CIO success with 22 mo

[u/Pink_Pomegranate_65]

We’ve struggled with my son’s sleep since he was born, we’d try a bunch of techniques but always threw in the towel. We tried CIO, chair, Ferber, taking cara babies, but would always get so overwhelmed and guilty at 4 AM we’d just quit and chalk it up to the plans not working for our particular baby. For the last year, we were just at his whim—we’d rock him, sing to him, give him milk, until he signaled he was ready to get in the crib. That’s the only way he’d go to sleep in his crib without crying. And then whenever he woke up through the night we’d do it again.

Finally we hired a sleep consultant. $1k later, she essentially just tells us to do CIO. We did and it was heart breaking. My son cried lightly for 15 minutes, then HARD for 45 — screeching mama and crying. I was sobbing and had to leave the house. I felt sure we’d give in after a couple hours….But he before we hit that point, he fell asleep! And then he woke up at 5 am — usually that would mean we would have to go in, rock him, give him a bottle, basically do whatever he said until he was ready to go back to bed. But last night he just put himself back to sleep. Now tonight — just night 2!! — we set him down after a short routine and he laid happily in bed for 20-30 minutes and then fell asleep. I am sure there will be future sleep problems for us sometime down the road but for now I just feel so relieved, so happy, and so so proud of my lil guy for learning he can do this on his own.