I really, really don't want to!

I have tried all the tricks in the book to get my six-month-old Tessa to sleep through the night. She has slept through several times at three months old. From then on, she has gone from one 4am feeding to 3am to 2am and now it's always twice and sometimes three times a night! It's worse than a newborn.
I have posted on TS many times about this as of late and have done lots of searches on CIO and the alternatives, but I just don't know what else to do. I have blamed her waking on teething or growth spurts, I have tried giving a paci, I have tried watered down formula or water, and NOTHING works. The paci and watered bottles just upset her.
It has been twice a night for over two weeks now and the last three nights have been three times. She is not sick. She is not cutting any teeth that I can see.
She is breastfeed for the most part with one or two bottles of formula a day and also gets at least two full meals of cereal a day. She weighs over 20 lbs and is in the >95% for weight. The doc says to do CIO because she absolutely does not need nighttime feeding.
I am convinced this is habitual. I know that I need to do CIO, but I HATE, HATE, HATE doing it.

I really need some support from all the moms out there. If anyone has any other ideas to try, please let me know.

Thank you! :hug99:

 

:hug99: I wish I knew what to tell you. I think you have to go with your gut feeling. If you do CIO, you have to be committed to it and constant. You may be surprised and she just fusses for awhile, which I am hoping is the case. Do you go in right away? Or do you leave her there for a few minutes to see if she drifts off again? I hope that you find the answer soon and all of you get some sleep! :hug99:

 

I've done CIO in the past and I can't stand it either. Right now, I'm going in there if they are crying (like PP, I always wait just a few minutes to be sure it's not just dream crying, kwim?). BUT...I do not pick them up and they do not get fed. I'll sit there and pat their belly or back and rub their head and face. They can be crying, but we're not getting up. Once they calm down, I walk out. If they start up, I go back. Maybe to start breaking the habit, you could have hubby go in and calm her for a few nights, but NO feeding. (I suggest hubby since you are BFing and she might insist on eating just because you are there.) Is that a possibility? You could even try a few nights of picking her up and rocking her to calm her but no food. I think once you can break the food habit, the rest will come much easier.

It's so hard. You have to decide what is right for you. When they were younger and I was just going crazy due to lack of sleep, I did do CIO and it helped them to sleep thru. Now they wake due to sickness mostly, so I do my best to comfort (give tylenol, pat, etc.), but we don't eat.

I hope that helps. :hug99: Shannon

 

I agree, it is hard, but it works if you are consistant. Jake was up 8-10 times a night at 6 months, before I did CIO with him. It took 2 nights, and he is a great sleeper now. I have done it with all of my boys. Good luck with your decision. :hug99:

 

Becky, how did you do your CIO? Did you go in to comfort or did you do complete CIO and not comfort?
The couple times I have tried to comfort Tessa without feeding she just gets more and more upset that I'm not feeding her or picking her up. Sometimes I feel as though it would be better to not be there at all, but I can't imagine letting her scream and not trying to make her feel better!

 

I found the same...if I went in, it was worse. So, I just let him cry, and I was really lucky with Jake anyway, he cried for 20 minutes at a time, at the very most.

 

Good Luck! No advice, but Good Luck!

 

I feel for you. Getting up several times a night is so exhausting. I asked the same question a few months ago. As it turned out, we didn't do CIO. Both girls were pretty sick this winter with upper respiratory stuff and teething was a nightmare. We decided we didn't have the heart for it. We split the night, I got up with whoever until 2am and DH got up from 2-6:30. We were both up 1-2 times during our shift most nights.

At around 9 months they started getting up less routinely and we stopped feeding them, at least at one of their wakings. By 10 months they were both sleeping through 7p to 7a.

We slowly reduced the feeding and didn't go in unless it was obvious they weren't going back to sleep. There were some nights when Jillian was really sick that we separated them too. We took 2 steps forward and 1 back but eventually got there.

CIO works for many families. We tried it a few nights and it just wasn't something we could do. We waited them out and eventually they slept through with minimal help. We're now blissfully rested.

 

Dumb question - what's CIO?

 

QUOTE(AimeeS @ Apr 18 2007, 02:12 PM) [snapback]225533[/snapback]
Dumb question - what's CIO?



CIO is short for cry it out.

 

I will tell you a month ago I did not want to do CIO either but, it has been a wonder in our household. I will not say they do not wake up at night but, they do now know how to go back down without my help. I do not believe in letting your children cry and I do think they know I will be there is they are really distressed. They are going through teething in my house and CIO has continued to work. In fact last night they only made noise once for a minute or so and then slept on through to morning.

If you are concerned that it is teething bothering her, I just went with some of the ladies suggestion to use gripe water. Last night was the first night and like I said not a peep except for a minute or two last night. Before that they would CIO or FIO 2-4 times a night.

I hope this helps you.

 

Well, we did it. Our first night of CIO.
It went terribly. She did only wake once thank goodness, but she cried for nearly two hours. The first 45 minutes pretty hard, and the rest of the time on and off screeches. Mostly on.
I cried myself I felt so bad for her. And to make things worse, when I went to her this morning she had scratched a HUGE scratch over an inch long on her face and there was dried blood on that cheek. My heart just broke.
However, I do know this was needed and I kept repeating that to myself all night. And I was trying to give her virtual hugs and said a thousand prayers. I think I am the only one that slept worse than Tessa!
On the bright side of things, she did wake up super happy this morning with lot of smiles for Mommy so that made me feel slightly better.
Hopefully tonight will be better and maybe the end of it all. Thanks again for your support, I very badly needed it!

 

Hopefully tonight will be a lot better. The first night is always the worst.

 

QUOTE
On the bright side of things, she did wake up super happy this morning with lot of smiles for Mommy so that made me feel slightly better.


When I saw that my boys woke up happy after the first night of cio, it made it much easier to continue to do the 2nd night. Seeing their smiles in the morning was a sign to me that I was not hurting them at night by letting them cry. Keep it up. It should be bettter oever the next few days.

 

The first night is the worst...hang in there, it should be better tonight. :hug99:

 

I am a huge fan of CIOing. I originally didn't want to either. I mean who actually wants to sit and listen to their children cry. But seriously by the third night, there was not much crying and they were sleeping better than before! I used to rock mine to sleep and they would inevitably stir when I put them down and it got to the point where I couldn't get them back down after rocking, and I would have to start all over, rocking.

So at about 7 month, I started to CIO and at about that time, we dropped the evening bottle...and they were sleeping from about 7-6am....

It doesn't work for everyone, but of all my friends that don't have good sleepers or kids that don't sleep through the night, those are the ones that never tried CIOing. I know there are modified versions that you might feel better about.

 

we tried cio and hated it. grant cried for 2 hours and then woke up every 30 minutes to an hour. i posted on here about it and some people gave us some advice. we now do a modified cio. the first night if they woke and when we laid them down for bed we would let them cry for 5 minutes, and then we would go in, give their paci and rub their head. we would only stay in there for less than a minute. we did this every time they woke up. the next night we moved it to 10 minutes. the third night we did 15 minutes. on the third night only one baby woke up once. on the fourth night no one woke up and it has been three nights now where they have all slept through the night. this worked best for me, because i CRIED AND CRIED when they were screaming. now they just fuss, so i call is fuss it out. they now take naps better too. i feel like slowly stretching out the time, taught them that we were still going to come back. now when it is time for bed or nap, i rock them for 5 minutes, and no more. whether they are a sleep or not they go into their cribs and they fall asleep within a few minutes. that way i still get my cuddle time and they still get that time they need to sleep on their own.

i hope you figure out what works best for you. i know that my babies are not good sleepers naturally. they are just now getting better and we are all much happier. I hoped i helped some. good luck