CIO in the middle of the night ??

We're toying with doing CIO with DD and she is usually a good sleeper, except she still wakes for a nighttime feeding/diaper change. I tried the huggies overnites, and even still, she wakes up with a full diaper at about 11:30-midnight.. If you are doing CIO, how do you know if the baby is just waking out of habit vs really needing something (like a clean diaper)?

And I also am guilty of feeding her at this time - which maybe I should try putting her down without feeding her, which may take care of this problem as well, but I was just looking for some guidance with this? DD is almost 8mos.

I figure if we give this a whirl, to try it before we start seeing some teeth (so far we have none coming up yet!)..

Thanks!

Re: CIO in the middle of the night ??

Have you read Ferber's Solve your Child's Sleep Problems? I suggest reading that. At almost the exact age that your dd is, Ava started waking in the middle of the night and the only thing that would help was a bottle. I gave it to her at first, thinking it was a growth spurt, but I noticed it was dragging on and on. So, I bought Ferber's book, and I read about sleep associations and how babies need conditions in the middle of the night to be the same as when they first go to sleep in order to put themselves back to sleep at night. It made sense and we adjusted our bedtime routine. It took two nights for her to get the hang of it, and she's never needed a bottle in the middle of the night again.
I really suggest reading that book because CIO isn't just about letting them cry, it's about teaching them to have the right associations with bedtime. I, personally, think 8 months is old enough for a baby to not need to eat in the middle of the night, so we used Ferber's method and I'm so grateful that we did.

Re: CIO in the middle of the night ??

Thanks - I'll give it a whirl! I'm still nursing, and while its nice to have that time with Jillian, esp since going back to work, I know she needs to get to sleeping through the night, for everyones sake!

She has had nights when she has slept all the way through (probably on a fluke, or she was just really active at daycare that day or something) - so I know she can do it! I'd just love it to be more times than not!

Thanks!

Re: CIO in the middle of the night ??

One of the things that we did to break DD of middle of the night nursing was that I stopped going in to her bedroom. If she was really crying, DH would go in and she knew she was not going to get any booby from Daddy. I'm sure my DD has a fullish diaper in the middle of the night too but it doesn't seem to bother her and the Overnights hold a lot. So even when they seem full-----they can still hold more.

Since your DD has slept through the night before, she is capable of doing it again without night nursing & a diaper change. I'd let her cry a bit and see if she can get herself back to sleep. If not, is it possible for DH to go in and comfort her a little?

Re: CIO in the middle of the night ??

Re: CIO in the middle of the night ??

Re: CIO in the middle of the night ??

Hey Marie! I used CIO with Molly when she insisted upon waking up at 4am. She didn't really want to eat, she was just in the habit of waking at 4am on the dot. It took about a week of me just going in and putting her music on, patting her back and then leaving.