cio at 2 months?

has anyone let their two month olds CIO?

 

Nope, too young, they have no soothing skills yet.

I did CIO for naps at 4mo and it was still too early for one of my girls, I tried again at 5mo and she naps like a champ now.

 

Absolutely not. They need to know that there is someone there to comfort them when they need. Like the PP stated, no soothing skills. You have several more months before that happens. I recommend starting at 6 months, IF you plan on doing it. It doesn't work for everyone.

 

Ditto pps! Self-soothing does not develop until at least 4 mo adjusted age. It's better to wait until 6 mo if you can.

It's exhausting to help your babies get to sleep now, but the more responsive you are to crying in the first 6 mo, the less crying there will be from then on out. Your babies learn to trust you and feel safe and secure when you respond to their cries, and without being soothed by a parent, they can't learn to soothe themselves - by taking care of them when they cry, you are showing them how it feels to calm down and feel better after being upset. When they're older, they'll learn to calm themselves down.

 

I did not do CIO with any of my kids until after 6 months. Hang in there, you are at a tough age right now. At that stage I had Emma sleeping in the swing, and Jacob was sleeping next to me in bed, in order for us to get ANY sleep at all. :hug99:

 

Can you tell us more about why you want to CIO? Are they not falling asleep, or not staying asleep? Is it for naps or bedtime? Are they getting enough sleep during the day?

2 months is way too soon according to pretty much every expert out there, they need to know you are there and need help learning to fall/stay asleep. This is the time period where you work on learning how they like to sleep, what soothes them, their sleepy cues, and establishing sleep routines. We can help with that :hug99:

 

I did start letting mine fuss a bit at 8 weeks, to see if they would settle. I didn't let them really cry, I just sort of got the ball rolling in getting them to learn self-soothing skills.

 

No way... CIO requires that your babies can put themselves to sleep, or at least comfort themselves. At two months old, babies can't do that; they just aren't ready. They still need you to be there to comfort them and help them get to sleep. If you were to try CIO that early, all you'd be doing is teaching your babies that when they cry, no one comes. It's so hard in those first few months when all YOU want to do is sleep and your babies just don't cooperate. Hang in there... in a few months, your babies will be on a more regular schedule.

 

Too early, I agree with pp, can you shed some light as to why?

 

QUOTE(cohlee @ May 31 2008, 04:05 PM) [snapback]803177[/snapback]
Nope, too young, they have no soothing skills yet.

No way. I never did it until 6 months.

 

ahhhh :hug99: I soooo know what you are going through. Just there not to long ago. However, its to early unfortunately. They don't understand and they are crying because they need you to let them know its all OK. If you think about it, they are tucked safe in your womb where all is taken care of for them. They are then thrown into the world and at 2 months it is all still very new. You need to show them they are safe here It will get better the more they feel secure. The more you are there for them the quicker they will learn that its OK hang in there and come here often

 

QUOTE(adia2007 @ May 31 2008, 11:18 PM) [snapback]803535[/snapback]
Too early, I agree with pp, can you shed some light as to why?


well - i believe they are waking up out of habit/routine at the exact same time in the night. We feed at 10 and EVERY NIGHT like clock work they wake up at 2:30. I am happy that they go longer then 3 hours, but if we feed at 11 - they wake up at 2:30. I could feed them at 12 and they STILL will wake up at 2:30. I don't know how to make them go longer then that.

 

No, no, no!!! WAY too early! They will not be able to learn ... it will be pointless screaming themselves to exhausion. NOT fair for the babies ... IMO!

 

Waking to eat at only two months isn't habit, it's necessity. I've always been very schedule oriented so by two months I never fed them closer together than three hours. If they were fussy, I'd do alot of soothing, pacis, whatever I could do but not feeding. It wasn't until about 10 weeks that they stretched to four hours and then they quickly stretched out more and more until they were sleeping through at 3mos. I am a proponent of CIO, but not this young. I was lucky that that they didn't have too much trouble sleeping in their cribs at night but they napped in swings until 4mos because they wouldn't sleep for good stretches any other way. Try to get some help here and there to catch some zzzz's and you'll make it through! We didn't have any outside help but by working together, we managed to survive the sleep deprivation. You will too!

 

QUOTE
well - i believe they are waking up out of habit/routine at the exact same time in the night. We feed at 10 and EVERY NIGHT like clock work they wake up at 2:30. I am happy that they go longer then 3 hours, but if we feed at 11 - they wake up at 2:30. I could feed them at 12 and they STILL will wake up at 2:30. I don't know how to make them go longer then that.


That young, it's not a good idea to try to make them go longer. They're waking up because they're hungry. It may be about the same time every night, but that's probably just the rhythm of their metabolisms - NOT just a habit. They NEED to eat at night.

When you say you feed at 10 - are you doing a dreamfeed, or are they waking on their own around 10? If it's a dreamfeed, you could try dropping it and letting them wake you up. Who knows, they might surprise you and go until their usual 2:30! And then you could get more sleep.

 

QUOTE(fuchsiagroan @ Jun 1 2008, 03:17 PM) [snapback]804159[/snapback]
That young, it's not a good idea to try to make them go longer. They're waking up because they're hungry. It may be about the same time every night, but that's probably just the rhythm of their metabolisms - NOT just a habit. They NEED to eat at night.

When you say you feed at 10 - are you doing a dreamfeed, or are they waking on their own around 10? If it's a dreamfeed, you could try dropping it and letting them wake you up. Who knows, they might surprise you and go until their usual 2:30! And then you could get more sleep.


About 8 out of 10 times they are waking up for that feeding at 10. Most of the time they have cried on and off from 7-10 until we feed. Then we have a really good bedtime routine - and so we feed, do our routine and they are down and out solid until that 2:30 time. Is 10 too late of a bedtime?

 

I dont' think 10 is a late bedtime considering it is hard to have a bedtime at this stage. And if they go to sleep at 10 and wake at 2:30 that isn't too bad...I know for me, not for you...LOL...but really they need that 2:30 feeding to eat. Right now you are in the thick of it...witching hourS is what it is called. I know it is ESTD but really try to hang in there and address their needs as they come instead of trying to figure it out and put them on a schedule...that won't happen for a bit more and it will stress you out more GL

 

QUOTE
About 8 out of 10 times they are waking up for that feeding at 10. Most of the time they have cried on and off from 7-10 until we feed. Then we have a really good bedtime routine - and so we feed, do our routine and they are down and out solid until that 2:30 time. Is 10 too late of a bedtime?


When my babies were that young, "bedtime" was whenever they finally conked out after the evening sh*tstorm witching hour! :lol: Most of the time, they'd fuss and cry and be generally impossible until around 10 or 11 or so, then go to sleep. As they got older, the fussy time gradually started drifting earlier. They'd start getting cranky earlier in the afternoon, and conk out earlier in the evening. By ~3-4 mo adjusted age things were MUCH better, and we were able to put them to bed around 7-8 regularly. We've had a 7 pm bedtime for ages now.

Anyway, it's great that you're doing a bedtime routine now - but don't be surprised if it takes a while to click. It's just where your babies are at right now.

Hm, just another idea - you mention that you feed and then do the bedtime routine - would it be worth trying to do all the other bedtime stuff first and then feed? Or feed, bedtime routine, then offer them a top-off before going to bed?