After one of the worst nights yet, I have decided to revisit the CIO method. I cannot function anymore, I am desperate for sleep. It is time. I purchased and installed a crib shield to prevent the stuck limbs that traumatized us all during the last attempt and I am going to stand my ground with my uncooperative DH since he still has not taken over any of the night duty. If he doesn't like it, he can leave ! Any offers of support or advice would be greatly appreciated! We start tonight :unsure:.
The only thing I do is after I put them to bed I go outside for a good 15 minutes. This way I can't hear them. Usually when I come back inside they are asleep. I've never had to do full blown CIO though. I say close their door, your door and turn on a fan and get some sleep! Good luck.
Good luck! I ditto what a pp said-go outside where you can't hear them! It's KEY. For us-the first night was the worst-they cried for 45 minutes...I had the fan on at night so I wouldn't hear them in the middle of the night. They cried(I woke up and heard them). They haven't cried since. At least not in the middle of the night-they might really quickly here or there-otherwise they are in bed between 7/7:30 and up by 6/7am. It's heavenly. Now if I could only go to sleep when they do! PM me if you want support! I'm generally on a lot at night once the boys are in bed. You can do this! If dh is not on board-send him out somewhere so he doesn't hear it either...
Close your door, turn on a fan, have a glass of wine and DO NOT GO IN!!!!!! Tell yourself you will give it ____days for it to work (we chose a week, but it only took 3 nights). Know it will be hard but if you go in after 2-3hrs of crying you will have let them cry for no reason. You will be a new woman with sleep!!!!
you can do it!!!! just remember that when they finally DO fall asleep and they wake up, they'll have forgotten all about it all, and will wake up smiley and happy! we went to the pedi yesterday and he told me i could do CIO for my girls (they wake up once, but it's more out of habit, cuz they don't really eat, they play), and i said, "but what if they really are hungry?" he said, "they're not. they don't NEED to eat then. if YOU got up a few times at 2am, eventually you'd get hungry at that time every night. it becomes habit. they will probably cry from 2:30 until 7am, just to prepare you, but after that, it gets easier. and it WORKS. any parent that says it doesn't work is because they went in the room instead of just staying out..." anyway, just think of all the sleep you'll get. tonight, you may not get much - if any - sleep because of all the crying, but each night will be less and less and by night 4 they'll be sleeping like... well... babies, and so will you!!! i support you 1000% and let us know how it goes!
I get these e-mails every week. They are going by my due date so the age is off but maybe this article will have some helpful tips http://www.babycenter.com/0_baby-sleep-tra...hods_1497581.bc sorry you have to deal with this alone. good luck
You CAN do this.....the advice about using a fan to drown out the noise is key. We turned on two......and when we went in in the morning, we had two happy smiley babies. Their smiles in the morning will take A LOT of your anxiety away about heading into Day 2 of CIO. YOU WILL BE FINE AND SO WILL THE BABIES....be consistent girlfriend! HUGS to you! xojillian
You can do it. I remember your scare with your first attempt. My DD does the same thing with the crib sides. I now use sleep sacks and it helps some. We just started CIO for ours on Saturday night. They cried for just under an hour that first night, slept for 2 hours, then cried for almost another hour. They woke to feed at 12:30am, took 4 oz, then went back to sleep and didn't wake again until 7:30am. It was a blessing. Just that was a feat. We got through it by going to our basement and watched TV on a higher than usual volume!! Remember to turn OFF all those pesky monitors, and DONT turn them on just to "check". The second night there was no crying at all, they didn't even wake to feed and slept 12 hours. Last night they woke at 12:30am again for a feed. That's okay for us. Our nights before were getting up at least every hour to replug a paci sometimes 30 mins, sometimes 5mins. Ugh. It is SO WORTH IT. We're now getting sleep and have happier babies. We are also sleep training for naptimes too as they would only get naps in carseats, swings, or strollers before and only for 20-30 mins. Not enough. They now nap 1-2.5 hours 2 times a day. We followed HSHHC. Our lives have changed completely. I now get some ME TIME during the day to shower, etc!! Woo Hoo!! Before I was doing it middle of the night or woke before them to get it in. Best of luck, and as other pp said... DO NOT GO IN TO CHECK.
How did it go? Regardless, tonight will be much easier! Mine weren't as easy as others. It took 1.5 hours of crying the first night and 2 nights of 45 mins. I wrote it all down and can give you more specifics. I couldn't sleep while they were crying (let DH sleep in the room with the fan), but stuck to my guns by reading (something I cherish time to do) and would peek my head in every 10/15/20 etc mins (they couldn't see me). I'm so proud of you for giving it a second try. I know how hard of a decision this was for you. Way to Go!
