About 3 weeks ago my LO and I attempted and succeeded in the CIO method. However, for the past few nights, my LO has been waking in the middle of the night (usually from 1-2am) and cries until comforted. Is this messing up the CIO method? Should I leave him be to self soothe or should I pick him up and nurse him back to sleep, like I usually do? (When I do, he nurses for about 5 min, then uses me as a pacifier until I put him back in his crib. Then he wakes up again after about 10 minutes and cries again)
The only reason why I pick him up is because my DH works 6 days a week, 12 hr shifts, and he encourages me to pick up the LO so he can go back to sleep, which I understand he needs. We also have a 1 bedroom, so our baby sleeps in the same room as we do. But is this damaging the CIO method when my LO wakes up in the middle of the night and I pick him up?
Note: Please, do not respond if you are anti-CIO or plan on belittling my parenting skills for allowing the CIO. I understand that CIO is very controversial, but it has worked successfully and happily with my LO and myself. I would prefer to have responses from parents that have also attempted and succeeded with the CIO and /or understand my circumstances.
Thanks and happy parenthood!
Op I believe that you itty bitty would still need a feeding in the middle of the night and I don't think that should be ignored. Do the feeding, put em back to bed and tell hubby if he doesn't like it go sleep on the couch. Babies are only small for so long and he needs to suck it up. He decided WITH you to have a child and should be there to support you even when it's not convient for him.
Quoting larissalarie:
Aww poor baby! Cio kills brain cells & teaches a baby that nobody will meet his needs so they give up! It's a testament to your baby's strength that he's still attempting to get his needs met despite you showing him otherwise.
Have you tried soothing him while he's still in the crib? Rubbing his back or just re-cuddling him up? I would say picking him up and feeding is counter productive, but you are still breast feeding. How old is your LO?
Hey ladies/fellow mommies! Thanks for all the advice! I truly appreciate it! Well, I spoke to my Pediatrician (she was actually the one that recommended the CIO at such a young age, being 4 months old at the time) and 2 other nurses and they all said that if he is suddenly waking in the middle of the night, it's a growth spurt, and he's just extra hungry.
So if he wakes in the night (which he does), what I've been doing is picking him up, feeding him, letting him fall asleep in bed with me and DH again, and then VERY carefully putting him back in his crib. Sometimes he wakes up again, others he doesnt. Either way, my Ped. said it should only last a week or two, then he should go back to sleeping through the night (which he was doing until just recently).
Again, thanks for all the recommendations and advice! Happy parenthood!
What time does he go to bed? And is he breastfed?
The reason I ask is that if he's waking up at 1:00, depending on when he went to bed, he could very well be hungry. I think our daughter at 4-5 months of age was still only going about 6-7 hours before needing to be fed at night.
We did CIO with our daughter, and what we did was to pick a certain number of hours after her last feeding--if she woke up before that time had passed, we did not go to her. If she woke up and fussed, we gave her a few minutes to see if she would go back to sleep on her own, which she almost always did. If it had been more than that number of hours, though, we would assume she was hungry and feed her.
What if your child is waking in pain from growth, or hunger, or because he's frightened or lonely or thirsty or too cold?
Growth spurt?
- rtellup
on Jun. 20, 2012 at 10:56 PM