CIO questions

Why did you decide to CIO? Sleep deprivation? Going back to back? Breaking a habit? Another reason that my brain can't think of right now? :lol:
When did you CIO?
How many nights did it take?
How long did they cry each night?
Did you let both CIO at the same time?
Did you put anything in the crib to help with self-soothing? Pacifiers, loveys, etc?
Did you do CIO for initially going to bed or for night waking?
Did it work? Did your twins really start sleeping completely through the night (10-12 hours)?
Were any of your babies swaddled? Or did you stop swaddling at the same time as CIO?

My boys are almost 7 months old and wake up 1-2 times a night. E will fall back to sleep only if he has a bottle. We got permission from the ped to give water at night since he takes in plenty of formula during the day (usually at least 35oz plus about 8oz of solids). If I let him stir in his crib once he wakes up, he'll stir for up to 45 minutes and then he'll start crying and that's when I usually give him a bottle. C was sleeping through the night from 8pm-7am for about 3 weeks in December. Both boys got colds at Christmas time and that messed up C's STTN. Now he's waking anywhere from 4-5:30am thinking its time to wake up for the day. Sometimes a little bit of a bottle will get him back to sleep, other times, we end up rocking him for an hour until he falls back to sleep or its time to wake up. C is swaddled still since sleeping with his arms free wakes him up. He doesn't know what to do with his arms. C gets at least 30oz of formula, plus about 8oz of solids.

They go to sleep easily at night. We have a routine (bottle, lotion massage, swaddle/sleep sack, stories, in crib with crib soothers) and they go in their cribs drowsy, but awake and will fall asleep within 15 minutes. They nap well during the day- going down for a nap around 2 hours after they wake up and sleeping for about 1-2 hours. They take a morning, afternoon, and an evening catnap and go to bed between 7-8pm. C has some problems staying asleep for the whole nap and sometimes need to be rocked or held to finish out the nap.

DH and I work opposite shifts. I went back to work at the beginning of December. When I was off, it wasn't a huge deal because I did most of the night wakings, and DH let me sleep in to catch up on sleep. Now that I'm back to work, neither of us are getting much sleep. We alternate nights getting up with the boys so that we at least try to get one night of sleep. That doesn't always work for various reasons, but it does help. DH gets home around 11pm and we try to go to bed between 11:30-midnight. I could/should go to bed earlier to catch up on sleep, but I feel its important to see DH for even a little bit. If I didn't wait up, we wouldn't see each other the whole week until the weekend. We're already bickering a lot already, so I worry about what not seeing all week would do to us. And even if I did go to sleep early, it wouldn't help DH since he could only go to sleep at 11:30, then has to be up at 6:30 when the boys wake up and I'm getting ready to leave for work.

I've been thinking about CIO for a while, but I've been hesitant to actually do it. I'm always afraid that there's actually a reason for the night wakings and I don't want to do CIO if they're going through a growth spurt, teething, etc. I struggle with night time parenting because I'm always second guessing myself. I think they've been going through a growth spurt since NYE, so hopefully they'll be done with the growth spurt soon (how long do growth spurts usually last?). They've been showing signs of teething, but no actually teeth yet. Some days I feel like they're ready for CIO since I really think the bottles are just habit and they'll starting to cry for attention at night. I guess I just need some thoughts from experienced moms if you think my boys sound ready for CIO.

I'm so sorry this is so long! Thanks so much for your help!!

 

We did CIO at 11 months. We had been doing the graduated kind since about 6 months...things would get better for a bit and then bad again so it wasn't working for us. We were exhausted and sick of waking up many, many times during the night to soothe them/put soothers in. Also, the girls thought that 4am was morning, which was not acceptable.

It took 2 nights of the full-on CIO.

The each woke up several times during the 2 nights and cried for varying amounts of time. I can't remember how long, I do remember hating every minute of listening to it and wanting to quit but I am so glad I stuck it out. We were dealing with early mornings (usually 4am) and so I combined CIO with having establishing a 'wake-up' time and decided to no longer go into their room before 6am (I had started this before the CIO though). There were a few morning when one or both cried from 4am until 6am.

Both at the same time.

They have pacifiers. Usually they are on the floor when I go in in the morning so I have no idea how much they use them at night anymore but they have them when I put them to bed.

They go to bed well so that wasn't an issue we were doing it for nighttime waking.

YES!!! It WORKED!!! They have stopped waking up at 4am and thinking it's morning and while they still wake up during the night occasionally they will fuss for a minute or two (sometimes longer) and then they go back to sleep by themselves. They now sleep for about 11 hours a night (6:30pm until 5:30am).

I only swaddled them until they were 2 months so we were not swaddling with CIO.

I hope this helped. GL!

 

We started doing CIO around 9 months. I didn't want to do it for the longest time, and from about 6-9 months, we had a constant stream of colds and teething (they each had 8 teeth by the time they were 9 months - 4 of week came in a 3 week period). We did it for two reasons - we were still having to hold them to get them to go to sleep, and we were still up 3-4 times a night at least rocking them and getting them back to sleep. We just couldn't take it any more. So once we were sure we had a good period of no cold and a break from teething, we started.

We did not do full-on CIO. We went in at intervals. The first night, we put them down and went in at something like 3 min, 7 min, and then 10 min. intervals until they were asleep. It took about 40 minutes that night. The next night, we did 7 min, 12 min., 15 min, and it took about 25 minutes to go to sleep. The third night, it was 12, 15, 20 and we only had to go in once - they were asleep by the end of the 15 min. It kept getting better and better from there. When we would go in, we would not pick them up, but comfort them and give them back their pacifier and lovey. Since we did the intervals, it was about a week and a half to two weeks until they got good at going to sleep unaided. Now they go to bed with no more than 1-2 min. crying - most nights it is nothing. For night wakings, we planned to do the same intervals, but honestly, we never had to. On about the fourth night, one of them had a 15 minute crying spell - we stuck to ou 20 min. intervals, and now we basically never get up and they STTN most nights (they do cry out every once in awhile now that they are teething again and have a cold, but not enough that we have to get up).

We did CIO with both at the same time.

Our kids do not seem to need as much sleep as others, but they sleep 10.5-11.5 hours at night, and take two naps of at least 30 minutes. I wish naps were longer - that is the only sleep thing CIO did not help us with at all. They are still catnappers most days.

We had to stop swaddling very early on because we have little Houdinis. :laughing: I think we stopped at 3 months and switched to sleep sacks, so I can't help you with that.

Honestly, I resisted CIO for so long, and I really wish we had done is sooner! I couldn't stand to do the full-on version where you just don't go in at all, so we decided to do the intervals even though we knew it would take longer.

Good luck in your decision!!

 

Thank you girls! I just thought I'd update and let you know that we've been doing a little bit of CIO. C decided to start rolling around in his crib, so we had to stop swaddling him and realized that he likes sleeping on his belly as well. So we decided to stop picking them up once we put them down for the night and just soothe them in their cribs. Depending on their cries/whines, I let them be or go in to soothe them. It's already made a big difference and they're getting better about soothing themselves back to sleep in the middle of the night/early in the morning. I'm hoping a few more nights and they'll be STTN finally.

 

Why did you decide to CIO? it was time...they needed to soothe themselves, it was taking too long at nap time to get them to sleep

When did you CIO? 4.5 months

How many nights did it take? we did it during the day and at night...it took a solid 5 days

How long did they cry each night? 45mins at first, but less & less each day...once over an hour (it was horrible!!!)

Did you let both CIO at the same time? yes, in the same room

Did you put anything in the crib to help with self-soothing? only one DS takes a pacifier, both have loveys, but don't 'love' them yet

Did you do CIO for initially going to bed or for night waking? going to bed. night waking, we just let them cry, until they get really upset, then we rub their belly hold their hand and turn on their mobile.

Did it work? yes, now bedtime & nap time are a breeze for us and any caretakers.

Did your twins really start sleeping completely through the night (10-12 hours)? they are sleeping 9hrs currently, which I don't think will change for a couple more months... down at 7pm, up at 4am for a feeding, back down until 7am

Were any of your babies swaddled? yes

Or did you stop swaddling at the same time as CIO? we just stopped swaddling at 6months...they are now 6.5months.

GOOD LUCK!!! It was one of the hardest things I ever had to do... but I am SO Glad I did it!!

 

Thanks for this thread... Logan is up every 1- hours every single night...for what reason Im not sure... and is UP at 4am like clock work. <_<

 

Hi all. I am new here and this topic is one of the biggest reason I joined!

Why did you decide to CIO? It was taking to much out of me because they would BOTH only go to sleep if I rocked them.
When did you CIO? just started 3 days ago (7m1w)
How many nights did it take? so far just 4 nights.
How long did they cry each night? they cried 35 minutes the 1st night, 14 the second, 5 last night and so far none tonight although tonight we spent some time in the car and they got put down an hour after normal bedtime.

Did you let both CIO at the same time? Yes. They are in the same room but we just moved them last week to seperate cribs. (which broke my heart a little)
Did you put anything in the crib to help with self-soothing? Pacifiers, loveys, etc? They have binkies however Willa Grace has been a thumb sucker from 2months and Wyatt chews on his pointer finger.
Did you do CIO for initially going to bed or for night waking? Both
Did it work? Did your twins really start sleeping completely through the night (10-12 hours)? Wyatt is sleeping through, Willa Grace who is the smaller of the 2 is still getting up to eat once a night.
Were any of your babies swaddled? Or did you stop swaddling at the same time as CIO? No they haven't been swaddled for a while. It made them mad.


My biggest issue now is Willa Grace waking at night to eat. For example last night she ate 2/3's of a tub(the gerber baby food tub) of squash and 2/3's of a tub of mixed veggies, had her bath then about an hour later had an 8oz bottle and STILL woke to eat at 4. I can't imagin how she was hungry. Wyatt ate about 6 bites each of squash and mixed veggies (thats a whole other thread) and an 8oz bottle and slept right through.

 

if you're LO's have a good bedtime routine and fall alseep easily and bed time they are great candidates for CIO for night wakings. As long as you are sure they don't need a feeding and are just waking from habit and then wanting your comfort, they should do great!

You won't regret doing it, you need your sleep and you'll be a better mother during your waking time with them!