For CIO, did you let them CIO for middle of the nights wakings as well?

[momm]

So I get that the CIO is used for getting them to fall asleep.

Q#1: If your DC wake up in the middle of the nights, too, do you let them CIO and self soothe? Is that how it works?

Q#2: And do you just let that happen for the 3-5 days it takes to work?

I'm totally fascinated by the other CIO thread, and didn't want to hijack, therefore asking this separately.

[WatchingThemGrow]

Yes, middle of the night is when it happens. Someone IRL suggested putting DH in charge. He was much more able to resist going in.

Yes, you do it 3 nights. We found the crying went on/off from 1.5 hours, to 30 min, to just a screech in the middle of the 3rd night. Never heard from her since...

[maestramommy]

Yes we did, depending. For instance, when it got to the point that we wanted to nightwean, when baby would wake up and start calling, I would ignore for a few minutes. They usually go back to sleep. I would do this to eliminate the feedings one at a time.

However, when they start waking as toddlers, it's usually a bad dream or something. So I'd go in and pat them down. Sometimes it only takes a few seconds. When we started we'd actually pick them up and hold them for a while, then put them back down. We didn't need to do CIO for this because eventually they get over it themselves and stop waking.

[wellyes]

I never had to with an infant... I wouldn't CIO for teething or night terrors or hunger. Those aren't sleep issues. We did nightwean after 9 months but not through CIO.

I would consider it if the baby was waking up wanting to play.
To be clear I am talking about Ferbering.

[BDKmom]

DS used to wake up crying, I guess just startled or disoriented or something. Usually by the time I decided whether or not to go in, he had already stopped. If it lasted any more than 10 minutes, I would go check, but it was rare for DS to cry like that unless something was wrong. Even with teething, he has never been one to wake up in the night very much. He didn't wake up to nurse at night any after he started STTN at 11 weeks.

[khalloc]

yes, when DS was waking up 5x a night to nurse I started letting him CIO. I set a time in middle of the night and I wouldnt go to him before that time. Its what got him finally sleeping thru the night at about 7 months old.

[luckytwenty]

1. Yes, but in my experience, it was always the falling asleep phase that really required the CIO, and anything happening in the middle of the night really didn't compare. Most of the crying happened on the first day when I first put him down to sleep wide awake (vs. nursing him to sleep, putting him in the crib, then have him wake up a few hours later.)

2. No, after the whole Ferberizing thing happened, he began sleeping dependably through the night. So if he did wake up, I'd go in because that meant something was wrong.

[sste]

I did a modified CIO with comparatively good sleepers. If the baby is waking outside of a regular feeding window, kind of a not full steam, disoriented crying we always give it 5 or so minutes. This reflects the infant sleep cycle - - many babies cry as they come into lighter sleep at certain cycle points. With DS I would feed him at 11pm and then DH went in and dealt with him after that up until (gulp) 530am when he woke up.

With DD I was worried about my BFing supply - - which diminished with DS around a year when I both WOTH full-time AND didn't get up for an additional night feeding. That is probably just me but those two combined were not enough demand, esp. b/c I am a lousy pumper. With DD I feed at 11pm, go to bed, and get up about 4 hours later to feed (occasionally she gets up twice after 11pm with a feeding cry). It has taken a little bit of a toll as I am sometimes very overtired during the day . . . supply is good though.

[kbud]

With my dds going to sleep was never the problem. They never cried then. With both of them it was the middle of the night wakings. We did try CIO for the middle of the night for both of them. It never worked. DD#1 cried off and on all night long. She was about a year and a half. We did it for 3 or 4 nights with no improvement. She just would get really angry and then would ignore me in the morning. So we gave up. She finally started sleeping through the night around 2.

Dd#2 we did it for a week straight when she was about 2 I think. It was horrible. She screamed anywhere for 1.5hours to 3 hours. I finally went in after she cried from 1am to 4am. CIO at night is so much harder than when they go to sleep. I knew both girls were fine, but laying there awake listening to the crying and not being able to sleep yourself is miserable. We did discover dd#2 had restless leg syndrome. It is finally better but she still wakes 1-2 times most every night and she just turned 4. I suppose that's better than the 4-5 times she used to wake.

My dr. couldn't believe she lasted that long for the whole week with no improvement. He said he's never seen that before. Oh, and the restless leg wasn't bothering her all night, yes it caused some of the wakings but once she was awake and moving her legs she seemed fine. She was just ticked and wanted to get up to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse!

[alexsmommy]

Yes we did, depending. For instance, when it got to the point that we wanted to nightwean, when baby would wake up and start calling, I would ignore for a few minutes. They usually go back to sleep. I would do this to eliminate the feedings one at a time.

However, when they start waking as toddlers, it's usually a bad dream or something. So I'd go in and pat them down. Sometimes it only takes a few seconds. When we started we'd actually pick them up and hold them for a while, then put them back down. We didn't need to do CIO for this because eventually they get over it themselves and stop waking.

This for us. Part of CIO was getting my kids to nightwean. So in the beginning when it was obvious they wanted to nurse to soothe down, I systematically dropped a feeding per week or two (meaning if they work at 1am, I wouldn't go in, but at 4am I would until the 1am was dropped). Keep in mind, we CIO around 15 months so I was not worried they still needed night feeds. All three also would wake up and nurse just long enough to go back to sleep so I knew it was all about soothing, not hunger. Once they were STTN consistently, if they woke up I'd go check on them. DS3 STILL wakes up at about 5am - but he really just wants to know we are around. I go in, tell him "It's still night-night time." Hug him and he immediately lies down on his own for me to put his blanket on and goes back to sleep. If I don't go in, he tends to wake up for the day. By 5am I've had enough sleep that it doesn't mess me up and it buys me an extra hour of sleep before I need to get going, so I'm not focused on eliminating this need from him yet.

[AngelaS]

I taught mine to go to sleep on their own in stages.

Mine always woke at the same time in the morning (I woke them so I could nurse them and get going on our day--I like routine.). Then I knew that a couple hours later, they'd be ready to nap.

At nap time, I would rock them and get them settled to sleep. At first I would rock them all the way to sleep before laying them down. Over the course of about a week, I would rock them less each time until I was laying them down drowsy but awake. This worked for ALL my girls and there was very little crying because they were tired and napping at that time was routine.

Next we would move on to going to sleep at bedtime. During the day I always nursed them upon waking but at bedtime, i would nurse them one last time for the day before putting them to bed. At first I would nurse them soundly to sleep but as time went on, I would lay them down drowsy, but not asleep. Again, this would take about a week and again, there was little crying.

For the middle of the night, once they were about four months old and had learned to fall asleep on their own, I would hesitate a few minutes when they woke to eat before getting up to nurse them. Eventually, they would sleep thru a night or two on their own. Yay! It never failed that once they slept thru two or three nights, they'd wake on the next night. That next night, I would go in, pick them up, snuggle them and then lay them down the same way I'd done at naps and bedtime. Again, there was never much crying-- like maybe ten minutes tops. :)

[momm]

thank you everyone for the responses!

[♥ms.pacman♥]

i'm with wellyes and others...i wouldn't let a baby who was sick, teething, or hungry just cry it out.

my kids don't usually wake up at night these days (knocking on wood!) but when they do, it's usually a nightmare (DS) or DD (hungry due to growth spurt). i usually wait a couple minutes to see if they'll self-sooth, if not, i go in. with DS i'll just hold him until he falls back asleep and put him back in his crib (often DH will do this, since he doesn't need to nurse). With DD i'll nurse her, she'll usually fall asleep, and i put her back in the crib, and that's that.

then again, i should add a disclaimer that my kids were both pretty good night sleepers and would ONLY cry in the middle of the night if there was a legit reason (they had a nightmare, thunder woke them up, they were hungry, or they were sick/very congested). they would never use nighttime crying to somehow try to manipulate me in to holding them or whatever. however, i really don't think all babies/kids are like this. i wouldn't have a prob with CIO in the middle of the night if i knew in my gut they were just crying for attention, or wanted to get up and play or whatever. Baby411 seemed to be extremely-pro Ferber and always warned that t if you go in and attend to your child after they wake up (for sickness, or whatever), they will figure out quickly that crying at night = Mommy comes over and will cry next time on purpose until you set limits. I used to be worried about that after things like sickness, but that never happened.

here, 95% of CIO'ing is for falling asleep during the day. kids just don't want to nap and want to keep playing, despite being extremely tired. so DD usually cries in her crib for about 5-10 minutes before falling asleep. she wakes up happy as a clam after an hour or two. that's usually the extent of CIO here.