CIO and traveling 18-month olds

Let me start by saying that we were doing SOOOO well with CIO at home. Most nights, the girls sleep all night from 7pm to 6:30, sometimes later. A few months ago, Sarah started waking in the night and crying every half hour, so I would eventually get up and take her in the front room, let her sit for a few minutes and then she would go back down without a prob. This was usually only 1 or 2 times a week.

Now, we took them on a CRAZY travel schedule - from Hawaii to East Coast (6 hour time difference), and then from East Coast to Germany (6 hour time difference). I was hoping they would adjust to the time difference after a few weeks, but we are finding that they wake up several times a night SCREAMING, jumping up and down in their pnp's and yelling "mommy, Up!" If I go to pick them up, it often turns into 2-3 hours of crying (sometimes both twins!) while I am trying to rock them back to sleep. I tried CIO, but it was hard in a hotel room with me hiding in the bathroom, and they would cry 45 mins plus, so I eventually went in to start all over with the bedtime routine(other guests were complaining about the noise, so I couldn't really NOT go in). It doesn't help that they are going thru a HUGE "mommy phase" right now (afraid of everyone sometimes even DH and both want me to hold them at same time.) Now that I am at my mom's house, we are finding that if she goes in instead of me that they go back to sleep more quickly, within 5-10 minutes usually, although she sometimes has to go in twice if they wake up again within the hour.

I am so afraid of being on my own again in the hotel when we head home, and then at home - clearly we are putting them through A LOT this summer and that must be linked to the mommy and sleeping thing, but has anyone had all heck break loose like this and then gotten it under control again when they returned home? I am hoping that I can just do brutal CIO when we get back to their own cribs at home, but what if they continue to wake up every hour and cry for half an hour all night long? Do they eventually get it? Or am I toast? We are away from home for 10 long weeks this summer!

 

yikes, i have no advice but wanted to send hugs your way! :hug99: good luck!

sandra

 

I would try co-bedding with them in the hotel. Then when you are back home, transition them back to their cribs.

 

Honestly, I think you need to consider this from your babies' perspective and be a bit more gentle on them. *You* made the decision to take them on these trips - upsetting their routines and their whole little world. It's not *their* fault that they are sleeping badly. So I think that you need to be as gentle as possible - co-bedding if necessary, and being there for them as they get used to new surroundings. And I think you need to prepare to do the same when you get home. It seems quite cruel to me to put them through "brutal" CIO for a choice that you made.
FWIW: We live overseas and travel with our kids, so I know how hard sleep travel issues are. But I would never punish my kids by doing extreme CIO when they are tired and jettlagged and homesick.