CIO isn't working.....long I'm desperate for sleep and any advice

I am so exhausted and have no idea what to try next. This little boy has put me through torture with his sleep patterns and it's always something different.

DS is 7 months next week. We started CIO about a month ago because all of a sudden he went from four hour stretches to waking up every2 hours and we could only get him back to sleep using a bottle so he was getting all these watered down bottles all night long.

So, after a week and a half of CIO he started STTN for about a week. Then last week he started getting up at 1 am and staying up for 3 hours! I thought it was maybe just a phase but it has now been 8 nights of this and I'm exhausted. The first two nights we got up with him, but after that we tried to let him CIO. For naps and bedtime he will go to sleep with 5-10 min crying. Not great after a month of CIO but doable. In the middle of the night he has gone as long as two hours and he won't settle down. Every night we've given in and either given him a bottle or patted his back until he slept. After the first couple nights of CIO a month ago he never cried for more than a few minutes so I don't know why he can't settle in the middle of the night. Nothing is different in his room at that time. Even when we do give in and try to help him sleep it's taking him forever, probably because he's so worked up.

He just got up at 4:45 after finally going down around being up from 12-2:30. My 2yo DS is in the room next to him and sleeps through most of the middle of the night crying but this early/late I can't chance it or I'll end up with them both up.

So I'm sitting here with a tired 7 month old who should still be asleep and 5 hours of broken sleep for me last night. I'm shot!

What should I do? Do I stick with CIO in the middle of the night? I don't know if I can let him cry for 3 hours! What else could I try?

Re: CIO isn't working.....long I'm desperate for sleep and any advice

What happens if you give him a full bottle? it's totally possible that he's still needing a feeding overnight. my DDs, especially my second still needed to eat overnight at that age.

Re: CIO isn't working.....long I'm desperate for sleep and any advice

Posted by Porrruss

What happens if you give him a full bottle? it's totally possible that he's still needing a feeding overnight. my DDs, especially my second still needed to eat overnight at that age.

Message edited 10/11/2010 6:50:00 AM.

Re: CIO isn't working.....long I'm desperate for sleep and any advice

He's so tired by 7 that we put him down then, but since he eats dinner at 6 we don't give him a bedtime bottle. Sometime between 9 and 10 we pick him up and give him 6-8 ounces while he's still asleep. During the day he goes 4-5 hours between bottles. From 10 he's not even making it to 1am without being up crying. I don't think he's hungry. If he wakes up anytime after 4 then I feed him because by then it's been at least 6 hours since he ate. But at almost 7 months I would think he should be able to do 8-10 hours.

Re: CIO isn't working.....long I'm desperate for sleep and any advice

How rigid is his schedule during the day? He might be the type of baby that needs a schedule. DS thrives on schedule.

We also have an hour long bedtime routine, have been doing it since 3m. Its a little work for a restful night sleep for all of us.

I wouldn't give watered down bottles, I would either give a few tiny sips of water, or a real bottle. I don't remember what exactly but something about watering down formula isn't good. My ped always let us give water, as much as DS wants, but only between "meals". DS never ever took more than 4oz, and that was a weird day when he did.

When DS was waking up from teething, I'd give him ice water in a bottle with a very slow newborn nipple. He'd half chew/half suck and go to sleep, never took more than an ounce.

Could he be teething? Could he be sick? I would def try to set a schedule based on his general patterns and see how he responds.

IMO, CIO is the last resort, make sure everything else perfect, KWIM? You need to make it really really hard for him to have anything to really complain about.

Re: CIO isn't working.....long I'm desperate for sleep and any advice

i do remember reading that watered down bottles of formula isn't good for them. But you haven't been doing that for a while I think, so I don't know if that's your problem. Ugh....maybe he really is hungry?! your boys do have hearty appetites!

Re: CIO isn't working.....long I'm desperate for sleep and any advice