Hi, I'm sure these questions have been asked a thousand times, but I'm going to ask again. My LO's sleep is getting worse and worse. They are waking up several times a night now and won't go back to sleep until they are in bed with me. In 2 weeks we are going to start sleep training (they will be 5.5 months and my DH will be home then). I have a couple of questions for those who have done CIO. 1) Which do you think is better- Feber- checking on them every few minutes and extending the amount of time between checks or extinction? 2) Do you still do a night feed? 3) I want wake up time to be between 6:30 & 7 (this is how our daily schedule works best). If they wake up at 5:30 or 6 do I let them CIO? 4) How did you handle naps? One of the reasons I am doing CIO is to handle the 45 minute naps and hopefully they will start to nap a little longer. 5) I currently use soothers to get the babies to sleep. Do you no longer use soothers once you have done CIO? Thanks for all your help. I don't know what I would do without this site!
I did CIO for naps but not for nighttime. 1.Extinction worked best for us 2. N/A 3. I would say it depends on whether they wake up screaming their heads off (they might be hungry) or it's more of a whining cry...if it's more of whining cry I would try CIO 4. I did a modified bedtime routine with naps, I had to do CIO to get them weaned off of being rocked to sleep (thanks DH) and also for them to sleep longer. It took a bit but eventually they began to sleep longer then 45 minutes 5. Mine would not take soothers but if mine had used them and it helped them to sleep, I still would have used them after using CIO. Good luck!
Extinction worked best for us, I found if I went in there it just prolonged the crying. They were already STTN so, no we didn't do night feeds anymore. If their bedtime is 6:30 & they wake up at 6:00, I would probably get them up unless they were just fussing a bit, in which case I would give them some time to see if they fall back to sleep. But with an early bedtime like 6:30, you are probably going to get an early wake time. For naps, if they woke up after 45 minutes I would try CIO to see if they would go back to sleep. Our two never took soothers, so I don't have any advice for you there. Good luck!
I'm sorry you're having sleep problems. We can definitely relate! 1) We use extinction for naps and bedtime. Checking on them made it harder for me to actually see them so upset. It didn't seem to help them either. 2) Do you still do a night feed? I feed them if they wake up (usually between 3-5 am). I am contemplating letting them CIO until morning. They used to STTN. 3) I want wake up time to be between 6:30 & 7 (this is how our daily schedule works best). If they wake up at 5:30 or 6 do I let them CIO? If you put them to bed fairly early, you should probably get them if they are crying at 5:30 or 6. If they are just "talking" you could leave them. 4) How did you handle naps? If they don't fall asleep when I nurse them, I will let them CIO. They are crying less and less when I put them down now, and for a shorter period of time. If they wake and they have napped less than 30 min. or so, I let them CIO. Sometimes DS will go back to sleep, sometimes he won't. Today he didn't and he puked up his lunch. I felt bad. I am still contemplating whether to let them CIO if they wake from naps early. The longest I will let them CIO for the start of naps is 60 min. If they wake up from a nap early I will let them cry for up to 30 min. Thanks for all your help. I don't know what I would do without this site!
1. Extinction worked for us. Going in to check only made things worse. 2. n/a and I think I stopped the night feed around 6 months old. 3. I did, I set an earliest possible wake up time and if they woke up before that time they had to wait. For me that time was 5:30, I was not getting up earlier than that! 4. For naps I waited until I knew they were tired and then if they fussed a little bit then so be it. Usually it took 15 minutes max. 5. I used soothers with CIO. I still use soothers!
