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C is SO stubborn. Like, crazy "i will stay up ALL day at because I just dont want to nap, damnit, and you cant make me" stubborn. CIO worked for us. 100%.

However, we had to do it extinction style (checks just made her angry and confused.) and we had to be super strict. Like @plantains: said, any wavering set us back in a big way. If you're not committed, it wont work. Period.

Yes, its hard... but to me it was worth it. 3-4 nights of crying was worth a happier, healthier, better rested mom and baby. It ended up being fairly quick for us, less than a week. She's 2.5 and is still a great sleeper outside of sickness, teething and jet lag. That being said, it's not for everybody.

@Mae: we tried initially at 4.5/5 months but we weren't fully commited and gave in. We stopped, regrouped and tried again 2 weeks before the 6 month mark because I was due to go to work. We focused initially on getting her to fall asleep on her own but didn't try to eliminate MOTN wakings. Eventually when she was successfully falling asleep on her own, we dropped the night wakings one at a time.

I will say that the first night we did it she cried for almost 3 hours. Every night she cried less and we eventually got to the point where she cried for 5 mins when we put her down. A week later, she was going down without a peep, still does.

It sounds like you're not comfortable with it and I think that's the biggest point of success for CIO because you have to be consistent. I haven't done it though so that's my inexperience opinion.

@Mae: to be honest, it is all so fuzzy now I can't remember for sure! I think the first week was rough and it got much better after that. We didn't have the overnight or 2-3 night success that others have had though, we had to stick with it.

@Mae: I thought that would only happen once... it happened all the time for us. We tried 5 times over the course of 10 days (time to wash his bed sheets and let carpets dry from cleaning... no matter how we covered the carpet... throw up always got on it! Resolve is your friend).

Maybe you can try again? It might have been a fluke. *fingers crossed for you* Good luck!

I'm sad to say what we do now... is hang out with him in his room till we know he's dead asleep and we sneak out. When we are tired we just throw him in bed with us. Not ideal at all! It's all we can do. We know some day he will grow out of wanting to us to be there when he sleeps. So right now I'm just happy to snuggle with him while he lets us.

ETA we try CIO every few months... still throwing up... didn't want to be a debbie downer just letting you know what we have gone through!

We tried at 5 months and failed bc I just couldn't handle it. We tried again at 6.5 months and it was much better. Success in 3 nights. She might just be too young!

@Mae: Sorry to post and run, but here's the run down....short version, lol.

My son was swaddled and slept decently until 6 months of age. When he was breaking out of the swaddle, we realized it would be an optimal time to sleep train. So I read Ferber, I read Weissbluth, I read Moms on Call. I couldn't do full extinction, so we decided on Ferber with timed checks. We didn't know if we would be successful with doing nights first or both nights and naps, so we decided to go whole hog, because my son is a creature of habit.

We were mildly successful in night training, my husband had to do the checks, while I sat OUTSIDE on the patio, ridic I know. The problem was I didn't have it in me to do the timed checks and hear the crying during the day, so I would rock my son to sleep for naps and lie to my husband about it later. Surprise, surprise, night training fell apart and we decided just to continue cosleeping. We tried the same thing again a month or so later, again with me sabotaging the naps and lying to my husband.

At 11 months, we introduced a lovey, the Fisher Price Glo Worm. It was what my son needed, to give him a sense of control. We'd put him in his crib with it and he'd play the music until he fell asleep. It worked for about 6 months, until he decided to quit the crib. We transitioned him to a futon and he also did fine there.

When he turned 2, we basically threw him for a huge loop with an international move. He began crying one night and we couldn't calm him down. He threw himself across the room and we made the mistake of bringing him into bed with us, where he remains almost 2 years later.

That's the short version, lol. It is the truth, as ridiculous as it sounds. I used to be embarrassed about it, but if it helps you at all, it's worth it to me to share.

We had some half-hearted attempts when LO was around 6 months old, but didn’t actually give a modified CIO a chance until she was 11 months. It worked great for falling asleep on her own but we didn't really stick with it for night wakings, and we still have one wakeup even now at 16 months.

Didn't read all the comments but I firmly believe YOU need to be ready as much as your LO. I will say it wasn't as bad as I expected for us, but you need to get to the right place to do it.

We are sorta dropouts in that I gave up on nap training & I have not been consistent about night wakings/feedings.

We did CIO for bedtime starting at about 4 months I think and we had to retrain a few times. I would stick with it and then we'd have a setback (travel, illness) and I couldn't make her CIO when everything was topsy turvy, so I'd go back to nursing her to sleep. But the most recent round did work and now she puts herself to sleep at night.

Naps... oh naps. She would cry for a full hour every time and fall asleep sitting up, and that kept up for a week. I gave up and naps are still pretty bad. I feel like we might need to try again because nothing really works.

Wakeups... We have CIO'd for STTN and it was hard but not as bad as I thought, and she started STTN. But then we had illnesses, and we moved, and now at almost 12 months I am up with her once or twice a night... I don't want to do CIO again because she has not been eating/drinking good lately and I feel like she does need to nurse.