Sleep training

My advice would be to stop. If you want to sleep train there are much gentler kinder methods than cry it out.

I did the gentle approach for 2 nights & both me & my partner ended up in tears & we have stopped. We'll survive on 2 hourly wake ups until he's ready to sleep better. It's not ideal with our jobs but my boy was miserable & I couldn't do it to him & that wasn't CIO. I'm not bashing on it I'm just saying our experience, from what I've read CIO should be working in a few days though if it's not then I'd stop & find another way or wait it out.. x

CIO IS BRUTAL. Please, your little one needs you. You are their safety net, there’s plenty of proof how children develop anxiety issues. I understand it’s hard to always be wanted but it’s only for a a while and they will grow out of it so fast.. Try gentle methods instead. My heart breaks for all babies who are left crying alone in the dark rooms 🥺

Do what works for you. If CIO isn't working, then try something else. This book is great. It gives a lot of insight into how babies sleep and tips on how to manage things and different reasons for wakeups. https://amzn.eu/d/ezKPOiF

The more gentler methods take longer to work, but they are easier to implement and get back into when you have sickness/regression etc. my sleep consultant told me that if CIO doesn’t work within a few days, try something else.

Oh and the sleep consultant we used is called the Cheshire sleep whisperer - £75 for her top package and it was really worth it in the end!! Our little one puts herself to sleep now and rarely wakes up throughout the night.

CIO is such an archaic approach to sleep training. Your little one is all alone, distressed, cortisol pumping through their little body just wanting a hug. Babies cannot “self-soothe” what happens is they crash from excess cortisol and learn that no matter how hard they cry their caregiver will not respond. Please please reconsider

If you are doing full CIO then 2 weeks is brutal and it absolutely shouldn’t be taking that long! I’d suggest trying something gentler.

Thanks for all the advice ladies. When I say it’s week two, it’s us trying again because I understood that going in, picking her up, bringing her in with us - reset everything from before? I’m open to other methods if you used them?

If you’re open to it, gentle sleep training is what we did. So we’d settle my daughter down, leave, go in after 1 minute, then 2, then 3, then 5, we never left her for more than 5 minutes, and if she was really crying, then I’d go back in and reset. I’d never leave her hysterically crying, it can’t be good for them. It took about 5 days of doing this, and now my daughter goes to sleep totally by herself no fussing at all. She always knew we were coming back

@Abbie how long do you stay with her for when you go in?

Only until she’s calm, no more than a minute. we found staying in there too long was just riling her up. We’d go in, pat pat, dummy in, and go again

@Abbie I’ll give that a try for sure. I’m conscious that my little one won’t always settle, she’s relentless 🤣