Crying it out

Hey mommies, I just wanted to tell everyone that our recent trip to singapore went really well!!! NO CRYING at all before bedtime. I would feed my 7mth old his milk after his bath, put him into the grobag and lay him down awake at 7pm and he would sleep through to 6am, wake up and talk for a bit, then back to sleep until 8am!!!!!! I was sooooo relieved!!!!! We are now back in HK and had crying the first night we were back - about 15mins. i think it's because we live in a noisy area and he prefers a quiet room...but he will have to get used to it. Tonight is the 2nd night and there was no crying. i hope it stays like this!!!

peainpod - i think it's ok for you to do CIO for naps first. how does your baby go to sleep for naps? does helper milk him to sleep?

CIO is actually about establishing a habit for your baby so if he can learn to sleep during the day without help, when you eventually do it for bedtime, it should be smoother since he will already know from naps. I also think it's important for both parents to agree and follow through on a method. if you disagree about CIO for bedtime, then wait until he is able to sleep for naps without help so you can show your husband that it is possible.

From experience, you will need each others support when the baby is crying. if one person always wants to rush in, it will be difficult to follow through. For babies, once you start CIO, it's most kind to stick to it. otherwise you will actually end up training your baby to cry longer before bed since he will learn that eventually you will come and nurse him.

It took us about a month from when we first started to this past week which i would now consider my son as sleeping through the night. There were good nights, bad nights, alternating up until now.

If your helper is doing CIO during the day, make sure she has clear instructions on what to do and for how long, etc. so you know exactly what she is doing every time.
 
obviously do what you feel comfortable doing with CIO, but remember that if you baby senses mixed messages (ie parent behaviour differs during daytime sleeping versus night time sleeping, it might screw him up.) see how it goes though first and if he/she is still not sleeping though the night you might want to consider the above as a factor. it's hard, but stay with it. good luck!
 
Thanks for the input, everyone. (MilkMonster, congratulations! It's so nice to hear that you've succeeded - gives me something to aim for...)

So I had a serious discussion with hubby and again, he wasn't *unsupportive* except he really did want to be there to start with. (He said either he or I should be there - i.e. not just leave our helper to do it herself - as we as parents should be a better judge of what's best for our child.)

Also he made a valid point that we haven't tried ANY form of sleep training at all with our baby so is it really good to go for such a drastic way right away? He was suggesting maybe we should do the "putting him in bed awake and patting him to sleep" first, to see if that will do the trick.

What do you think? Should I take the softer approach first or take the plunge and go straight for CIO (for daytime first)?
 
give it a try as it doesn't hurt and it's important that you and your husband are on the same page. if that is his comfort level, then that's it for now.

before doing CIO, we tried the patting on the back, but every time we did it, my son thought was playtime and immediately stood up in bed....every child is different and responds differently to each approach.
 
give it a try as it doesn't hurt! you and your husband should be on the same page when doing this so if patting on the back is where he is at in terms of comfort, that be supportive. you two should also be the ones sleep training your child and NOT your helper though it be good for her to observe so down the road, she can also model the right responses to your baby.

before CIO, we tried patting on the back, but every time we did it, my son thought it was playtime and immediately stood up in his cot....every child is different and responds differently to each approach.

(ps - sorry i posted twice in a row - have no clue what happened there!)
 
Yes, definitely try a softer approach and see if that works!!! We only resorted to CIO after other options like patting and pickup/putdown didn't work for us. Hopefully the other methods will work for you!!! Good luck!!!!
 
Thanks for all your support! I am happy to report that we have found success - so far (fingers crossed) - with the patting method.

We started just three nights ago (on Christmas night) when bubs was very tired after all day of celebrating. (We thought it would be easier that way...) Anyway, the first night was the hardest (as expected), since bubs did not understand why we wouldn't pick him up. But about 20-25 continuous minutes of patting (both hubbie and I), he stopped crying and we managed to pat him to sleep. He woke up an hour later crying and again, we had to pat continuously for about another 20mins.

Since then, it has become progressively easier. Second night we were able to put him to bed without patting but he started crying after about 10 mins alone and we had to go in and pat him to sleep (which took about 15 mins). Naptimes were quite easy, with fairly minimal patting.

Tonight (4th night), we put him to bed awake but sleepy, and he did not make any noise so we left the room. Of course we spent the next 10 mins hovering over the baby monitor waiting for him to make noise but surprise! - no crying at all (just a little bit of shuffling from him moving around the crib). After that, there was silence, and he just fell asleep on his own with no help from us at all!

I may have just lucked out on a good night and there will likely be some backsliding but I am just very very relieved that we finally have a sleep system in place for bubs. :yeah2

Thanks again everyone! :thanks
 
hello ladies,
i have so missed geobaby during my holidays....sp. this particular forum....but i am back now!! the CIO worked well on most days of my holiday though we did have some good/bad days/nights.....the most frustrating thing is that no one would understand CIO and the importance of schedules so i was ridiculed bigtime by family....all parties back home would begin at 7.30pm and i would politely excuse myself from the as i had no intentions of letting baby cry while i am having fun....soem nights when my mom stayed over i did get to go out but i was most happy having all the fun during daytime too.......hope u all did the same.
 
we had absolutly no crying while we were in singapore but came home and he cried for 10 days, every night. it was a bad relapse and i felt like we were starting all over again. but its been 2 weeks now and we haven't had any crying!! i am so thrilled. the boys are in bed by 7pm and up between 830 and 9am everyday. it's nice to have our lives back :)

mushi, it's hard when you don't have support for CIO and i totally know what you mean about not being able to 'have fun' while your baby is CIO. I literally sit like a zombie or in front of the door with my fingers crossed until he falls asleep.

good luck everyone else who is trying CIO!! stick with it, it will eventually work!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

About this archive

This is an archive of over 20 years of GeoBaby and GeoSchools knowledge and discussions, kept online as a read-only reference.

Back
Top