Can Not do CIO

My husband put up a night camera on the crib to visually monitor our son's sleep behavior.  It is funny to see how our son likes to sleep on his stomach, but with his behind up in the air!



I tried a number of times and I just can't do the CIO method (Cry It Out).  When I posted this on FB, I  felt better when other parents (mothers and fathers alike) said they didn't like it and some even said it really doesn't work.



But I'm still trying to get Gregory to realize that he will be sleeping in his bed.  At least in the middle of the night.



The nightly routine is:  Bath, Bottle, Bed.  He does fine with that, usually in bed by 8:30pm.  He seems to sleep very soundly.



But then around 1am, he is standing up in his crib, crying.  Instead of bringing him to my bedroom, I rock him to sleep in his room on the chair/glider.  When I know he is back to sleep, I put him in his crib again.



If I'm lucky, he will sleep until 4:30am-5am.  When he wakes up at that later hour, then I take him to my bed, simply because I want to get more sleep :)  But if he wakes up before 4:30am, I rock him to sleep and again put him in his crib.

I know he is teething again.  He has 6 teeth already and it appears two more are breaking through.  When he was teething before, he had disruptive sleep behavior.

In the meantime, sleep evades me.  I have to be awake enough to rock him to sleep, awake enough to put him back into bed and then try to force myself to go back to sleep.  I don't want to take anything to sleep assist, because I need to be clear minded to take care of Gregory if he should wake up again in the middle of the night.


Comments

Anonymous said…
I like the olden days when I could get away with stuff while my parents were not looking.
The Forscheins said…
I think you're on a good schedule that way and I bet those 1 a.m. wake-ups will fade away again. Sleeping from 20:30 till 05:00 and being in bed with you a bit after 05:00 will be so lovely and you'll feel well rested. It's all just a phase..... I try to tell myself too ;)
Cperz said…
It sounds to me that you have a workable solution for his present sleep pattern. If you can manage getting up once during the night for awhile, this will pass at some point and he will start sleeping through.

I am not a big fan of CIO but with one of my kids, I did start letting her cry for a bit when I figured out this wasn't about being hungry but more about wanting company. She never cried more than a couple of minutes and went back to sleep.
I am so glad you're not doing CIO. These nights seem so long but in the big picture, they go by so quickly, and leaving a crying baby alone in bed just breaks my heart. I couldn't do it either, obviously.
S.I.F. said…
I was never able to do CIO either... You are not alone!
Anonymous said…
My son did almost exactly the same thing. If I got 4 hours of sleep in one setting I figured I was doing well. The norm was 3 hours for my son. I tried the CIO once. It broke my heart. I did find out from the pediatrician that often all that is needed is for someone to give a back rub to the child leaving him in the crib. It worked on my son anyway.