Welcome! Introduce yourself!

Hello, I'm Amanda, and we have a 14.5 month old little boy.  He is definitely what Dr. Sears would call a "high needs" child with a persistent personality.   He is very sweet, social, and is starting to enter the I-wanna-do-it-myself stage. 
I personally abhor CIO and know that there are sooo many other ways to get babies/toddlers to sleep. 

hi, my name is Christine, a first time mom to a beautiful 2 yo girl, Natalie Rose. I very much disagree with cio.

I'm Xak and Lilly's 20 months old. As adamant as I am against CIO, I did try it once or twice in a fit of frustration, and built up from really crappy days. What did it do? It upset my daughter, horribly. It made me feel sick, it upset my husband horribly, etc. How long did she cry? Five minutes before DH almost knocked down the door to take her to bed with him. There was never going to be a chance she'd sleep. And honestly, I didn't want her sleeping in her crib, co-sleeping works great, those were just times where I was having to use the 'walk away' approach for her safety because I had no other alternative at the time.

I feel like a monster for it. I always will. I'd have felt worse if I'd hurt her because I was having a meltdown, but she didn't really cry for much of anything before I did that the first time. She always signaled and cued very well. She still cried/cries way less than most babies/toddlers, but I can't help but feel that if those few times hadn't happened, she wouldn't have cried as much as she did.

Hello! My name is Alicia and I am the mother to a very head strong and independant almost 14 month old little boy.  Nicholas is the center of my world as well as my husbands', but we are expecting our second child in January so he will have to share the spotlight : ) 
We do not support the CIO method AT ALL!!  Who wants to go to sleep only after screaming themselves to exhaustion?  Of course they will sleep, they have no more energy left to try to tell you that they need your presence to help soothe them. 
Nicholas has only recently started to sleep in his crib in his own room.  Up until he turned 13 months old, we co-slept and breastfed.  Now we are making changes within our family dynamics in order to prepare for our next child.   And I am happy to say he sleeps all night without having to cry himself to sleep.  I am so proud of him and us!!!!
I look forward to ofering any suggestions I can and am always open to recieving advice myself : )

I'm Tessa.  I have 4 kids, 10, 8, 6, 2.

I DID do the cio thing with my first.  We co-slept, but he also had a crib in another room.  When he was about a year, I thought (In my infinite wisdom) that it was time for him to sleep in a toddler bed on his own.  (There was no cio before that, tho).  It didn't last long.  One night, and I knew it wasn't for us. 
My poor oldest child, he was my guinne pig for all of it.  Of course, he's my ADHD child, and the most _____ (am I allowed to say annoying?) child in my home. 

I'm Val, I have a 15 month old son, Dylan and another due in September....I wasn't sure where to post my "method" of getting dylan to sleep on his own, so i'll just post it here :) (sorry it's so long)

i don't CIO - but I also don't consider fussing or even cryiing while in mom's arms or even with a hand on their back to be considered CIO.....CIO phiolosophy is that the baby gives up on you - that you aren't going to come so they just fall asleep from exhaustion.....when you are in the room soothing them, they aren't giving up on you responding to their needs or being there for them - they are only giving up on a certain thing - they aren't getting what they want (being in your bed, etc).....this is how i had to take my son's nuk away - i just threw them out so there wouldn't be temptation (if you give in, it's only teaching them that they need to cry more next time).....and i stayed with him the whole time - i started the first few days holding him and rocking him to sleep - he fussed but after a couple days he got over it....then i moved on to stop rocking and just holding him - this took another couple days....then i moved on to letting him get close to falling asleep and then laying him down and he CRIED.....i let him cry a while but i was next to his crib and rubbing his back or hand or whatnot....if he get too hysterical, i'd pick him up, let him calm down and put him down again.....a couple of days, this took over an hour of back and forth, but after a really hard couple of weeks, he was nuk free, sleeping better and by himself and it was the absolute best thing we've ever done........sidenote: i never ever left him alone....i was right next to his crib until he fell asleep every time....i don't think it's right to leave the baby alone (and dylan was about 10-11 months at this point)

another sidenote: his nuk was his sleep-association.....everytime he woke up, he needed his nuk to go back to sleep and he wasn't learning to put it back in himself.....meaning we had to get up and find it and give it to him (sometimes this took too long and by that time he was up for good and needed to be coaxed back to sleep for 30 min. at 2am :(......by taking his nuk away, he never associated it with sleep again (the sucking-to-sleep association)....that meant, his night-waking went from around 4-5 down to one at most (unless he was teething or sick, etc.).....we've moved 4 times in the past year and everytime we move, he regresses....ALOT - so you could say i've got a pretty bad sleeper on my hands....we've moved since this method worked and now we've got a whole other set of sleep issues - but we'll be using the same, weaning- crying with mom technique

(i also agree that letting them cry in their crib will give them bad feeling towards it - i didn't let dylan cry too much out of this fear - if he really started to belt it out - i'd pick him up......but having mom with him helps him to NOT fear it IMO....we also played in it after he woke up and stayed in the room while we played for a while....he loved playing peek-a-boo in his crib after naps

My name is Christie, and I have a four year old son.
We did CIO ONCE.  The only reason I did it is because my husband wouldn't shut up about it, and so in anger, I finally said, "FINE!" and spent the whole hour Rowan cried sitting outside his door, crying myself, and wouldn't let my husband talk to me or touch me.  Rowan finally fell asleep, slept for thirty minutes, then woke up again, crying.
That was the END of that, and I was glad.

We co-slept until he was about 3-1/2, when he requested to have his crib mattress on my bedroom floor, and there he slept.  About a month ago, he decided he wanted his mattress in his own room, and he's been there every night since.
He does EXACTLY what Dr. Sears promises kids will - when they have a strong support system and know their concerns are valid and their cry will always be responded to, they become independent willingly and of their OWN accord.  He chose to stop nursing on his own at 2-1/2, stop co-sleeping, stop room-sharing and potty-train... ALL by himself.  All we had to do was be there to support him, and that's how it should be.  There was no fighting, no pushing, no sleepless nights with him crying (unless he was SICK).

Welcome everyone and thanks for joining!
If you haven't done so already, tell us your anti-CIO story!  Although some of use use the family bed, I know co-sleeping is not for everyone.  If you don't co-sleep and don't CIO: what's your secret?

Hi! You can call me Sapient, I am a WAHM of a 5-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son. I only recently have really gotten into the AP style, mostly the BFing and co-sleeping.  I was only 19 when I had my daughter, and I made a lot of mistakes. Her father made me let her CIO when she was less than 6 months, and I naively believed that was the only way to go. After I left him when she was 8 months old I bounced back and forth from wanting her to sleep with me and wanting my space. I didn't breastfeed longer than 3 weeks because, again, I was naive and didn't know much, and I had very little support. We had our issues, and I am glad we are passed them. She now sleeps in her own twin bed in her own room, but it was a long hard journey. If I only knew then what I know now.

My son has been a whole other story. I am still breastfeeding him, my husband now is very supportive of that and of co-sleeping. I know my son doesn't sleep through the night yet, but honestly sometimes the only reason I even know he woke up at night is because I am not engorged in the morning. I am really hopeing to be involved in a movement that encourages mothers to be mothers, and take care of thier babies. I really want people to start getting back to trusting their bodies, and trusting the family unit. I cringe every time I hear he is 'old enough' for something, or worse 'too old'. Since when did age 1 become the time when babies become adults?

Anyway, glad to meet you guys!

Hello. Amanda here. I have a 3yr old Emily and 1yr. old Kylie! I don't know much to say about me other than we hate CIO and have never practised it. I honestly didn't know it had a name or that so many people actually 'used' it until I joined cafemom!  :)  I guess that's a good thing. but still...