CC/CIO Support and Information Thread

[Mummy Bean]

well just when i thought things were going well...managed to get him to have three naps in his cot only taking 15 min each time sitting with him - no crying brill.

then lst night was epic after taking nearly an hour to get him to sleep he refeused to go back to sleep when he woke at 1am...after the 8th attempt i failed and bought him into bed with me. he then decided to get up for the day at 5.30am! meh.

 

[hulahoop09]

I need help!!! We have co slept from early on and it has worked for us but its getting harder! Lo naps generally great in the day, she will go down wide awake and go off to sleep - I have learnt to read her signs of ear rubbing etc. On an evening after a bath etc she will go down and sleep for 2-4 hours (whether she be put down at 7pm or 11pm). We have tried a routine but it just doesnt work for us and I have tried CC but she just screams and does not give up. I know the cry when she isnt gonna stop! There are time she has gone down at 10pm and woke at about 12 midnight and wont go back to sleep so she ends up in with us. I have to be up at 6am for work and it is so difficult! She has had nights (few) where she has slept in her cot from about 9pm til 8am but I just dont know what was different on these nights! Lol. Hubby doesnt mind her being in with us but he gets frustrated in that she is now 1 year old and wont stay settled in her cot for the night, He would leave her to cio out but even leaving her 5 mins kills me as I just think she isnt gonna give up!! I dont know how we are going to get her into her own bed permanently (the step after that is taking the dummy away - which she only has for naps/bedtime).

I know it is my fault as we co slept but it was the only way we could get her to settle in the early days especially as she has cmpi and was screaming all the time! She now will generally sttn in our bed (has woken early hours lately due to teething and having her first cold) and there have been nights where she has sept for 10 hours!

Any tips/advice are so welcome to help me make the transition for her as painless as possible!

xx

 

[ArmyWife1984]

Hey ladies!

We started using CC with our LO this weekend and I must say, she is SO much easier to put down to sleep! She usually falls asleep before we have to go in there for the 3rd time (we wait 3 minutes the first time, 5 minutes the second, and then 10 minutes everytime after that), which is a big improvement! I tried CIO with her a couple of weeks ago and she would scream for up to 45 minutes everytime and I just couldn't do it anymore, so I'm glad I tried CC.

I did have a few questions for the ladies that have successfully done CC with their LO's. When you put your LOs down and they are trying to settle themselves, do you still continue to go in even after they seem to be on the verge of falling asleep? Or do you just wait to see if they fall asleep on their own?

We are also having trouble getting Riley to stay asleep through the night. She still wakes up 1-3 times a night and I was hoping someone could give me some advice on how to work on this with using CC.

Thanks!

For my LO, I do not go in if he is on the verge of falling asleep but I will go in if he starts up crying again and reassure him. My MIL bought me a camera monitor, which is really nice to watch LO during CC.

I had the exact same problem as you with my LO waking up every 2 to 3 hours a night while using CC the first few nights. When this happened, I gave it 5 or 10min to see if he would fall back asleep again, if not then I started the CC routine again. It never last for more than 30min before he was back asleep.
Or sometimes if I gave him a paci, he would fall right back asleep. So now I usually leave 3 paci's in his crib and during the night, he finds them when he wakes up.

 

[lysh]

Who started and was successful with cc at 3 1/2 months? My dd is waking up every 40 minutes now....I have to make sure she is getting enough calories during the day so I can do this....I will not be able to function t work otherwise. I was going to keep her in her crib in our room until 6 months...rethinking that...any thoughts?

 

[Lilmiss1]

Who started and was successful with cc at 3 1/2 months? My dd is waking up every 40 minutes now....I have to make sure she is getting enough calories during the day so I can do this....I will not be able to function t work otherwise. I was going to keep her in her crib in our room until 6 months...rethinking that...any thoughts?

The recommended age for cc is 6months as that is the average age for a baby to understand object permanence.
Have you tried shush pat or pick up put down? Or getting lo really drowsy and then putting her in her cot? I think if you pick a method and use it after your bedtime routine she will be less likely to wake every 45 minutes. We used shush pat for night and it worked. Took about a month tho! But this was because if he wasnt asleep after an hour we gave up and i bf him to sleep. To start he cried but at the moment bedtime is such a peaceful time. we didn't try for naps and we are still struggling. in hindsight we should have done bed and naps together as shush pat has less chance of success after 6months of age. Hth gl

 

[Molatov]

So...My boy is 3 months (I know younger than recommended) but sleeps badly during the day (30 minute 'naps'). He has had a dummy since he was a month old as it settled his reflux and calmed him in general. We've had him in a carrycot downstairs for daytime sleeps and first evening sleep since he was born, but I feel like things need to change.

Yesterday we put him upstairs in his Moses basket, inside his cot as I thought it best to try to at least keep part of a familiar environment. Either my husband or I went in if he cried, replaced the dummy for under a minute (pantley pull off style) and then took it out and left the room, he woke I think twice and overall slept for an hour and a half. Did the same at bedtime and slept from 6:30 - 9:30, fed, then dream feed at 11 and to bed. He then woke at 5:30 (I think maybe he woke once before that, but I just rolled him onto his side and he went back to sleep, but I can't remember as I'm mostly asleep when I do it!)

Anyway... decided today to have a go with a kind of cc, but I'm not sure if how I'm doing it will work/ is 'cheating' - today I put him down awake but sleepy, left him to fall asleep, then when he cried went in after 5 mins, then 8 mins, then three lots of 10 mins, each time replacing the dummy for less than a minute (which settles him pretty much instantly) then leaving the room. He probably managed just over an hours sleep that way, then in the middle of the last 10 minute timer, he fell asleep and has now been asleep for almost 40 mins - after this I will get him up when he wakes and feed him.

Is using the dummy in this way "cheating"?

 

[bananaz]

So...My boy is 3 months (I know younger than recommended) but sleeps badly during the day (30 minute 'naps'). He has had a dummy since he was a month old as it settled his reflux and calmed him in general. We've had him in a carrycot downstairs for daytime sleeps and first evening sleep since he was born, but I feel like things need to change.

Yesterday we put him upstairs in his Moses basket, inside his cot as I thought it best to try to at least keep part of a familiar environment. Either my husband or I went in if he cried, replaced the dummy for under a minute (pantley pull off style) and then took it out and left the room, he woke I think twice and overall slept for an hour and a half. Did the same at bedtime and slept from 6:30 - 9:30, fed, then dream feed at 11 and to bed. He then woke at 5:30 (I think maybe he woke once before that, but I just rolled him onto his side and he went back to sleep, but I can't remember as I'm mostly asleep when I do it!)

Anyway... decided today to have a go with a kind of cc, but I'm not sure if how I'm doing it will work/ is 'cheating' - today I put him down awake but sleepy, left him to fall asleep, then when he cried went in after 5 mins, then 8 mins, then three lots of 10 mins, each time replacing the dummy for less than a minute (which settles him pretty much instantly) then leaving the room. He probably managed just over an hours sleep that way, then in the middle of the last 10 minute timer, he fell asleep and has now been asleep for almost 40 mins - after this I will get him up when he wakes and feed him.

Is using the dummy in this way "cheating"?

He's young enough that it's not unreasonable for him to still need some help getting to sleep. That said, if your goal is for him to be able to go to sleep on his own then putting the dummy back may kind of be defeating the purpose because he's still depending on a sleep prop that requires your assistance. But if he is sleeping better with this method then it's clearly a step in the right direction, so I don't think I'd worry about it just yet myself.

Also, I think 30 minute naps are pretty common for young babies. I've read that daytime sleep often doesn't consolidate until babies are 6+ months old. So it's frustrating but not necessarily abnormal, as some people would have you believe!

 

[DaisyBee]

Who started and was successful with cc at 3 1/2 months? My dd is waking up every 40 minutes now....I have to make sure she is getting enough calories during the day so I can do this....I will not be able to function t work otherwise. I was going to keep her in her crib in our room until 6 months...rethinking that...any thoughts?

We did cc with Jordan a week shy of 4 months and it worked very well. But her issue was settling for sleep, she wasn't waking every sleep cycle at night, just naps.

She was taking a bottle in the middle of the night even after cc. Her dr said at 4 months that she didn't need that middle of the night bottle. We didn't use cc for that bottle til 5 months and that was after offering smaller amounts at night. She was taking 4 oz at 3am so started offering 3 oz and then 2 oz. We kept at 2 oz for 9 days I think, she slept through on that last day but the next night woke for it. So I gave her the 2 oz but should have chosen that night to just do cc. I did cc the following night in the middle of the night.

Neither of our girls slept well in our room. Both are light sleepers and sleep best in their own rooms with white noise to block out household noise.

 

[katrinalorien]

Ladies that's mentioned LOs that will settle on them then wake up as soon as u put them down. U need to remember your LO Settles with the warmth of your body then your putting them onto colder sheets etc. what worked with my eldest was an hour before we went to bed we put a hot water bottle in her bed to warm it up so she went from a warm mummy to a warm bed

Brilliant tread CIO/CC worked wonders for me eldest and I will do it for M too when the time comes. Just be sure that you can recognise there cries
Hungry cry
Painful cry
And the over tired cry

Also to help with this I sometimes put a blanket between Lily and I when holding her on me. That helps her to not feel the warmth, making the change less. Also I can lay her down with the blanket, and its all tucked in on the sides so less SIDS risk. (I know ideally there would be no blanket, but Lily needs it...)

 

[NannyWhitney]

I tried a modified form of CC yesterday and it worked beautifully with my LO. Before I was spending an hour or more trying to get her to sleep with rocking, patting, shushing, nursing and using a pacifier. I was totally over stimulating her! Yesterday I did our routine for nap (nursing, book, cuddles) and put her down and left the room. She fussed, but never full out cried. If I thought she was getting too worked up I went in and laid my hand on her chest and offered a pacifier. It only took 15 minutes for her to fall asleep doing this! Her second nap was even faster. Bedtime was the easiest of all...less than 5 minutes and I NEVER had to re-enter the room. She went back down easier after her nightly feedings too.

I feel so bad that I never trusted her to put herself to sleep and made her (and myself) much more upset by trying to force sleep on her. CC, in my case much gentler than trying to help her fall asleep. So glad thus thread was created...it really helped me change my mind about CC and CIO!

 

[star1]

I started putting DD to bed awake around 4 months. Just took a notion one day just to see how she would react and she went straight to sleep. I did it again the next day and also for nap time just to see if it was a fluke and yet again she went down no problem...so I was lucky there.

Now for the past 2 months she has started waking around 2 or 3am. Sometimes she takes a bottle. Most times she just screams and cries. I have even tried rocking her to sleep and as soon as she is alseep putting her into the cot and she wakes back up. The past few nights I have started to do CC at 2am (against my DH wishes, his answer is to just put her in the bed with us because she always sleeps well then.) Some nights it only takes about 15 minutes, with me going in about every 5 minutes, but mosts nights, including last night, it took 1.5 hours until she finally cried herself tired.

Is it normal to have thie sleeping issues in the middle of the night? I know I could give in and just bring her into bed with us, but we are running out of room in there for the 3 of us and I will only get bigger as this pregnancy goes on.

I'm by no means an expert but CC is used to teach the baby to self settle and it sounds like your lo has a differen problem if she always self settles in the evening and isn't improving

Have you tried looking to see what other things could be a problem, especially as its the same time each night. Things that come to mind could be:
1. Does she always eat something late in the evening that could cause wind or other pains? Apparently they normally take about 5 or 6 hours to work through the system
2. Is she too cold?
3. Is there an alarm or something that goes off at this time?

Good luck x

 

[Randianne]

I am so excited that this has stayed so positive. So many people are getting questions answered! Thank you to everyone who is contributing. It is so nice to have a resource like this.

I have a question for those of you whose LO's take pacifiers: did you continue CC while you were weaning off of it? Or did you do things one at a time?

 

[Saphira]

I am so excited that this has stayed so positive. So many people are getting questions answered! Thank you to everyone who is contributing. It is so nice to have a resource like this.

I have a question for those of you whose LO's take pacifiers: did you continue CC while you were weaning off of it? Or did you do things one at a time?

I personally wouldn't but will cross that bridge when we come to it. She needs her pacifier to sleep, and I don't use need lightly, but it depends on how fond your little one is of it in general. I'm hoping she'll self-wean off it, which she already has in the sense that she doesn't need it for any other time in the day other than nap/bedtime. When she was younger she pretty much had it in all the time. If she's 2 or 3 and still needs one then at least I'll be able to communicate more with her about it and use methods like the pacy fairy. But, in the end that's a very personal decision and depends a lot on your baby.

 

[CeeDee]

Monday night I put my daughter to sleep in her crib for the first time. I fed her and while she was still awake, but sleepy I put her in her crib. She slept for 7 hours. Yeah! I fed her and did the same thing and she slept till 6am wake up time.

I tried the same thing last night and she cried the first time for about 5 minutes than she was sleep. She woke up at about 1am, so I fed her and put her in her crib. This time she fussed and cried for about 40 minutes than went to sleep. I tried to comfort her, but she wanted to play, so I’m not going to do PUPD. I think if I hadn’t of gone in there she wouldn’t have cried as long.

So far it hasn’t been too bad. Her cries aren’t horrible (compared to months ago when she HATED her carseat) and don’t last long. I found that having her in her own room has helped the crying not last as long. If she can see me she goes crazy. I still want to keep a night feed because she doesn’t eat well at daycare.

 

[CeeDee]

I tried a modified form of CC yesterday and it worked beautifully with my LO. Before I was spending an hour or more trying to get her to sleep with rocking, patting, shushing, nursing and using a pacifier. I was totally over stimulating her! Yesterday I did our routine for nap (nursing, book, cuddles) and put her down and left the room. She fussed, but never full out cried. If I thought she was getting too worked up I went in and laid my hand on her chest and offered a pacifier. It only took 15 minutes for her to fall asleep doing this! Her second nap was even faster. Bedtime was the easiest of all...less than 5 minutes and I NEVER had to re-enter the room. She went back down easier after her nightly feedings too.

I feel so bad that I never trusted her to put herself to sleep and made her (and myself) much more upset by trying to force sleep on her. CC, in my case much gentler than trying to help her fall asleep. So glad thus thread was created...it really helped me change my mind about CC and CIO!

I totally agree with this statement. I had been dreaming up this horrible scenario of her CIO for hours on end and getting hysterical and she went down with little trouble. I know I'm only on day 2, but so far I've been pleasantly surprised.

 

[Saphira]

I tried a modified form of CC yesterday and it worked beautifully with my LO. Before I was spending an hour or more trying to get her to sleep with rocking, patting, shushing, nursing and using a pacifier. I was totally over stimulating her! Yesterday I did our routine for nap (nursing, book, cuddles) and put her down and left the room. She fussed, but never full out cried. If I thought she was getting too worked up I went in and laid my hand on her chest and offered a pacifier. It only took 15 minutes for her to fall asleep doing this! Her second nap was even faster. Bedtime was the easiest of all...less than 5 minutes and I NEVER had to re-enter the room. She went back down easier after her nightly feedings too.

I feel so bad that I never trusted her to put herself to sleep and made her (and myself) much more upset by trying to force sleep on her. CC, in my case much gentler than trying to help her fall asleep. So glad thus thread was created...it really helped me change my mind about CC and CIO!

I also agree with the last part that sometimes the seemingly "gentler" methods simply cause more drama. When my daughter was born I couldn't hear her cry so CC or CIO seemed unthinkable in the future and I couldn't understand why some resort to such. But, with some babies it's the only way to go when nothing else works and you've tried it all. Continual stimulation can cause a tired, cranky baby to become an overtired, extremely cranky baby. While you're trying to help you're making things worse. :/ That's what I've learned over time with my daughter.

Anyway, it's great you've found the best way for your little one to get to sleep.

 

[HopingFor2v1]

Hey ladies!

We started using CC with our LO this weekend and I must say, she is SO much easier to put down to sleep! She usually falls asleep before we have to go in there for the 3rd time (we wait 3 minutes the first time, 5 minutes the second, and then 10 minutes everytime after that), which is a big improvement! I tried CIO with her a couple of weeks ago and she would scream for up to 45 minutes everytime and I just couldn't do it anymore, so I'm glad I tried CC.

I did have a few questions for the ladies that have successfully done CC with their LO's. When you put your LOs down and they are trying to settle themselves, do you still continue to go in even after they seem to be on the verge of falling asleep? Or do you just wait to see if they fall asleep on their own?

We are also having trouble getting Riley to stay asleep through the night. She still wakes up 1-3 times a night and I was hoping someone could give me some advice on how to work on this with using CC.

Thanks!

For my LO, I do not go in if he is on the verge of falling asleep but I will go in if he starts up crying again and reassure him. My MIL bought me a camera monitor, which is really nice to watch LO during CC.

I had the exact same problem as you with my LO waking up every 2 to 3 hours a night while using CC the first few nights. When this happened, I gave it 5 or 10min to see if he would fall back asleep again, if not then I started the CC routine again. It never last for more than 30min before he was back asleep.
Or sometimes if I gave him a paci, he would fall right back asleep. So now I usually leave 3 paci's in his crib and during the night, he finds them when he wakes up.

Thanks for your reply! When your LO was waking up at night, did you feed him at all?

With Riley, she wakes up at least twice and I feed her and she eats like she is hungry. I've been trying to feed her more during the day to try to help more at night. I guess I'm having a difficult time with her night time waking because I don't know if I should continue to feed her or try CC to get her to seep through.

 

[Noelle610]

Hey ladies!

We started using CC with our LO this weekend and I must say, she is SO much easier to put down to sleep! She usually falls asleep before we have to go in there for the 3rd time (we wait 3 minutes the first time, 5 minutes the second, and then 10 minutes everytime after that), which is a big improvement! I tried CIO with her a couple of weeks ago and she would scream for up to 45 minutes everytime and I just couldn't do it anymore, so I'm glad I tried CC.

I did have a few questions for the ladies that have successfully done CC with their LO's. When you put your LOs down and they are trying to settle themselves, do you still continue to go in even after they seem to be on the verge of falling asleep? Or do you just wait to see if they fall asleep on their own?

We are also having trouble getting Riley to stay asleep through the night. She still wakes up 1-3 times a night and I was hoping someone could give me some advice on how to work on this with using CC.

Thanks!

For my LO, I do not go in if he is on the verge of falling asleep but I will go in if he starts up crying again and reassure him. My MIL bought me a camera monitor, which is really nice to watch LO during CC.

I had the exact same problem as you with my LO waking up every 2 to 3 hours a night while using CC the first few nights. When this happened, I gave it 5 or 10min to see if he would fall back asleep again, if not then I started the CC routine again. It never last for more than 30min before he was back asleep.
Or sometimes if I gave him a paci, he would fall right back asleep. So now I usually leave 3 paci's in his crib and during the night, he finds them when he wakes up.

Thanks for your reply! When your LO was waking up at night, did you feed him at all?

With Riley, she wakes up at least twice and I feed her and she eats like she is hungry. I've been trying to feed her more during the day to try to help more at night. I guess I'm having a difficult time with her night time waking because I don't know if I should continue to feed her or try CC to get her to seep through.

Of course I am curious to know the same thing... pretty sure we have the same child!

Sometimes Charlotte wakes and seems hungry, other times she will only take a few ounces before drifting back to sleep. I don't know if she's really hungry or not or if it's just habit. I can't seem to get more food in her during the day, but I wonder if she would start taking more if I reduced her night feeds?

How does one do CC for night wakings?

 

[Randianne]

I am so excited that this has stayed so positive. So many people are getting questions answered! Thank you to everyone who is contributing. It is so nice to have a resource like this.

I have a question for those of you whose LO's take pacifiers: did you continue CC while you were weaning off of it? Or did you do things one at a time?

I personally wouldn't but will cross that bridge when we come to it. She needs her pacifier to sleep, and I don't use need lightly, but it depends on how fond your little one is of it in general. I'm hoping she'll self-wean off it, which she already has in the sense that she doesn't need it for any other time in the day other than nap/bedtime. When she was younger she pretty much had it in all the time. If she's 2 or 3 and still needs one then at least I'll be able to communicate more with her about it and use methods like the pacy fairy. But, in the end that's a very personal decision and depends a lot on your baby.

She's very dependent on it to sleep. That's part of the problem. She cries and spits it out. She would self settle without too much fuss if she had it. Now instead of grumbling and whining she'll go into full on melt down mode. I tried giving it back to her when I go in, but she immediately spits it back out or throws it. If the paci is near her she can put it back in her mouth by herself, but since she's been throwing it it's been too far out of reach. I hate to do CC and take the pacifier, but I don't know if she'll self settle without it.

 

[bumpycat]

Been following this thread with interest as we have been/are doing CC. I'm particularly interested in pacifier issues around night wakings, and about nap times. LO is great at going to sleep on his own at bedtime now, but he wakes fairly frequently needing his pacifier. At least once a night he is definitely hungry, sometimes twice, so he gets fed, but the other times we just replace the pacifier and ssh him for a few minutes, then he's out again. We haven't started using CC for nap time yet, we're still kind of winging it as he seems to be transitioning from 3 to 2 daily naps at the moment, and we're also moving to only 2 breastfeeds a day (4 bottles), down from mostly BF with 1-2 bottles.