A lot of moms debate on CIO (cry it out). In a nutshell you let your baby cry it out until they fall asleep. Some people think its mean, some people think it is life changing. I think it's life changing. It's not for everyone and obviously every family has to parent in the ways best for them.
We did CIO with Beebs when she was 6m old. At her 6m check up her pedi asked how many times she woke at night. "Twice!" I said proudly, thinking that my nursing baby was doing a great job. Well, she can go 12 hours without waking to eat, breastfed or not. If she is still waking, it is purely out of habit. This was life changing news. She told us about CIO and her recommendation on how to move forward. So that Thursday we decided to start it. Why a Thursday? Hubs & I were both working full time and we figured we start on a Thursday, fully expecting it to be a rough night, that getting through work with zero sleep on a Friday always seemed more appealing, plus we would have the weekend to recover. This proved to be a great idea by yours truly.
We started it 9:30pm. I know that's a late bed time, but when you have a child with no sleep "routine" (we are ROUTINE people, not STRICT schedule people) there isn't really a defining time they go to bed. CIO changed all this. It took Beebs 37mins to fall asleep. I can't remember all the details except it was sometime early May 2012. We didn't have a fancy video monitor so we had to listen to the horrific cries on the monitor. That just makes it worse. So turned it off and watched the "colors" go up and down as her pitch heightened and lowered. We tried the whole, go in at 5mins, soothe, go in 10mins later, soothe and that made it 150x worse. So we just did it cold turkey. Occasionally we would peak in to make sure she was ok. She was swaddled arms out because she could roll back to belly and we needed her arms free. Around 10pm, the cries weaned off. They would stop and start a little, then stop, then whimper... finally at 10:07p not a single peep. Of course this WASN'T a relief bc I needed to make sure she was ok. I nearly woke her up trying to make sure she was still breathing. Hubs & I felt like Champions. I remember late that night/early morning she woke again. We both just sat up in bed, I decided to go sit outside her door and wait for her to CIO and go back to sleep. It took 20mins and she was out. She never woke up until I went in there to get her up for the day Friday. Friday night was easier, Saturday night was even easier and by Sunday night, she didn't even whimper to go to bed and slept 12 hours because each night we moved her bedtime up just a little. We also did this for her naps. To this day at 2yrs (almost 25 months if you wanna be technical) she is an amazing sleeper and napper. Doesn't fight it and will sleep anywhere for a great amount of time.
So here we are... 4 month old twins/19 weeks today. CIO with twins proves to be a little more challenging. They are in their own cribs, but in the same room. They aren't mastering this as quick as Ava, but they are 2m younger and have an extra cry to get used to and sleep through. In one of my previous blogs I wrote about why we're doing it. We are on Day 4 and although its getting better, its still exhausting and they aren't quite there yet. I'm requesting the advice of my other twin mom friends who have had success, because I want to make sure that they are trending the right way and are ready. The last thing I want is for the them to not be ready and we have to start this over another time. The house we're in is rather small, so I can hear them virtually from any room. We have video monitors this time around, so that helps with the peace of mind that they are ok. I wrote down all the details from Monday and listed them below so you can see what we're dealing with. Each day IS getting better, but we still have our struggles.
Day 1: 1/20
10a-12p: No nap, both just cried
12:10- feed both
12:40- down for sleep, tried no swaddle, neither took paci
2:00- both asleep
2:30- Mila wakes, her cries soon was Lola.
2:40- 2hr mark, changed clothes, diapers
3:10- finished bottles, comforted both, nice and snuggly/ both visibily sleepy
3:40- both in bed drowsy, but awake, instantly fall asleep
4:05- Mila wakes, waking Lola
5:25- Both back to sleep within mins of one another
6:05- Mila wakes, waking Lola- 2hr mark hit get them out of bed
6:30- Diapers changed, fed, both downed bottles fast
6:30-8p- played with both, both fell asleep briefly during play
8:00- diapers, pjs, bottles, both pooped, changed diapers again
9:00- bed, Mila out immediately. I could tell Lola spit up, went in and cleaned her up
10:15- Mila wakes, offer paci 2x, won't take it, wakes Lola
10:40- Mila back to sleep
10:50- Lola back to sleep
11:15- Mila woke up and then back to sleep
Day 2 1/21
2:10a- 2:30- Mila & Lola wake, feed, back to sleep
5:20-5:30- Mila & Lola wake, feed, back to sleep
8:00- Both up for day
10:00a- Put down for 1st nap, both crying
10:20-10:45- Mila sleeps
11:45a-12p- Mila sleeps
11:50a- Lola finally sleeps
12:00p- 2hour mark, Mila is up, give her bottle
12:30- Lola up, give her bottle
1:00p- put back down
-----My grandma came over to relieve me so I could take Beebs to play, I forget her info, but it stays consitent, lack of sleeping-----
9pm- Both in bed
Day 3 1/22
12:30a- Mila wakes up, eventually waking Lola- let them cry
1:15a- Lola back to sleep
2:15- Mila still awake, feed her
5:00- Lola wakes!!!!!!!! feed her, back to bed
6:00- Mila wakes, feed her
8:15/8:30- both girls wake, feed, change clothes
10:00- both in bed, both asleep by 10:15
10:45- both wake, Mila falls asleep at 11a
12p- Lola still awake, get her out, feed, snuggle, play
12:15- Mila wakes (over an hour nap!)- feed snuggle, play
1:15- Both asleep
2:00- both wake feed left over bottle, immediately falls asleep again
3:00- both wake, diapers
3:30- Mila refuses bottle
3:45- Lola eats entire bottle
4:15- Both back down
5-5:30- both awake/sleep off/on
5:40- both awake, take out of crib
7:30- pjs, snuggles, diapers, bottles
8:30- Lola bed, immediately asleep
9-10:45- Mila up crying, Lola NEVER wakes- woohoo!!! feed Mila, back to bed
Day 4: 1/23
12:30a- Mila up, reswaddle, back to sleep
1:45a- Lola up, fed back to sleep
3:00- Mila up, fed, back to sleep
5:30- Lola " "
7:00- Mila " "
8:15- Both up, fed, play, change clothes
10:15- Both down, immediately sleep
10:45-11:45- Fussing, although Mila has been sleeping in and out. She is currently sleeping, not so much for Lola...
^^^^^ this bring us to our current time. If Lola is awake at 12p, I'll take her out and start the process all over again. Now that I review it.... it doesn't look like its going that great. Just really slow. They don't fight the crib anymore and we have not brought them into our bed or let them fall asleep in our arms, so thats success in that arena. Even though I have these "two hour spans" of baby free moments I'm still beyond exhausted. Listening to crying babies is tough... really, really tough.
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