CIO Question - What Did You Do?

She was probably hungry. That's a long time for a 6 month old to go without food...Give her some food and lay her back down.

Could she be bored and awake? We put toys on a shelf my kids could reach through the crib so they would have something to do if they wanted.

If you put her down at 6 and she slept until almost 5 that is a ver long time you should have gotten up and fed her. Sleeping thru the night is considered a 6 hr stretch if she cried or 45 minutes and then only slept 30 minutes she probably needed to be fed. In my opinion 45 minutes is too long to let them cry especially when she slept almost 11 hours.

First, let me just put your mind at ease that a 5.5 month old is NOT too young to be doing the CIO method as some here have suggested. You are right in the appropriate range. My son, now 7.5 years old, had been sleeping for more than 12 hours through the night without getting up at all before I went back to work when he was 3 months old. Literally, the day I went back to work, he started getting up in the middle of the night again. Being a new mom, I thought he was going through a growth spurt and needed to be fed in the middle of the night again. So, I started getting up and feeding him again. Soon, it became 2x/night. As I was nearing the end of my first month back to work, I was exhausted, falling asleep at work, not getting much done, and didn't think I could keep doing it. Fortunately, I was in a mom's group with a woman who had been in a masters program in psychology before she got pregnant and had become good friends with a baby/toddler behavioralist who offered sleep training services. My friend suggested to our group that we have this woman come talk to our group about sleep training and answer specific questions. Even though the scheduled day and time for this particular meeting was during my workday, I knew I had to go because I couldn't take not getting any sleep anymore. So, my son was four months old at this point. The sleep trainer recommended CIO for all of our babies (all roughly 4 months at the time), though she acknowledged that the pure CIO method was not for everyone and offered some modifications if you couldn't bear doing CIO and also advised that if you do one of the modifications, then it just takes longer.

I vowed to start the CIO method that night. She had said it would take about three nights - maybe a little longer for it to be solid - so starting Friday would allow me to start having decent sleep by the start of the next work week. The first night, my son woke once and cried for 45 minutes. The next, he again woke once and cried for about 15-20 minutes. The third, he woke once and cried for maybe 5 minutes. He pretty much did not wake up and cry again after that (save for if he was sick or had a bad dream) and he slept for at least 12 hours every night. My son STILL is a GREAT sleeper. We never had any problems with him getting out of bed multiple times before finally settling down and going to sleep. He occasionally wakes in the middle of the night because he has to go to the bathroom and he quietly gets up and goes on his own and goes back to bed. But basically, even now, once he goes to bed, he sleeps for about 10.5 to 12 hours. Not exactly the same path, but same basic story for my nearly 6 year old daughter.

So, rest assured, 45 minutes is NOT too long to let your baby cry (though after three nights of using this method and seeing that she slept for nearly 11 hours, there was probably something else going on) and your baby is not too young for CIO. I do think that you might benefit from pushing your daughter's bedtime later by as much as an hour. If she is sleeping 11 hours through without crying (she is likely waking briefly but successfully getting herself back to sleep), then she's probably getting enough sleep. So, putting her down at 7 PM should get you through to 6 AM, which is definitely better than 4:45 for you!

Good Luck!

I found with my kids, that when they woke up crying, they needed something. (I am referring to waking up at the end of the night... like your daughter did at 4:45). Either, they needed more sleep, or they were hungry or whatever. When they are ready to face the day, they should wake up happy... or at least not crying instantly upon waking.

In your particular case, I think she was hungry, simply because she DID sleep for so long. Going to bed for the night at 6 pm is pretty early. We put our daughter down (at 6 months old) around 7:00pm and then in short order, she was going to bed at 7:30pm. Sounds like your daughter slept for 10 hours... so yeah.. she was probably a little hungry. I don't think it hurts (at that point) to give her a bottle/nurse her and see if she drops back off to sleep. Mine were "sleeping through the night" from 3 months, but they still would wake in the wee hours (between 4-6am) for a morning feeding. If it was closer to 4, they went right back to sleep after, if it was closer to 6, they tended to stay up a little while and then take an early morning nap.

:)

I've known very few babies under 10 months (and many a lot older) who don't wake at least once a night to be fed, particularly if they are breast-fed, because breast milk is digested faster than formula. During growth spurts, which occur several times during the first year, night-time hunger is normal.

Babies do eventually cry themselves back to sleep even if hungry. They get exhausted and shut down. Their bodies begin to digest stored fat, or the liver produces glycogen to boost the blood sugar to a safe level to protect the growning brain. This is a strain on the physical system, however, and not optimal to a thriving, healthy infant. Some research suggests that this early pattern may eventually make the person more susceptible to obesity and Type 2 Diabetes.

That piercing cry that your daughter was probably vocalizing is intended to move moms to action. It's a cry of need.

I say feed her at 4:45, and then put her back down. If she cries after being fed, then you can let her cry- you know she isn't needing anything. She will probably go back to sleep for another hour or so. My son did.
Good luck!

Honestly, if the baby went to sleep at 6p-6:15p, than at 4:45a, she might have been ready to get up for the day. I would try to move her bedtime back a little bit at a time, maybe have a 7p goal for bed. That way, she gets up at 7a for you since it sounds like she will sleep for 10-12 hour stretches. :-) I think the crying it out for 45 min may have been a little long, but possibly you could feed them, and they may go back to sleep.

Good luck!

If she's going down at 6, you're right she's up and hungry 10 1/2-11 hours later. So I say feed her, get her up and feed her in her normal spot. If she is tired then and needs an early morning nap, go ahead and put her back down.

I think it is because she goes to bed early. 6 p.m. is early and I bet she is ready to for the day at 4:45. Can you try putting her to bed at 7 p.m.? I'll bet with a new bedtime routine that she might give you an hour longer.

I vote for the feeding.

I would try putting her down later in the evenings- 6:00pm is pretty early and as the days get longer it may be more difficult to get her down "for the night" if it's still light in her room!

If you try putting her down later (when she's really sleepy and has a full belly) and she still wakes up at 5:00am, then I would feed her and get her up and moving. I wouldn't suggest feeding her and putting her back to sleep b/c it may set you back with the whole process. Maybe feed her and rock with her reading books quietly until an "okay hour".

Good luck!

I agree, feed her in that early morning hour and see if she'll go back to bed. If she wakes at the same time for more than a week, then it's a habit and you can try skipping the feeding. Good luck.

My son went down at about 6:30 and needed to nurse at about 2am. I never let him cry at this feeding because it had been a long time. if I were you, i would go in and feed her and she will probably go back to sleep for another hour or two. At about 9 months, I decided that he didnt need to nurse at 1, and at that point he was sleeping 6:30-6:30. Good luck

ugh thats the worst time, once the sun peeks out i feel like its all over. i do think that can be too long for a baby that age to go without, she was probably hungry. i used the sun as my signal, they dont have a clue what time it is. though i think 22 weeks is prob too little to understand. my baby was 10 mos when i started it, and i would just say it over and over, the sun isnt up so we dont get up, or look! the sun is up, lets get up. and even now, when he gets up he asks if the sun is up. so cute. anyway, on paper, i dont believe in cio..... but i still had to do it with my 3rd baby, desperate times, right? i didnt have a problem getting him to sleep, i nursed him and put him in, but he didnt stay asleep. it got to the point where he never slept more than an hour or so at a time. awful. and obviously not hunger. sleep is so important for everyone, especially baby. i feel you, i do. so i did cio with him, it sucked but it worked. im not in any kind of camp, i think every baby and every family is different. i have done lots of things i never thought i would do, haha, and i know its just the beginning! anyway, since your daughter is still young to expect any kind of regular schedule, i would try to put her to bed either earlier or later, just so you can move the time of that early morning waking, but still be ready. then if she sleeps well most of the night and still wakes up, i would keep something ready and give her a quick quiet dark bite to eat, i used to even do it right in the crib so that he didnt even fully awake, then right back to sleep as long as its still dark out. (eating in the crib??!! the horror! whatever, we were completely exhausted and it worked) ..... your daughter is still kind of little to go that long without eating, and we hate to think that they are truly hungry, and who knows. i dont know, give it a shot. so hard. good luck. oh, and im not saying anything is anything, i feel more clueless every day lol, but my baby that i let cry is now, by a mile, the best sleeper in the house. go figure.

"Early to bed, early to rise." I think putting a baby down this early might be causing you problems. Have you tried pushing out bedtime a smidge longer and giving one last feed right before bedtime? How many naps does she take during the day? I might cut back on one of those too and see if that helps.
Good luck

That's a hard one...I do think since she only slept 30 minutes and was awake again, that she was definitely hungry. The same thing happened with my first when she was around 4 months except she had been sleeping 12 hours prior to that, then suddenly she was waking up again. I mentioned it to her pedi. at her check up and he said around 13 lbs. they need solids. I started giving her cereal that night and she never woke up hungry during the night again. You didn't mention what your baby girl eats but maybe that's something to consider...?? Good luck...just know that it will all work out and you're doing the right thing. =)

Some people just can't help themselves, can they? /sigh

At any rate, you're doing just fine. If I were in your situation and this were my child I would let her fuss a little, like you did, to see what she would do. Since it was almost time to get up for the day, I'd probably have given it 15-20 minutes. If it were any earlier (like before 4:00) I would not have gone in.

There are two ways you can think about this. If the 4:45 wake up is a one-time or occasional issue, then maybe you'll have some days where you have to get up extra early. However, if the 4:45 wake up call continues then you may wish to wait to go to her until around 6:00-7:00 ish (because, what will happen is that she will come to expect you to get her and play with her at that hour and she'll likely start waking earlier and earlier, hoping to get her audience with you).

Also consider that last night was night 3 and she's still probably adjusting to the routine. You're doing a great job, mom! You're giving your daughter the gift of sleep and self-soothing. And you're right, you ARE doing what's best for your baby!