).