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What's your opinion on...
Letting babies cry it out. E is a terrible napper but is really cranky when she doesn't get one in. She wakes up a lot and wants to to rocked back to sleep. I tried today letter her cry it out some but it is killing me!! She gets all crazy upset and makes herself choke. I just don't know if I can do that...any other thoughts? Suggestions?
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Re: What's your opinion on...
G is the same age.
We did Ferber at bedtime only when he was four months, because bedtime was this 2-3 hour process where we would rock him to sleep, lay him down, and he'd wake up screaming 10 minutes later, and then we'd repeat the cycle. I still got up with him throughout the night, but we had to get him putting himself to sleep and settling on his own at bedtime.
A couple of weeks later we did Ferber for all night wakings except one feeding. It worked really well at nighttime, and now if DS wakes up over night he's pretty good at fussing for just a bit and then putting himself back to sleep. I still feed him when he wakes around 4 a.m. We put him down at 7 p.m. and he starts the day at 7 a.m., so I figure a BF baby still needs a feeding in a 12 hour period.
NAPS: I'm working on transitioning G out of the swing for naps. He was a HORRID napper from day one. We let him fuss it out in the swing starting pretty early on, because it was the only way he would sleep during the day. Us rocking him or soothing him just worked him up further. So, I've been letting him CIO in the crib for naps some days. It's been pretty successful, but he's such a crappy day sleeper that I've developed a tough skin to the crying, too. I'm committed to his naps, so some crying doesn't deter me. We have good nap days and bad nap days, and sometimes I just put him back in the swing if he won't fall asleep for a nap in the crib.
We quit rocking to sleep when we did Ferber.
I think I am in the minority, but I didn't do CIO with my kids. It just didn't feel right to me. I felt like my mama instinct was telling me to go to my baby and I was ignoring it. I really feel like kids sleeping is sort of just luck and age. I did the same thing with all three kids and V was a TERRIBLE sleeper until he was about 12 months old (like he never slept longer than 45 minutes ever). Then he started going to bed at 6pm and waking at 8am, just like that. He is still pretty easy to put to bed at night and he sleeps well.
M has always been a really good sleeper. From the start she would sleep pretty much anywhere and she started sleeping all night when she was probably 10 or so months old. She fights going to bed now, but once she is out, she is out.
Then there is G. Sweet, sweet, G. She still doesn't sleep well. She likes to snuggle and be held and she still wakes often at night. I don't love it, but I don't hate it either. If she wakes up before we go to bed, M goes in and snuggles her until she falls back asleep. If it is after we go to bed, she usually just comes into our room and gets in our bed and I wake up and she is there.
I did the same thing with all three kids and they were all so different. I really say, just trust your gut. I don't think CIO is necessarily terrible, but I think it doesn't work for everyone. If it doesn't feel right to you, don't feel like you have to in order to get her to sleep on her own. She will get there!
I agree with Jenn, I am not a fan on CIO for my children. We started transitioning B very slowly into where we could finally just lay her down and pat her babies back (I think it was around 12 months). She would pat their back and then I would cover her up and pat her back a couple of times and walk out. We didn't start weaning her from comforts until around 8 months (I think) we started laying her down just before she fell asleep and slowly worked up to the doll thing. We followed the same rules for all naps and nighttime.
I must be honest, a couple of months ago we went through craziness with her sleep where J would have to rock her for almost an hour, it was awful. Even with our move and newest little B (all within the last 2 weeks) she is still doing great with her sleep. I agree with the others, I am sure some of it is luck.
Good luck and trust your gut!
I think you have to go with your gut on sleep training! DS wasn't sleeping whether I was there with him or not, so it was easier to do knowing I wasn't helping. Hang in there
We did our version on CIO with both boys. They were both around 6 months. They weren't hungry or hurting when they would cry.... they just didn't want to go to sleep. They were old enough that I knew they knew the difference (I would never let a tiny baby CIO. I've heard of people letting their 2 month old CIO. A 2 month old is crying because they need something!) I would let them cry for 5 minutes (I set a timer). When the timer went off I would go in, pat their back, give him his paci, lay him back down, but I wouldn't pick him up. I would say, "goodnight. I love you and it's time to go to sleep." it took longer with Cooper than with Chase. I think we did CIO one night with Chase and he got it. He is a really good sleeper. With Cooper it took a few nights but he got it pretty quickly too. It never felt wrong to me, it felt like I was teaching them. Like I said, I knew they weren't in need or hurting. They just didn't want to sleep! Once they learned to put themselves to sleep for bed time they quickly understood how to do it at nap time too.