I'm trying CIO starting today

I actually started yesterday for their first nap. I wanted a shower, and it was their nap time, so I put them in their cribs and took a shower. By the time I got out and dressed, they were both asleep after crying. Today, I thought I'd try it again. This morning they cried for about 20 mintues, then slept for 1 1/2 hours. I just put them down for their afternoon nap, and they cried for about 10 minutes. I just checked on them and they are both sound asleep. Only problem is, if I don't do this at bedtime (I love to snuggle and rock them at night) will that destroy what I'm doing during the day? It's much easier to listen to them cry now than it was when they were littlier. Although, my needier one, Mary got really upset. That was hard...

 

If they are sleeping through the night, I'd still rock them to sleep at bedtime. We've always read the boys a story before bedtime but never before naptime. They know they need to sleep for the night when we read a story. It's just part of your bedtime routine. Plus, if naptime is a nightmare tomorrow you'll know that you will have to do CIO at bedtime.

 

They are still sleeping! It's been over an hour! They haven't slept this good for their afternoon nap in forever! Oh man... I hope they sleep tonight! They both can and do STTN, Hannah usually does, but Mary is up at least once sometimes twice recently. I guess this is an experiment! I hope it doesn't backfire on me!

 

congrats on getting passed the crying. I too recently started to let my twins cry it out, and it really works!! I just can't stand to hear them cry!! Am I a bad mother for letting them cry? i just reached a point where I couldn't rock them to sleep anymore...my back can't take it and my patients was running low!! The only thing I find that they wake up at night, and if I let them cry it out, they were each other up. Any suggestions? I'd love for them to sleep through the night...but they don't always do that. Or it's usually one or the other. So should I let them cry it out in the middle of the night...chancing that the other will wake up?? Help!!

 

I wondered about nighttime too...

 

My thoughts on night time wakings is to go see them if it's a very long cry. Sometimes mine will cry out for a minute or less and be right back to sleep. But if goes on for very long, I'm still BF, and will go nurse them, check for smelly diaper, stuck legs, whatever, but then right back into the crib they go if everything checks out okay. CIO eliminated most, but not all night time wakings at our house. I'm not saying it's perfect where they are both always STTN, ear infections, colds, etc keep putting us back in t a tail spin. But we used CIO as a tool to help them learn to put themselves to sleep. Hope it does the same for you.

 

I used to rock my boys to sleep and they did STTN, except teething or illness sometimes woke them. I had to stop rocking them in the past week because they were too big and it started taking up to 30 minutes to put them down. As much as I liked rocking them, they were killing my back and patience. Eventually, you might run in to the same problem as they get a little older.

 

I did the same thing...I was rocking the twins to sleep. (needless to say, I'm seeing a chiropractor soon!!) Although I loved holding them, not only was it estroying my back but very frustrating for me and the babies because they ended up crying for the most part. I realized (after my husband nudged me into CIO) that babies aren't aleays comfortable in your arms (especially when you're trying to hold 2 - 20 punders)

I gotta tell you guys...I just found this site tonight and I'm loving it. thanks for sharing...I've been having a really hard time with the whole sleep thing, and feel so much better after reading your posts.

 

Scrappycindy, how did it go last night?

 

I was wondering the same thing, how did the night go?

 

I did bedtime like normal. Bath, bottles, then rock to sleep. They were practially asleep before they finished their bottles! I didn't hear a peep from them until 5am when Mary thought it was time to get up. My husband's cell phone alarm went off then (don't know if she heard it or not, but DH didn't get up... grrrr) Anyway, I got her up, tried to cuddle her back to sleep for about 30 minutes. When that didn't work, I put her back to bed, shut the door and waited to see if she'd go back to sleep. She did after crying a little bit and it didn't wake her sister. She got me up again about 7 which is our normal get up time. Hannah was still asleep! I had to wake her! So far so good!