https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Sat, 02 May 2026 05:36:29 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-cio-needed-will-it-help#post-2295157 Fri, 18 Sep 2015 15:29:13 +0000 Kbee 2295157@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@erinbaderin: We're going to try separating nursing from bedtime first and go from there. </p> <p>@BandDmommy: Glad to hear it worked for you!</p> <p>@catlady: Our ped has said he should be eating about 1x per night, which is why we have kept the one nursing session and my DH rocks him to sleep the other times he wakes up. He goes back to sleep in my DH's arms almost immediately, so he doesn't seem to be hungry at those times. I'm glad to hear CIO worked so well for you!</p> <p>@ShootingStar: Thank you for sharing! We're going make a rule for his one nursing session time over night too. And I'm trying to get him to eat more during the day too! I've added more to his bottles he gets at daycare (having to pull from freezer stash when needed...) and he's eating more solids every day, so we are hoping that will help before we have to try CIO. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-cio-needed-will-it-help#post-2294647 Fri, 18 Sep 2015 09:27:29 +0000 ShootingStar 2294647@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>CIO was the best thing we ever did for ourselves and DS. Around 7 months nothing was working. He was waking up constantly throughout the night and would wake up 20 minutes after having fallen asleep initially. And then we'd have to start the whole thing over again.</p> <p>One night we'd finally had enough. DH had a really tough time getting him down to sleep and a few minutes later he was awake and crying. We decided to just let him cry it out because he was crying no matter what we did. I also suspected his main problem was in connecting his sleep cycles. He liked sleep, but he needed a lot of help to get there and stay there. </p> <p>It was definitely a process, but in the end it was so worth it. His stretches of sleep started getting longer and longer and we night weaned at the same time. I had a bunch of guidelines I set up for myself based on a bunch of stuff I'd read. My rules were that if he had a MOTN waking, we had to wait 10-15 minutes before rescuing him. Almost every time he stopped crying at around 7 minutes. My other rule was that if he started making it to a certain time without waking up, that would be his new feeding time and I would try not to feed him before that. So if he woke up at 4am for a couple days and then woke up at 1am the next day, I'd wait 15 minutes before rescuing. In the beginning if he was still crying I'd feed him. But after a while if he had a random earlier wake up, I'd make him CIO. But that only happened once, maybe twice. </p> <p>Around this same time I had dried up, so we were formula feeding (much larger bottles than we had for BM) and we were amping up his solids. I don't think he would have slept as well if he hadn't been eating so much during the day.</p> <p>After a month or so, we got to 12 hour stretches with no wake ups. Putting him down for the night was never super easy, and our biggest mistake was not sticking with cutting out the pacifier at the same time. We had just moved and he went back to crying for 20 minutes or more every night, so I gave him the pacifier. Now he's almost 2 and I wish we'd kicked it then when it would have been easier. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-cio-needed-will-it-help#post-2294624 Fri, 18 Sep 2015 09:10:55 +0000 catlady 2294624@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We used CIO with success at around 5 months, but our baby was actually waking pretty much every sleep cycle, so the training really only worked to get her to sleep through cycles on her own. She still woke up when she was hungry and at 7.5 months, she was definitely still up at least 1-2x per night to nurse. 2-4x sounds like the high end of normal but your baby could still just be hungry and needs to nurse more than once. Maybe ask your pediatrician? I remember asking and ours said something like at 6 months, they might still wake 2x per night to eat, at 9 months, 1x per night, and by 12 months they should sleep through. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-cio-needed-will-it-help#post-2294552 Fri, 18 Sep 2015 08:19:22 +0000 BandDmommy 2294552@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Kbee: I did CIO with my son and it worked. We did extinction method. The process SUCKED. But he sleeps through the night so it worked for us. I'll preface this by saying I don't think it works for every kid. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-cio-needed-will-it-help#post-2294524 Fri, 18 Sep 2015 08:06:09 +0000 erinbaderin 2294524@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>For me, CIO was a lifesaver. We did it at 5 months because my son was waking up 4-6 times a night and had to be nursed back to sleep every time, and if he woke up while I was trying to transfer him from boob to crib we had to start the whole routine over. I agree that you definitely need to teach your son to fall asleep without nursing, but you may not need to do CIO yet? jess1483 had a great suggestion, I think, to separate nursing from bedtime. Is your son eating solid foods yet? We were told to do nursing, then "dinner" (solids), then bath/stories/bed. That helps establish a bedtime routine that you can carry on while they get older that isn't nursing dependent. The only thing is that it might not solve the problem, because you might just substitute nursing for some other sleep association - he'll wake up in the night and won't understand why you aren't still sitting beside the crib patting his back. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-cio-needed-will-it-help#post-2294419 Fri, 18 Sep 2015 05:50:43 +0000 Kbee 2294419@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@sarac: I don't mind nursing him to sleep, and even enjoy it most of the time, but like @Jess1483 said we are just concerned that he can't put himself to sleep, and that is why he sometimes wakes up 4 times a night. During his MOTN wake-ups when I don't nurse him, my DH has to rock him back to sleep. </p> <p>@Jess1483: We are definitely going to try just changing the routine first and seeing if we can put him down in the crib awake, maybe with some gentler methods first. But we are just anticipating that not working. He is not an adaptable baby...If we have to do CIO, maybe we'll start on Saturday. He usually naps great at home, so I hope that would help. </p> <p>@Kemma: Daycare naps have been so tough. We have told them they need to put him down earlier for his first nap so that he doesn't get overtired, but they do so many scheduled activities there. They say "outside" time is at 9:30, which is around when his first nap would be, so I'm sure they don't intentionally put babies down at that time since it requires a teacher be inside :bummed: His naps on Saturday and Sunday at home are great, but his sleep those nights is not any better unfortunately. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-cio-needed-will-it-help#post-2294385 Fri, 18 Sep 2015 03:26:24 +0000 Kemma 2294385@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Kbee: based on what you wrote about naps, chances are that if you could fix / improve the daytime sleep then the nights would also improve! Can you work with your daycare provider to work on the naps?</p> <p>And like @sarac: , I too nursed my big girl to sleep every night and what worked for us was bed sharing from when she woke up. Some kids just need more nighttime parenting! The other trick that has worked with both my kids was remaining in the room but not engaging with them while they settled to sleep. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-cio-needed-will-it-help#post-2294345 Thu, 17 Sep 2015 23:03:17 +0000 gingerbebe 2294345@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We did full on extinction CIO bc checks made my son furious. It was hard but I was falling apart and my husband sorta made me. It worked - after a few days he was sleeping 12 hours a night. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-cio-needed-will-it-help#post-2294305 Thu, 17 Sep 2015 21:58:40 +0000 Jess1483 2294305@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs.Someone: Oh wow, I need more sleep. Sorry :wink:</p> <p>@KBee: See above :wink: </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-cio-needed-will-it-help#post-2294301 Thu, 17 Sep 2015 21:57:00 +0000 Mrs.Someone 2294301@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Jess1483: I wasn't the OP :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-cio-needed-will-it-help#post-2294272 Thu, 17 Sep 2015 21:36:40 +0000 Jess1483 2294272@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Mrs.Someone: Except that if nursing to sleep is leading to nights with 2-4 wake-ups, then it's not really working... I think you may be dealing with a suck to sleep association (I read somewhere it's like going to sleep in your bed every night and then ending up on the lawn every morning...if he's sucking when he falls asleep, he expects to be sucking when he wakes.) I think you could work on this without CIO, but you need to separate nursing from bedtime by 20-ish minutes. Then gradually reduce the amount of help you give him. So, first maybe rock to sleep, then maybe patting in his crib, then a still hand on his back, etc, until you aren't assisting him.</p> <p>Alexis doesn't say that babes have to be waking every sleep cycle for CIO. It does sound like your little guy might benefit if you want. But Alexis also says that if whatever you are doing is working for you, then awesome. You say it's not working for you, though, so CIO is one avenue to change it. </p> <p>And yes, naps are pretty important when you're doing CIO. If you choose to do CIO, maybe try starting on a Saturday night when you've gotten him naps however you can (car/stroller/in arms/whatever). Do the same on Sunday, and you may be in good enough shape by Monday that daycare naps won't be such a big deal.</p> <p>If you decided to CIO, I'd choose a time (at least 6 hours after bedtime) that you will not go in until. If he wakes before then, let him cry (with or without checks). If he wakes after then, go to him immediately. What you don't want to do is decide after an hour that he's hungry and go in. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-cio-needed-will-it-help#post-2294236 Thu, 17 Sep 2015 21:00:45 +0000 Mrs.Someone 2294236@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@sarac: wow, 28mo? That gives me hope! What did you do if you couldn't be home for nap or bedtime? My current dilemma... </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-cio-needed-will-it-help#post-2294227 Thu, 17 Sep 2015 20:56:19 +0000 sarac 2294227@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>If nursing to sleep is working, it's always hard for me to understand why people are so eager to stop. I nursed my daughter to sleep until she was 28 months, then I was ready to wean, and we stopped without effort. You could probably just work to change the routine and not have to do CIO. As for the wakeups, 2 a night is developmentally normal at that age. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/is-cio-needed-will-it-help#post-2294209 Thu, 17 Sep 2015 20:45:18 +0000 Kbee 2294209@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>We never thought we would be here, but here we are considering CIO. LO is 7.5 months and has never been a good sleeper. He is currently waking 2-4 times per night. We are all chronically sleep deprived and my work is suffering.</p> <p>I've read a lot of information on Troublesome Tots, and it seems like her criteria for needing to do CIO is a baby that wakes after every single sleep cycle, so every 45-90 minutes I believe. Thankfully DS is not waking that often. She also says to make sure the baby is getting good naps. But this is a huge problem for us because his naps at daycare are TERRIBLE. On a good day he gets two 45-minute naps, on a bad day one 30-minute nap, and the bad days are more frequent. </p> <p>Given the above suggestions from troublesome tots, can anyone with previous experience shed any light on whether CIO will be helpful, or even work? We want him to be able to fall asleep on his own, and reduce non-nursing night wakings. Bedtime is not a struggle, but I nurse him to sleep. He eats during one of his MOTN wake-ups, and we will keep that nursing session for now. We are considering CIO without checks, because our LO is stubborn and we know checks would fail. We will change his bedtime routine to nurse, bath, book, bed. </p>