cry it out with high needs baby?

[fussyinflorida]

I was just wondering if anyone has tried any of the CIO methods with this type of baby. My son is almost 6 months now and I work full-time and am very desperate for just one full night sleep. I am still nursing, but weaning him a bit. I used to enjoy waking with him at night to nurse b/c I felt like it was our special time, but now that I am working again I feel like a zombie during the day. Also, I know that nutritionally he does not need to be waking to nurse anymore. He is up anywhere from 2-5 times a night, but usually around 3 times.

All of my friends swear by the CIO method, however, none of their children are "spirited" and I'm not sure that these methods are for every baby. Anyone tried it? Any advice at all?

[MDT]

I'm no expert or anything, but from my experience, some CIO isn't that bad.  If I didn't leave my son (almost 9 months) to cry himself to sleep at night sometimes, he'd never go to sleep.  Last night was a good example.  My husband put him in his crib and we let him cry for about 5 minutes.  I knew he wasn't going to fall asleep so I had my husband go and get him again.  He rocked him for awhile until he calmed down and looked sleepy, put him back in the crib and he ended up crying some more.  This went on a few hours before we just had to let him go because it was already 10pm and we had to be up at 4.  Sometimes you just have to do what you have to do.  I generally let my son cry, but I only do it when he isn't doing that intense, tears-rolling-down-the-face crying.  I have limits and I try to stick to them, but if I didn't leave him cry for awhile, I'd never get anything done.

I don't work, but I DEFINITELY know how it feels to be a walking zombie every day.  Sometimes I wish I did work just so I could get away from the demands of taking care of a baby like this.

[crissy]

I do not use CIO. My son doesn't just cry for 5 minutes, he starts to whale, screams, the longer you wait, the louder he gets.  You can definitely tell he is getting stressed.  I understand what you are going through though, I work full time also.  While I was breastfeeding, I co-slept with my son.  He has recently self-weaned and is taking a bottle now.  I definitely feel the difference. I slept better when he was next to me. At 12 months he still doesn't sleep through the night, he wakes up anywhere from 1-3 times.  He usually wants a bottle, which i am slowly switching from milk to water and hopefully can phase out. I find myself very tired and unable to catch up on my sleep.  With all that said there are times when he is more like whining instead of crying and I will let him do that for a while before going to him, if he is just whining he sometimes puts himself back to sleep and sometimes he is asleep doing it.

[Hollyadmin]

We didn't use CIO with our son, but I know many parents on this forum and on the facebook group have. There have been mixed results. Some people have said their baby cried for hours and hours, and still never learned to sleep. For others it has worked well. For our son, we never did it (at least not for more than a few minutes) because my gut told me he would get too upset and it wouldn't work. He still, at almost 4, does NOT like being in his room with the door shut. Even for time outs, he has at times gotten so upset he almost throws up.

We did CIO with our daughter, and it worked. But again, she's a much different temperament.

There are other methods you could try first, if you felt like you wanted to. I think sometimes CIO is the answer ...especially if you feel you're suffering physically and emotionally. When Sammy was older, we taught him to fall asleep alone by sitting next to his bed holding his hand, then the next night moving further away, etc. That might only work when they're a little older, but you could always sit/lay next to his crib so he can see you?

Sorry, I'm probably not much help, but those are my thoughts for tonight lol