Moms who did NOT do CIO...

Did your DC just train themselves
Or
Did you walk/ nurse them to sleep
Or
Did you co sleep?

DD is nearly 7mths old and will NOT go to sleep unless I nurse her or walk and rock her to sleep. She is still waking several times a night and the only way I can get her to go back to sleep is to nurse her or take her into our bed.

At her last doctors visit she told me that I had to do CIO as I was setting her up for sleep problems later in life...

I have tried CIO - well my version, I stay in the room , rubbing her tummy and talking softly to her...after 15 mins I give up and end up nursing her to sleep.

So my longwinded question is do you really think I am going to cause long term sleep problems for my DD or will she eventually figure out this sleep thing for herself.

TIA

Message edited 8/27/2006 10:29:58 PM.

Re: Moms who did NOT do CIO...

I know CIO worked for a lot of people, but it just didn't work for us. Sarah would get really upset and hyperventilate and even vomit. It was horrible.

I cuddled and rocked with her for a little while in the dark and then put her down groggy. I figured that it worked for my parents and ILs when we were kids, and none of us had any issues sleeping as kids or now.

Re: Moms who did NOT do CIO...

I got really lucky. DD is just a good sleeper.

Falling asleep:

She used to fall asleep on the breast or in the swing. Then I started putting her in the crib with the lights on and her mobile. Then I would dim teh lights. Then I would shut them off. She learned to put herself to sleep.

In the middle of the night:
Sometimes I woudl rock her or feed her. But she is now just learning to put herself asleep. She will play in the dark (she sleeps in our room and we hear her making noises), but then she falls asleep.

Re: Moms who did NOT do CIO...

My DD is 10 months old and we did not do CIO.

We put her to sleep when she seems sleepy, and we know the signs by now (rubbing her eyes and ears, yawning, etc). We give her the pacifier, turn on her mobile and give her the little doll that she hugs when she's sleeping, and just say time for night nights.

Luckily we rarely have problems, although there have been rough spots here and there, like when she's sick and particularily when hse's reached a major physical milestone like crawling/ standing and then she just wants out of the crib.

When she wakes up in the night we try just giving the paci first and turning on the mobile again, if that doesn't work rocking in the chair until she's calmed down, and if that doesn't work we let her stay up for about 20 minutes then try putting her back to sleep.

Actually I'd be sleeping right now but she woke up 2 times tonight.

Re: Moms who did NOT do CIO...

Every night around the same time she'll fuss around a bit signaling that she's sleepy, that's when we'll give her the pacifier and she'll suck on it and fall asleep on her own, sometimes she likes to be held in the process. If the pacifier falls out, she'll cry for it again until she finally knocks out cold.

Rarely, there are nights where I have to physcially walk/rock her to sleep, sometimes up to 2 hours! The second I put her down she'll sart wailing again! I used to do this every night when she was about 2 months old. SO exhausting!! That lasted for a few weeks. Luckily, those nights aren't too often now!

When do babies fall asleep on their own without any assistance?

I never let her cry for longer than 10 minutes, even when it's just the whiny cry. When she's really, really upset, I get her right away.

I share the same concerns as the OP, am I causing more sleep probs for the future?

Message edited 8/28/2006 12:03:44 AM.

Re: Moms who did NOT do CIO...

We seem to have found a happy medium, we are not opposed to letting him cry it out, but it doesn't necessarily lead to better sleep...

What we do now is bath, bottle, then put him into bed on his favorite side (he doesn't fall asleep as well on his right side as he does on his left side) and we simply shush and rub his back or pat his tushy. It works really well.

I completely believe that CIO works really well, however its very difficult to listen to your baby cry. Even though I was aware that Noah's crying was more like "Why did you leave me" than "I am DYING here" it still was hard. Now he falls asleep in around 5 minutes, with our help

Re: Moms who did NOT do CIO...

We did our own version of the sleep lady.

I wont say that we never used CIO, but I think using it the one or two times that we did, helped when we were soothing him. He realized that us shushing him or standing in the room was much better than no one coming.

Re: Moms who did NOT do CIO...

We also do the shushing and rubbing of the back. We also play music for her. On rare occasions I need to rock her to sleep.

Re: Moms who did NOT do CIO...

DS has been a good sleeper from the get go.. but there are times that he wakes in the middle of the night crying or will not go to sleep right away. In those cases, I let him put himself to sleep on his own. I know that when he wakes at 3 am its not because he is hungry, its because he woke up and wants me in there. So I let him cry and within 5-10 minutes he is back fast asleep.

Re: Moms who did NOT do CIO...

I do not let DS cry but I do let him fuss. In the beginning I use to feed him and then a lot of the time he would fall asleep before he finished his bottle anyway or I would rock him to sleep. Around 3 months he stopped falling asleep on the bottle and sometimes I would rock him to sleep other times I would put him in his crib with the mobile and he would go to sleep. Now at 4.5 months I almost give him his bottle and put him right down with the mobile and he will fall asleep. I did not want him to get use to me rocking him and I knew that around 4-5 months they start to develope sleep habits and it makes it easier for me to put him down. Their are times were I miss that window to put him down for the night and I have an overtried baby and have to rock him to sleep but I try to not let that happen. If he fusses it is usually very whiney and only about 5 minutes. When he startes to cry I go right in and either give him the pacifier and try to soothe to get the concentration back on the mobile or I pick him and rock him to calm down and try it again. I don't like to put him down while he is asleep because I want him to aware of where he is.

Re: Moms who did NOT do CIO...

We tried CIO a few times, didn't work for us. I just finally realized I had to go with the flow and she would eventually get it, which she did. Right before 2 she started to fall asleep by herself and sleeps through the night. this coming froma child that never slept and took us hours to get to sleep at night. I co-slept until 16 months (I nursed until then). After that she was on her own... It's a joy.

Re: Moms who did NOT do CIO...

I got really lucky too. At 3-4 mts I just began putting her in her crib to sleep and whalla! We had success. No trick to it. All luck!

Re: Moms who did NOT do CIO...

Thanks everyone...I think I missed the boat with this one...should have given her good sleep habits early on...at least I know for the second one.!!

When she woke last night I did try patting her back, giving her the pacifier etc..but nothing doing...then I took her out, walked with her.after 30 mins I gave in, took her into bed, nursed her and she was out for the count in seconds....I know its my own fault....one side of my brain is saying " persevere and it will be worth it in the end" but the other side is saying"its 3.00am take her into bed, nurse her and you will all be asleep by 3.15am!! good cop...bad cop!!

I might try her for her naps and see how that goes.

Message edited 8/28/2006 1:19:09 PM.