Please help moms that have done CIO/Ferber - I have a question if your DC was used to falling asleep nursing/drinking a bottle...

I want to start off by saying I am at my wits end My DS is officially the worst sleeper. Last night - it was the WORST ever - he woke up EVERY time we put him in his crib the entire night. Anyway, I am in the process of reading the Ferber book and I do believe a big problem is that we do not put him down awake - b/c that is his big problem - he wakes up during the night and needs me or DH to get him back to sleep.

Here is the q - and the problem. Since DS started sleeping through the night he has always fallen asleep during his last feeding - I nurse him (he is EBF) and 9/10 times he inevitably falls asleep during the feeding and stays asleep for the 30 min we hold him upright (he has reflux) and then 9/10 he will go down in his crib and stay asleep...until he wakes up.

Now what do I do to put him down awake? Do I have to wake him up after he is done eating? Won't this do more harm then good? I really want to start putting him down awake so he can sleep through the night but I don't know how to implement this.

PLEASE HELPME

ETA: I'm also not sure that moving the feeding earlier will do the trick - these days he is very easily distracted and won't eat if he is not really hungry or sleepy!

Message edited 3/2/2008 11:18:43 AM.

Re: Please help moms that have done CIO/Ferber - I have a question if your DC was used to falling asleep nursing/drinking a bottle...

DD is one and we have the same problem that she falls asleep. She IS capable of falling asleep without the boob but that is what we do most nights. Unfortunately, even when she doesn't fall asleep nursing, we always let her fall asleep on our bed and then transition her to the crib. Our big problem seems to be that we can never get her to the drowsy state that is suggested before we put her in.

Last night we had a bad night like you. She fell asleep, we put her in the crib, she woke up because she wanted to be up with us and we were up for 2 hours trying to get her back down. Finally, I put her in her crib and closed the door. She screamed for just about 7 minutes (all I could last). I went back in, hugged her and she clung to be and cried more. So I brought her back to our room, nursed her and she went back to sleep. Ugh!

Maybe we are just not CIO people.

Good luck to you. I will be checking this post to see what answers others give,

Re: Please help moms that have done CIO/Ferber - I have a question if your DC was used to falling asleep nursing/drinking a bottle...

I would recommend NOT feeding him right before bed. He's gotten used to that routine of falling asleep on you. It warm & comfy. Feed him before the bath if necessary. That's what we did & it worked! We put DD in the crib awake and rubbed her back and then left.

ETA: If he won't eat earlier, try offering, and if he won't then skip it. If he eats enough during the day, he should be ok. You have to be pretty tough to do CIO, it's definitely not for everyone.

Message edited 3/2/2008 12:56:49 PM.

Re: Please help moms that have done CIO/Ferber - I have a question if your DC was used to falling asleep nursing/drinking a bottle...

Re: Please help moms that have done CIO/Ferber - I have a question if your DC was used to falling asleep nursing/drinking a bottle...

DD is 3 1/2 months and I know I am going to have a problem already!
She can't be put down awake and wakes often in the transfer...
I plan on doing CIO which is
heartbreaking but hopefully will work.
My older child just decided started putting herself to sleep, I used to rock her every night and then around 3 months she didn't want to be rocked anymore and that was it...I wish it was this easy this time around

Re: Please help moms that have done CIO/Ferber - I have a question if your DC was used to falling asleep nursing/drinking a bottle...

Posted by ckdk

DD is 3 1/2 months and I know I am going to have a problem already!
She can't be put down awake and wakes often in the transfer...
I plan on doing CIO which is
heartbreaking but hopefully will work.
My older child just decided started putting herself to sleep, I used to rock her every night and then around 3 months she didn't want to be rocked anymore and that was it...I wish it was this easy this time around

Re: Please help moms that have done CIO/Ferber - I have a question if your DC was used to falling asleep nursing/drinking a bottle...

Posted by Seles81

Posted by ckdk

DD is 3 1/2 months and I know I am going to have a problem already!
She can't be put down awake and wakes often in the transfer...
I plan on doing CIO which is
heartbreaking but hopefully will work.
My older child just decided started putting herself to sleep, I used to rock her every night and then around 3 months she didn't want to be rocked anymore and that was it...I wish it was this easy this time around

Same for my 2 except my little one is almost 8 months. It is so frustrating because their will be a series of days that she will sleep through the night and wake up 6am, then the next 5 then 4 then 3am and then that it she is up to waking 1-2 times a night again. She will go down awake for her naps. At night though she falls asleep on me and I put her down she wakes up I put the paci in her mouth with mobile and she is out now in 5 minutes.
I am doing CIO now and it is so hard (harder than when I did for DS) and we will see if it works. She cried for 40 minutes last night. If I go in it makes it so much worse. She fell asleep and half hour later DS wakes up and then wakes her up. Both were crying for 20 minutes. He fell asleep and then 10 minutes she fell asleep.