Need some help with CIO

So we have begun the process of CIO. Both boys are sleeping from 8p-7a and get 4 8oz bottles a day; along with 1-2 solid meals.

Reece has been whining during the night for his paci. He never cries, but just whines until we put the paci in his mouth. Almost everytime we go in there, he is still asleep and as soon as the paci goes in he is out. The problem is that sometimes the paci will fall out of his mouth after about 5-10 min. and then he sometimes starts to whine again. This week we have started CIO and he will go for about 10-15 of whining and then fall asleep. The only bad thing is that it is still happening 3-4 times a night. One reason that he is somewhat waking up is because his head will be up against the crib rails.

My question is should we go in and give him his paci once and if it falls out, let him whine for a few minutes? Or should we just let him CIO without going in to give him the paci?

TIA!!

 

Personally, I would get rid of the paci now. Ryan gave his up at around 11 months, but Jake still needs it and if it falls out in the middle of the night, I'm searching for it under his big boy bed! One of my New Year's Resolutions is to get rid of the paci by March!

 

To answer your question, I'd say depends...if you want to try the paci, I'd do it once and then let CIO. If you want to ditch the paci, then once it falls out, then CIO.

I personally only use the paci for soothing and part of the nightime rock/swaying/soothing. Once they are drowsy, I slip it out gently...continue to soothe, and put them down when drowsy.

My first child, we did the paci-shuffle as I call it. With one, it's do-able, but with twins, I'd rather not have them get use to the paci at night...it's just too hard for them to keep it in. During the day, I let them have the paci if they want to suck and sometimes, when I put them for a nap in the swing, I'll give it to them. It's funny...when it falls out of their mouth in the swing, they don't cry for it. But if I give it to them while flat in bed, they wail...so....my decision was to not give it to them at night.

Good luck with whatever you choose. I hate the "paci-shuffle"!

 

I say lose the paci too - it doesn't even sound like it will be that painful since he's just whining and not giving you the blood-curdling scream treatment. It will be WAY easier now than later - it only gets harder. Like when they're four and you have to mail it to the new babies in the hospital.

 

I say give it a try without the paci. If you can get him to sleep through relatively easy without it, then that's great. It will definitely only get harder as he gets older!

 

Thanks! I'll try to just let him whine for a couple of minutes and see what happens. He still needs it to go to sleep and for napping, but after he is asleep I'll try letting him go without.

 

I did the same thing a couple of months ago. Both boys were addicted to the paci when they came home from the NICU, and me and DH were addicted to the peace it gave us when it was in their mouth, albeit temporarily until it fell out. A couple of months ago when I would rock the boys to sleep I would hold the paci in place until they were mostly out, then I would gently slide it out and shortly thereafter lay them in their crib, and they never missed it. And somewhere along the lines the boys just stopped wanting their pacis altogether. We rarely use them these days, unless they are completely upset about something, and usually they just spit them out then. It sucks that I bought about 20 Soothie pacis from Target that are no longer used...but I guess that beats being a slave to them!

 

Did the same for my daughter that would cry for her paci at night. We did CIO for it because we ended up going 5-6 times a night to replace it. After going to bed at 7pm she woke up at 12am and cried till 12:40am, then at 1:30am to 1:45am, then at 2:45am to 3am, then at 4am to 4:15am and then slept till 7am.

The following night she just woke up once and fussed for 10-15 min and then she started to sleep right through. Still on an odd night she will wake up and cry for 10-15 min and then just goes to sleep. I did get up every time to check on her once to make sure she is not in an awkward position or stuck.

As for bed rail, we just installed bumper back on, because they would have their arms and legs stuck between bars and were waking up because of it. It worked.

Good luck!