So, my twins came down with the plague of death last weekend and their sleep just went to pieces, going from 1-2 wake-ups to 7-10 between the two of them.
DD is a good sleeper and I'm pretty confident one night of CIO will have her back to STTN.
DS, on the other hand, is a really bad sleeper, the best I've ever been able to get him down to is 2 wake-ups a night, which right now sounds like heaven. He does not respond well to CIO, he's cried for over 2 hours at times (please don't judge me for letting him cry that long, ugh!). So I'm looking for non-CIO techniques that worked for people. He definitely has a boob attachment bc he will eat every time he wakes up but he can go to sleep on his own for naps and at bed time no problem, hardly cried at all.
Can anyone share what worked for you that didn't involve full-on CIO? I'm willing to let him cry a bit but I don't want to do true extinction like we've tried in the past.
Thanks so much, you guys!
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we basically did the sleep lady shuffle, where you slowly reduce the amount of support you offer, but are in the room the whole time. So the first night you might sit right next to the crib, pat, shush, etc. After a few nights you'd only vocalize, no touching. After that you move your chair a bit further away.
Just remember, it takes longer than extinction (when it works). I know Pick up/Put down is a popular method, too.
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The sleep sense program worked for us! There is a great blog post about it on HB.
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I had to improvise! I tried all of the methods out there, except extinction - I couldn't do it.
It also depended on the reason for the wakeups - teething, I comforted her and/or gave motrin. If she was overtired, I was more likely to give her 5-10 minutes at a time (checks) to wind down. To curb nursing to sleep, I started nursing before bed with the lights on, then making sure she was awake after she nursed, then slowly not nursing at night anymore (as we weaned).
I wish I could be more help! Ultimately, I just had to wait her out..she was stubborn.
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I would also recommend the sleep sense method. It still involves some crying though... SIGH. I wish there was a perfect method with no CIO!
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Your daughter and son sound very much like mine
We used sleep sense, stay in the room method. DS would barf if left to cry for not even very long at all, so traditional CIO wasn't an option. Something about staying in the room with him made him stay calmer throughout the process...it was easier on me too. DD sttn after one night. DS took three nights, and yelled for 45 min the first night, and less and less after that. He had never ever woken less than 3x night. Oh, and we used the process to night wean as well, since they were 10 months.
We did have our twins in separate rooms when we did it, and still do, just bc they have such different sleep habits, even though they are good sleepers now.
Good luck!
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We did the Sleep Lady Shuffle on dd last month (15 months old). I wasn't willing to do CIO with her and I really don't think she'd have responded well to it but she did fabulously with the Sleep Lady. You sit by the crib and can pat, pick them up etc, do whatever you want/need to do to comfort them then after three nights move your chair further away and every three nights you move further away until you are out of the room. It did involve some crying, but she responded brilliantly to it, and she was used to nursing to sleep. I've also heard great things about Sleep Sense, although never tried it myself. Good luck!
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Thank you guys for sharing, I'm going to start something tonight, still have to decide the best course of action though...going to be a rough couple of nights, that's for sure! Hopefully leads to better sleep in the long run tho!
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