Overnight CIO

My boys are driving me insane! I can't really put it any other way. They go down for the night at 6:30 and start the day around 7, but they wake up 3-4 times every night. Each time they will not go back to sleep until they have had a bottle. I have tried lessening the amount of formula they get in their overnight bottles to about 3 1/2 oz and that seems to be enough to satisfy them, but then 3 hours later they are up again. I have tried to wait out their cries before. I will lay in bed for about 5-10 minutes to see if they start to lose steam.....NO they scream bloody murder until someone comes in. I have tried to go in, pick them up and rock them back to sleep. That doesn't work either. Only a bottle works. It's still almost as bad as when they were newborns. I thought for sure I would be getting some much needed sleep by now!!!

I am seriously thinking of doing overnight CIO this weekend, but have a few questions. First off, I've read that there are options of 5-10-15 or just not going in at all. Since I would like to have some results by next week I am choosing the 'not go in at all' option. Does that mean that when they start crying.....and crying.....and crying.....and crying you just ignore it? How do you satisfy the urge to make sure there isn't an arm or leg sticking out of the crib slats? I'm just wanting to make sure I do it right because I don't want to traumatize them.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Thanks

 

Don't know what to tell you about the CIO part, but have you tried giving them just water in their bottles? I know a lot of people say that makes it less interesting for them to wake up for?

 

Well, not everyone will agree with me...our boys proved to us a few times that they could sleep through the night when they were about 10 weeks...they slept from 930-5 for about 5 days consistently. Then, one or the other was waking up...we felt they could do it so with doc saying go for it, we did CIO. We opted for the not going in at all method. I would sneak in about 5 min after they started to just make sure they hadn't gotten sick, arms out crib, whatever. I told myself I would let them cry for 30 minutes total before I went back in. It was ****! But, they did it...after 24 minutes they stopped and slept. We haven't had a problem since and that has been over 4 weeks ago. They sleep 9-10 hours at time now, even when we go out of town. But, I know it might be different with an older baby. My best advice is listen to your gut feeling. I got through it by telling myself that this is what they needed! Good luck!

 

I have done CIO with all of my boys Stacy. I used the "never go in" method, because I found going in made the crying last longer. I did peek in a few times just to make sure that there wasn't a limb stuck. Justin took the longest, about a week, but he was close to 9 months old. Jake took the shortest amount of time, which was just 2 nights. Josh was somewhere in the middle. The first couple of nights are the worst, but you have to be consistant, or it's not even worth doing. When Justin was 9 months old, my ped told me that you have to teach your babies to sleep, just like you teach them anything else. My girls learned on their own, but my boys needed a little help! It was really hard, but I have great sleepers now! :hug99:

 

They are old enough to CIO. It is hard but worth it. My son LOVES his bed (he's 5) and no damage has come upon him because he had to CIO a few nights. I'm still waiting for mine to get a little older (11 weeks). I do let them CIO for about 15-20 minutes provided they are dry, fed, and no limbs are sticking out of their crib!

 

I also did CIO, and I would go in after they would stop crying to make sure they were OK, but mine really never screamed their head off.

 

I did CIO at 4.5 months. It was HARD but worth it for me. Lauren started sleeping through right away but Emma took 10 nights. Nights 5 and 6 were the hardest, she was up ever 45 minutes crying and this lasted for a couple of hours. But it was worth it. Both girls go right to bed and sleep about 11 hours per night. I also did the "don't go in method". I did break the rule once or twice over the 10 days if she got too hysterical. I would go in and soothe her and pat her back to calm her down. But the other nights were just frustration.

 

Here is our CIO story that I am cutting and pasting.......

Around 5 1/2 months, I decided to try CIO. Before doing CIO, my boys would have their 7:00 bottle and then go to bed. Then they woke between 10-12am for another bottle AND then 2 times during the night. I came to the realization that they did not need to be eating that much at night anymore. They had 4 6-8 oz bottles during the day and solids twice a day. I finally realized they are eating out of habit and I could not do it anymore physically. My boys are big boys and were in no way lacking nutrition!

I decided that I would give them one bottle each after their 7:00 bottle if they woke up crying and then if they cried anytime after that, I just let them cry. We did that for about 2 weeks. After the first night of not feeding them after their last late night bottle, during the day they began to drink 8 oz consistently rather than sometimes 5 oz. Then, after those two weeks, we did a true CIO after their 7:00 bottle to eliminate all night feedings. They cried a little during the night but I just left them and they ended up sleeping anywhere between 6-7. When they woke in the morning, they were happy and not crying of hunger. That proved to me that they were eating out of habit.

So officially, I would say 6 months and 1 week until completely sleeping throught the night.

Also interesting was that I have heard if they wake to eat even if it is just a little, it is out of habit. My boys though were eating a lot at night. Well, I stopped feeding them anyways. My boys were in the higher weight percentile and my Dr. said they wont turn into skeletons if I didnt feed them in the middle of the night! So, even though my boys drank full bottles at night, with a few days of CIO, they didnt wake to eat anymore.
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Here are notes from my journal during this time:

On Tues, when they usually wake for their 1st middle of the night feeding, I let them CIO. I did not feel bad at all when I heard them cry. THis is because I knew they just ate and diaper changed. One slept right through the others cry and then the next hour the reverse happened. I also did not feel bad because I made the decision to CIO because I was so tired and it felt great to not get up and get a bottle! They basically cried on and off throughout the night.

The next night, they slept until 4 (huge for us!) and then I had them CIO. They woke at 6:00 and were ready for their bottle. The good thing is they ate 4 8oz bottles that day. They had room since they were not getting calories at night.

Last night they woke at 5:30 and i had them CIO until 6:00.

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We never went in to sooth them. I always felt like that would be taking a step backwards and they would expect me to come in when they cried. I wanted them to teach themselves how to fall asleep on their own and how to go back to sleep on their own after waking inthe middle of the night.

They sleep through each others cry to this day.

 

We rebegan CIO two weeks ago. The boys are sleeping through the night better and if they do wake they put themselves back down within a minute or so with minimal fussing. They rarely wake each other and we do not go into the room to soothe because that does make it worse.

The only time I go in is if Noah is having a night terror, which thank goodness has not happened in a few weeks.

To ease my worrying if they are okay and not twisted in the blanket or foot caught on the crib we have security cameras on each crib that hook up with a sensor system to the TV and I can have the tv on and see what they are doing at all times. So, even when they wake in the night I can turn on the camera and watch them until they go back to sleep. Which is rather relieving to a control freak like me.

I am still waiting for the 'full" night of sleep without any waking and fussing. I hope it comes soon.

Good Luck.