Broken sleep/nightwaking (can I do CIO?)

My twins are almost 8 months old and for the past 2 weeks, they have been waking....many times...through the course of the night...a paci quiets them...for anywhere from 10 minutes to about 1 hour...then they cry again. I do this "paci dance" sometimes 10 times or more...I'M GOING INSANE!!

They always fall right alseep with no issue...but about 2 to 3 hours into their sleep, they are waking...can I do CIO at this point or is that too disturbing at this point? I understand CIO for falling alseep, but my issues are broken sleeping/nightwaking?

They are not hungry and don't need a diaper change. They might be teething pains, but I dunno.

This is crazy!!!!! I'd rather the days when I'd wake and feed them and have them sleep for a few more hours rather than prancing back and forth to their room multiple times a night....what gives?????

URG!!!!

 

Could very well be teething pains. Mine are of a similar age and are definitely starting to teethe. They have also been waking up more often at night which is definitely a pain. I cannot physically/emotionally stand to do CIO but it is your decision - there is no one who is going to tell you "can do CIO" or not. It has to be what you and your family are comfortable with. Certainly the general agreement is that CIO methods not be used before 6 months but there are many here who started earlier and had success. I am personally using Elizabeth Pantley's "No Cry Sleep Solution" which is a much gentler and more gradual process than CIO. I also just stopped swaddling the girls this week because they were flipping over on their tummies and they now use sleep sacks. Those are working out better than I thought. I don't think they are causing the night wakings because these disruptions started about two weeks ago. My DH was very insistent that we try CIO recently and I was resistant but I gave it a shot one night and they cried for an hour and a half. I cried as well because every maternal instinct in my body was telling me to go to them and comfort them when they started screaming at the top of their lungs. We of course checked in on them every 10 minutes and gave them some reassurance but didn't pick them up. When I saw their red-rimmed eyes the next morning I decided then and there that we would not be continuing. I don't think they (or frankly I) was ready for that. Pantley's methods just seem more in tune with my parenting style so that is what I will continue to use. But as I said, it's your decision and many parents on this board are strong advocates of CIO and I would suggest you read their stories and do some research of your own before choosing the method that's right for you. Best of luck!!

 

If it goes on for longer than 2 weeks I would do CIO. You can do CIO for night wakings, not only for going to sleep at the beginning of the night. GL, middle of the night CIO is very tough!

 

I also say do CIO. I would probably give some motrin as well, just in case it is teething, but unless they are showing signs of being sick (with a cold or a fever that might indicate an ear infection), then chances are they've just gotten into a bad sleeping pattern.

You do CIO for night wakings the same way you do for the beginning of the night. Just recently Liam decided he wanted to babble/talk in the middle of the night. After getting up 2-3 times to settle him down, I just left him alone, turned the monitor down so I could hear if he cried but not his babbles and went back to sleep. I honestly have no clue how long he talked for, but he was sound asleep when I went to check on him a few hours later.

Rylee has woken up several times crying, after checking on her she'll lay right back down, but the instant I leave the room she pops back up in bed and cries. If I leave her alone, she'll settle herself back down within 5 mins or so, because she knows it's nighttime and nothing is actually wrong.

 

We started doing CIO when our boys were around 8 months old, and it helped immensely with their night wakings! One night after Colin had a second night waking, like he so often did then, I rocked him for close to 10 minutes and he was relaxed and asleep then, so I laid him back in his crib and his head popped back up again and he started crying, which also was fairly common. But I was so burned out by that point of constantly rushing to pick him up and rock him (or his brother) that I just rubbed his back for a few seconds then left the room to let him CIO. He screamed bloody murder but only for 7 minutes, then fell right back asleep, and his brother in the other crib never woke up at all during his tirade. At that point I realized that 1) CIO is not so bad and nothing to be afraid of (I wanted to do it for a couple of months but was too apprehensive to try it) and 2) it doesn't always wake the other twin, and on the few occasions that one's crying wakes the other, the other baby quickly figures out how to go right back to sleep. Initially I would go to them if they woke in the middle of the night, but only to rub their back and not pick them up. After a few nights of this the night wakings decreased greatly! And now if one starts stirring or fussing lightly I let them cry for a bit before even going in, and often times they go back to sleep in a few and I don't even need to go in and rub a back. Also, if one or both wake between before 6am I have started letting them fuss then too. So we keep a digital timer in our bedroom and if they start stirring at 5am, for instance, I set the timer for 30 minutes and turn off the monitor. That way I can get a few more Zzzz without having to hear them fuss or worrying that I'll sleep through a major prolonged meltdown, and many times after 30 minutes I'll check the video monitor and both boys will be asleep again. Not always, sometimes one or both are still awake, but they have learned to play in their cribs for the most part then as opposed to crying. They know that mommy or daddy will come in within 30 minutes and get them in the mornings (if they don't fall back to sleep anyway).

 

Sounds a lot like what we went through. Around 6 months, we let our girls CIO just to GO to sleep. We were rocking them to a dead sleep then putting them down and creeping out and praying they would not wake ... 5 mins later ... WAHHHH! ... rock ... put them down ... pray ... WAHHH!!! ... so on and so forth) ... anyway, was going to let them CIO to go to sleep then nurse them when they woke up the first time then let them CIO again if they woke less than 5 or so hours since I had fed them last ... kind-of like that ... I don't really remember exactly what we were going to do (they are almost 3 now) ... anyway, they were tiny and I didn't expect them to sleep all the way through without nursing at least once but we wanted to be able to lay them down and not have to rock them to sleep over and over for hours. Wanted to teach them to self-soothe ... now tough love has never been my strength but my husband is good at it ... so he had to hold me back from going in there ... the first night M cried for 3 hours straight ... same the 2nd and 3rd nights then it got less and less ... after about a month of letting them cry they would finally go to sleep on their own. It was so hard and so frustrating and heartbreaking but they certainly don't remember it now and they are good sleepers for it. We initially split them up to CIO and once they were doing well, we put them back in the same room and they cried again ... weird ... I wish I would have never split them in the first place. They still sleep through the occasional toddler waking incidents.

Anyway, as hard as it was, I think CIO was one of the best things we did at that age ... and the older they get ... the harder it is (or so I have heard.)

 

Just re-read my reply above and realized I did not complete a thought ... When I said they still sleep through the occasional toddler waking ... I meant that if Hannah wakes and cries for whatever reason now, usually Meredith sleeps right through it and vice versa.

 

I certainly think it's teething. The same thing happened to me and I thought I was going nuts by the time morning came around. Try giving the babies some Tylenol before going to bed. It helped me out a lot. I also noticed that they preferred a certain blanket more than the other! Crazy but true! Also keep in mind that this is the age when they realize what separation anxiety is all about...if that's the case then instead of giving them a soft blanket to sleep with try giving them a very thin shirt with your smell on it .. I really hope this helps and you can finally get some sleep!!

Julixa
http://www.Stuff4Multiples.com

 

I want to applaud you for having the patience to go in there 10 times. After the 4th time, I would have thrown in the towel and let them cry. I do feel for you that you are having to go through this-i hope it gets better soon.