How old were your LO's when you did CIO? My hubby and I are having a hard time agreeing right now. He is ready to do CIO, and I am not. I know it will be heartbreaking no matter when we do it, I just feel like it is too soon. My twins are 4 months old this week (2 months adjusted age). Is this to soon, or am I just being soft? They really go down pretty easy for the most part. DD goes down without a peep most nights, but DS has recently started having fits when we put him down. Most of the time I am able to let him cry for maybe 5 min, then go in and put his paci back in and he will go on to sleep. Hubby is just fine letting him scream for an hour,until he cries himself to sleep - which he did a couple of weeks ago while I wasn't home :grr: . Oh, and this is only when they first go down for the night. When they wake for bottles during the night, they both eat and lay right back down with no problem. Any advice, tips, and tricks would be wonderful. Thanks ladies!
I personally think 4 months is too young for most babies. I think that 6+ would be the best age for CIO, when they can actually learn self-soothing. For what it's worth, I think most of the books are in line with my timeline. However, I know that some people have had success younger. It's more a question of whether they have the ability to self-soothe. My DD did at 3 months, but my DS did not until 7. If you think it's too soon, it probably is. And, I absolutely believe that both parents need to be on the same page before doing it. Edit: I forgot to answer your question. Mine were actually 7 months when we did CIO, and it worked beautifully.
An hour is way too long for them to CIO. We started CIO when they were around 3 1/2 months adjusted. It worked out quite well for us. They usually go to bed on their own, or maybe cry around 10 minutes, then drift off. Now, we are staying with DH's mom(he is a full time student, and I'm getting ready to be in October) and she runs to them every time they squeak, despite us telling her not to, so we're getting ready to run into some sleeping problems(or just plain spoiled brat toddlers) in the future I believe. I wouldn't go past 20 minutes of CIO though. Good luck, sweets!
I agree with Rachael. I did CIO with all 3 boys(girls slept through on their own), and Justin was 9 months, Josh was 8 months, and Jacob was 6 months. Personally, I wouldn't do it any earlier than 6 months, but some peds give the go ahead at 4 months.
If you're not ready to do CIO then go with how you feel! I didn't do CIO until they were closer to 6 months old.
We did it at 6 months. I think 4 months sounds a little young. If you and DH are not on the same page, you should probably wait.
I agree with Rachael as well. Go with your instincts & both parents absolutely have to be on board. I waited until after 6 months with all my kids, I think 4 months is a bit young.
I agree with Rachael too. Any younger then 6 months, my kids wouldn't have been ready for it. We did CIO at 6 months for naps. Definitely both parents should be on board with it as well. Good luck with your decision!
:wub: Thanks for all the replys... and making me feel better about not wanting to do CIO yet. I'm gonna tell DH that per everyone's recommendations here they should be at least 6 months old before we "think" about doing it .
My DH wanted to do CIO from birth!! I finally found some books/info for him to read about infant development and he finally understood why I wanted to wait. I wish I could remeber what I found, but I know I asked him to read parts of the Weissbluth HSHHC book. At 5.5 months (just a week or so ago), we did CIO to eliminate night time and early wakings. They still wake at least once a night, but just fuss and fall back asleep on their own within 5-10 minutes.
I just ordered that book the other day from Amazon, and should be receiving it tomorrow. Thanks! Update: I told DH last night that everyone here recommends no earlier than 6 months for CIO. He just said "ok, so what do we do right now". Our issue for the moment is that they are real fussy starting at 5pm till 6:30-7 (whenever their next bottle is and then bed). I tried to tell him that it is just a phase that every baby goes through (it is, right?). It seems the only way to keep them quiet is to hold and rock them (the swing doesn't work, they want cuddle time), which I have no problem with, but again DH feels that if we do that, they will expect it every night. I tried to tell him that they are too young to spoil yet. :stir: Any tips for getting through the "witching hour"?
I'm so glad you posted this, I have the EXACT same situation going on and the replys have confirmed what we just went through last night. My Nate goes to sleep without any problems after his 6:30 PM bottle (around 8 PM since we like to play with them for a bit after they eat since my husband & I both work full time and this is really our only time to play with them during the week) but Ryan refuses. So we tried CIO last night on him (more of the Ferber method of doing so) and did this for an hour without it working and then we went and got him because couldn't take it anymore, we felt so bad for him. Plus they are still eating every 4 hours so we have to wake him up again at 10:30 for his final night feed and we figured why let him go through all that just to wake him up again to do it all over. Luckily both boys go down well after the 10:30 PM feed... it's just that 6:30 PM feed that is rough on Ryan. Anyway, we were thinking after our debacle last night that we are going to wait to try CIO again until they are down to only 4 bottles a day (6:30 AM, 10:30 AM, 2:30 PM & 6:30 PM) so that we don't have to wake him up again. I'm guessing that will be right around the 6 month mark, since they are almost 5 months now (but almost 3 months adjusted age).
At this age, mine were going to bed in the 6:30 timeframe, for just that reason. Some nights at this age, it was 5:30. Early bedtime is what worked for us with the witching hour. Still, at 18 months, mine are in bed between 7 and 7:30. When you read HSHHC, you'll see that he is a big fan of early bedtimes. They don't work for everyone, but they worked for us!
