CIO night one

[instrument150]

Welp, here we are at night 1 of CIO. I was not expecting us to be here, but my husband accidentally(?) did two naps CIO today, and I figured instead of confusing him, which would be unfair to him, we might as well just roll with it. For his naps he cried for 25-30 min and then slept for an hour the first one, 45 min the second one, which is amazing- he’d only been doing 25 min before this, and had -n e v e r- gone to sleep without nursing or feeding to sleep before. I’m posted up in our living room with my AirPods at full blast rn. Kind of extremely nervous and sick to my stomach but also hopeful. Would love some solidarity and support right now.

 

[instrument150]

Update: he is a tenacious little dude. After a solid hour of crying I went in and consoled, and put him back down awake when he was calm (he INSTANTLY stopped crying in my arms- my baby ). Cried for 20 more minutes and is now, I think, asleep. Fuck me this is difficult.

 

[bellfuzz]

@instrument150 It's so hard. If it's any consolation we had a similar experience And it DOES get better. I strongly believe that the total crying, while intense in the moment, was less than we would have gone through if we didn't do cry it out. Good luck!

 

[vince__tron]

@instrument150 You got this. I poured me a large glass of wine and cried. Best thing we ever did though.

 

[joha]

@instrument150 We’re about a week in and by night 3 he wasn’t crying anymore and now he chats himself happily to sleep. Stick with it!!! And keep the noise cancelling head phones on! What helped me was I went for a walk/sat on my car and my husband stayed in the house for those first days.

 

[jsmithcavs]

@joha Same. I did a 3 and 5 minute check in for two nights but by night three it was just humming and babbling to sleep.

 

[betterthani]

@instrument150 If it goes really long, like past an hour there may be a scheduling issue. Happened with us unfortunately

 

[sushiburger]

@betterthani This is correct. You can’t train through a bad schedule

 

[instrument150]

@betterthani I tried hard to stick to wake windows and he was up for 2hr 45min before bedtime. Really hoping it works. He’s been crying for 30+ min now.

 

[betterthani]

@instrument150 Stay consistent it’s the worst but the best after like a week. Give him lots of snuggles during check-ins and feeds and in the morning.

 

[jsmithcavs]

@instrument150 Baby is overtired at this point and might not be able to self sooth. Sometimes you can soothe without actually picking baby up (if he’s not going too crazy) doing light strokes on my baby’s belly has worked really well for us enough to calm him
Down a bit to be able to walk out again. Now, i kind of automatically just do it. I set my babe down, touch his chest and rub the belly a little bit, his eyes get droopy and he doesn’t mind when i leave the room to put himself to sleep.

 

[makingachange2018]

@betterthani What do you mean? Like if baby doesn’t have a consistent bed time?

 

[betterthani]

@makingachange2018 Yes or if wake windows are not long enough and baby is undertired

 

[instrument150]

Update 2: he woke after about 35 min asleep (I’m assuming sleep cycle 1). Giving him 10 min, then going to console, ferbering the rest of the night until after midnight- then I will feed.

 

[phdjones]

@instrument150 Hoping the rest of the night is smooth for you!! You're giving me hope to ST mine.how many weeks is your LO?

 

[instrument150]

@phdjones Thanks! I soothed him after 10 min; put him back awake, he cried immediately; set the timer for 15 min; he stopped crying by 12 min. Hoping he stays asleep longer this time! He is 4.5mo- 20 weeks tomorrow.

 

[phdjones]

@instrument150 Yessss he stopped crying before the timer dinged! Crossing my fingers for you for tonight! Mine is 3.5 months and I'm desperate

 

[instrument150]

Update 3: after he went down after 12 min, he slept for over an hour until the fucking cat scratched at the bedroom door and woke him up. I wanted to throw the cat in the garbage can. By that time it was past midnight which was my cutoff for feeding, so I went ahead and fed for about 10 min, then put him back awake. He cried for only 5 min, then fell asleep for 2hr 45m!! Longest stretch we have had in weeks. Woke up and fussed, then cried, he reached my 10 min mark and was still crying so I went ahead and fed him again. About to put him back down again, will update later.

 

[kaybird]

@instrument150 Omg the cat. Our dogs and cat have done this and I feel that statement about the garbage can!! Lol you’re doing a great job!

 

[makingachange2018]

@instrument150 With CIO methods how do you know when crying is too much or do you stick with your planned time? I tried a gentle method with my baby the other day and she was so upset after 30 minutes she started hard crying and it took another 15 to soothe her.