CIO at 14 Months

Hi girls,

Question for those who believe in CIO.

I posted previously about my son not sleeping unless being rocked or if I lie beside him. He will fall asleep but will wake up to check if I am there every 10-15 min. This all happened when he was 8 months as we did CIO before and it worked like a charm.

He IS very tired and needs to sleep otherwise its a nightmare. I tried lying beside his crib to help him fall asleep but I've been doing this for 2 weeks and still can't leave the room for a second.

Now here is a problem: My daughter started doing the same and now even at night.

How do I CIO if they won't give up screaming? Do I just keep on doing it up for the whole week and just be persistent?

Any ideas?

Please.... :sorry:

 

Does your DD and DS share a room? I would say to be persistent (I know it's hard, especially when you have two screaming toddlers) and if they do share a room, perhaps separating them might help :unsure: Good luck!

 

how long have you left them to CIO so far? honestly, CIO is only going to work if you do their bedtime routine & leave for the night & are consistent with it. you should see improvement within a day or two (although, it's quite common to have a regression around night 4 - 5). improvement may not mean they don't cry at all, but that the crying time is shorter.

just out of curiosity, could they be teething right now? if they're getting their 1st year molars that's often a very difficult & painful period & is often very disruptive to sleep.

 

I know it is EXTREMELY hard to let them cry, but the only way it worked for us is to keep with it. They are aware enough to know they want you there and how to get it. I would let them cry a while, and feel bad then go in, and just make it worse. I knew they were overtired, and I was helping by getting them to sleep. Unfortunately I had to let them cry to acheive that. They regressed a few times, and it felt like we were starting over, but they are great sleepers now. Good luck.

 

Hi girls,

Thanks so much for your responces.

i know for sure that my daughter is not teething as she's had 16 teeth since she was 12 months old. My son might be but i check his gyms to make sure they are not red and not painful to tocuh, so I would assume it's ok.

As for my daughter, we did CIO for her yesterday night and she cried for 45 min and went to sleep. Today she went for nap without a peep and fell asleep herself without crying at all.

Now my son: He goes to sleep at night without any crying. He falls asleep fast and without assistance. BUT during nap-time he goes nuts. I tried to leave him in the crib for up to 3 hours to try to get him to sleep, he never did. Just yelled for the whole time. I did that once and felt like a crazy monster ever since and have not attempted to do it again. He is crying right now for 30 min and I don't know what to do and how long to persist.

I actually even took him to the doctor last week to make sure he is ok and he is in perfect health.

How long should I let him cry? I guess I should persist day after day but for how long?

Thanks again to everyone who responded.

 

Twointheoven - Thanks for the encouragement.

I know they are tired. They wake up at 7 am and by 12 pm (5 hours later) they start to rub their eyes and lie on the floor. They get a big bottle right before nap and their diapers are changed right before as well. We have room darkening blinds and they are in separate rooms. Their cribs have a couple of stuffed toys, blanket, pillow and their pacifier.

I too find that if I go in to reassure, it makes it worse and my son will go into a rampage type crying. Now if I take him out, he is so sleepy that he falls asleep right on top of me, but if I try to put him down, he will start they crazy screaming again.

 

that's actually a really long awake time for 14 month olds - usually around 3 - 4 hours of awake time is good at that age. have you dropped down to one nap already or are you still doing two naps a day? it sounds to me like your son is overtired by the time you're putting him down for his nap & then is finding it impossible to fall asleep or stay asleep.

if you are on one nap a day & want to stay with that schedule, have you tried an extra early bedtime to see if that helps?