Night wakings AFTER initially successful CIO
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Anonymous
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DS is nearly 7 months and we did CIO a few weeks ago, rather successfully. He was only waking once in teh middle of the night for a 3:30am feed. That lasted a few weeks and was great. And this after being a multiple-times-a-night waker. His naps were getting better - they initially took 10-20 minutes to get him down but then he'd fall asleep for an hour.
However, the past four or five days it seems like it's all gone downhill. DS is waking up about 4x a night now, and crying for a solid 20-30 minutes each time - at the top of his lungs. Really aggressively. And for naps now, he's taking a long time to settle down adn sleep and then he'll wake up for 30 minutes into his nap and cry for a half hour or so, again, aggressively, before he settles back down. Anyone know what to do, or has anyone dealt with a similar situation after what they assumed was a successful, life-changing CIO? DH is losing it, esp. in the middle of the night, while I try to keep it together, but i am so, so confused. Any tips, any advice sincerely appreciated. |
Anonymous
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Is he teething or ill? I found that all the sleep training goes out of the window now and again, when they get sick, your family has a major transition or teething etc. (major powe outage?) Cuddle, soothe them, then once the illness etc., has passed, you will need to re-train again.
This happened for us until the kids were almost 2. They just get off track for one reason or another and need to relearn once the issue has passed. |
Anonymous
| Can you post DS's schedule? |
Anonymous
| Ear infection? Is he pulling at his ear at all? Does he feel warm? |
Anonymous
| Teething? |
Cloud
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Yeah, pain cry is definitely distinctive and you'd probably notice a different pitch in his cry if it was pain. Teething? Lots of drool, hands in his mouth, flushed cheeks? If no to any medical issue or teething, do you use a pacifier? I'd offer the paci first, at the onset of crying. Give 20 mins of so to settle back down or give pacifier, pat his tummy and let him CIO again if it's not time for a feed. Barring any medical issue, I don't pick up to soothe- I leave the baby in the crib unless time for a feed. Also, do you use a lovey of some sort? It's good to introduce a soothing plush or blanket of some sort associated with bedtime and leave it in the crib. White noise? Do you have a fan in his room? |
Anonymous
I disagree with this PP, except for the blanket/lovie bit. If he's not using a pacifier, I certainly wouldn't introduce one now and I also wouldn't create more "crutches" for yourself by introducing a white noise machine etc. He's 7 months, so he's not a tiny baby. If you've already been able to get him to sleep without any devices of any sort, you can, and should, get him back to it. I think, like the other PPs, he's got something going on health-wise. |
Anonymous
OP here. DS wakes anytime between 6:30-7am. I play with him then offer breakfast. 1st nap starts btwn 8:30-9am. He was sleeping until 9:50-10am after CIO, but now he's getting up 30min into his nap and wailing. We play more, lunch at 11:30-12, and 2nd nap at 12:30-1pm. He wakes 40min into his nap but I let him CIO so he sleeps another 30-45 min. He's still needing a 3rd nap so he sleeps for only 30min at 4pm. Dinner and 6oz bottle beginning at 5pm. Bedtime routine starts at 7:30. Definitely to bed at 8pm. He barely cries for his bedtime sleep. To the other PPs: no paci. I tried for months but he won't take it. No lovey, I slept with multiple stuffed animals in my shirt for days, and next to me during nursing but he didn't take to any of them. Re teething. The dic said at the 6mo appt that he's teething but no signs of them coming. Gums aren't hard nor red or swollen. What's going on?? |
Anonymous
| Is he fussy in any other way? |
Anonymous
I am the one who asked for the schedule - my daughter has gone through phases like this. It sounds to me like he had a couple of rough days and is now overtired. Especially if naps are bad, bedtime might need to be earlier - I would shoot for 6:30, in bed by 7 at the latest. Your schedule otherwise looks good, just remember to make bedtime earlier if naps are bad. It might be that he's so tired from the bad naps that nighttime sleep is disturbed, and the whole cycle is just out. Try an earlier bedtime for a few days and see if it helps. |
Anonymous
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I agree with others that it could be teething. Our daughter's gums weren't particularly hard, red, or swollen before her teeth came through. Drooling has been the only consistent sign, other than spontaneous tears, which is very unlike her. You could offer him a teething toy or frozen wash cloth and see if that does anything.
Could also be some separation anxiety. Another thought: developmental changes. Our daughter is starting to crawl in her crib, and will get herself into a corner and cry when she can't get out. That's resulted in a few loud night wakings for our otherwise terrific sleeper. We go in and rearrange her, and she sacks right back out, but she's also not really awake, just confused to find herself in a corner of her crib. |
Anonymous
| To this ^ PP (OP here): should I still keep the 4pm nap then? Thx for the reply, by the way. |
Anonymous
| Oops, I meant to the PP before this.... |
Anonymous
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NP here. We found that over the course of both our kids' lives -- until they were older toddlers (like about 2 or so) -- we had to repeat CIO. Big bummer, but we chalked it up to developmental stuff. Often the reversals would occur right before or after some big developmental step. Our kids are now 7 and 9 and they sleep through the night.
And they chose loveys in their own time -- and their choices were entirely their own, and nothing I particularly favored or had anything to do with my smell. My younger one chose a lovey rather late -- at about 1 1/2 years old -- and it was a stuffed animal my older daughter gave her because she didn't like it. |