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I'm with you. No judgment towards anyone who does CIO, but it seems really unnatural to me. Well it does now. Before having LO, I thought we would sleep train. We are just waiting it out and taking some strategies from the no cry sleep solution.

We knew from the beginning it wasn't a good fit for our family, neither DH nor I felt comfortable with it at all. We bedshare and nurse to sleep/through wakeups, and she sleeps extremely well.

I think we've had only maybe seven or eight nights, ever, where sleep was an issue - and that was because she was sick or had jet lag.

I'm really convinced that proximity to parents helps babies sleep better, so I always advocate for at least room sharing, if not bedsharing (safely, of course).

I thought I couldn't. We tried once and it was the worst thing ever. I cried and hated myself and the jackass who thought CIO up and gave it up. We then had success with just tons of in crib calming. Set her down and as soon as she spits out paci put it back. If she fusses shush her. Etc. that worked for a month until it didn't. Then she started crying every time I set her down and I spent a few days cosleeping bc it was literally the only way for both her and I to sleep. But the problem is I'm not comfortable cosleeping. I understand safe sleep tactics and whatnot but to me it just makes me feel unsafe. Plus I don't think it is good for my marriage nor do I think it's good for me as a sahm to have 0 hrs/day without lo. So out of desperation we did CIO again (Ferber with checks) starting 2 nights ago and the first night at bedtime was the worst thing ever again and I really doubted myself but holy cow she fell asleep and slept all night in her crib with only 2 fast checks! And last night she cried waaaaaay less at bedtime and slept all night until later than usual with no checks! Point being, I felt the same way but for us it worked. And was worth what boiled down to 2 bad hrs.

@Mae: that's great!! I'm happy things are working out for you guys. I follow all your sleep posts because I am in the same situation you were in. I'm just so conflicted!

It's not right for us either, BUT my kid is a generally decent sleeper with some nasty regressions thrown in. So far, he has always (eventually) returned to his normal decent habits which make it easier to hang in through the awful. The bad nights do make me understand why and how parents use CIO -- if my baby slept that poorly long term, we'd need to do something for his sake and mine.

I cannot for the life of me make bedsharing work though. He just kicks, pulls hair, etc and neither of us get any sleep.

So we are pretty much waiting it out for now. Waiting for this current regression to end (he has learned to pull up and cruise around his crib and it is making us all crazy. Except for LO, who is thrilled until he realizes just how exhausted he is) and waiting for his sleep to be consistently better.

Before kids I thought I'd be able to do it. Nope, letting them cry just didn't work for us. I physically get super anxious and need to comfort them. So DH and I let DS1 sleep with us. It works for us and we know it won't be forever. It feels normal to have him close by and I miss DS2 who actually sleeps in his crib. To me it makes sense that babies want to be close to their parents. But I understand that bed sharing isn't for everyone.

@Mae: did you got rid of soother and are you nap training as well at same time. Sorry lot of questions but desperate and sleep deprived mom. I was kind of following you, our babies are quite similar. Can you just update your two night experience and how you dealt witn crying.

@Pirouette: You don't do CIO for feedings. Not at all.

echoing what @ShootingStar said. I realize it's not for everyone, but this topic was posted on the sleep training board, and the fact is that many of us have done CIO. So for some to say they don't agree with it or that it goes against their beliefs or whatever...I guess I cant help but feel defensive. Perhaps the ones who don't aagree with CIO have naturally better sleepers and just never felt that desperation of needing to get baby to sleep? But like @Mae said, some are left with little other option and the end result is actually less crying overall. I doubt that anyone, even those who advocate or have had success with CIO, likes to hear their baby cry.

@Pirouette: Oh ok! I misunderstood. I was gonna say, you definitely don't do CIO for night feedings! We had better luck just reducing the amount slowly until she just stopped missing it

@Jass: I don't want to threadjack but I'll maybe start a new thread about it? Seems like some people have some stuff to talk about with this. Look out for a thread from me in a few minutes.