DD is 13 months, and I made the mistake of letting her sleep in our bed starting at about 4 months when she was miserable from teething and it has just become a habit now. I am now pregnant with DD#2, and I NEED to get DD#1 out of my bed! I'm not sure that CIO will work with someone her age. What do you think would be the best way to get her out of our bed? TIA!
Re: How old is too old to CIO? How to get her out of our bed?
I don't think you can be too old to CIO, but you can be too young.
I've read that you should hang out in her room doing fun stuff during the day, to get her used to it. Start off with naps and then work your way to bed time. I would personally let my DS CIO if he refused. It's going to be a lot harder since she has been sleeping with you for so long. I think Ferber has a section on co-sleeping.
I feel your pain!
DS has always started the night in his bed, but would move over to ours whenever he would first wakeup. So last night we let him cry for a bit after his first waking and as a result, he slept in his crib till 6:30 this morning! He was up at 11, 12, 4 and 5:30. I let him cry for 7 minutes (not that I was counting or anything) then went in and patted his back but didn't pick him up. The first time we did it he was mad and kept getting back up after I laid him down and it took me about 10 minutes to calm him down, but all the other times he laid right back down and went to sleep after 2 minutes.
I expected much more of a fight from him - I'm shocked! If I known it would have gone so well, I would have done it sooner.
So just start putting her in there - you might be surprised at how well it goes - I was!