Well, I feel I must fess up to those of you who read my blog and have heard me spout off in the past about our parenting practices around here. I come to you all humbly and ask that you not make your "I told you so"s too loud. We have just completed a week's worth of "Crying It Out". GASP! We went all-in, hard-core, naptime, bedtime cry it out. Samuel had gotten out of hand with his sleeping (or not sleeping) habits, and we felt it was time to finally lay down the law. Now, mind you, this was a big blow to my ego b/c I had bragged on my "DON'T let them cry it out" philosophy to many a mom. (I will say I am still not for crying it out at 10 days old - but that's a soap box I can't take up right now). So, last Friday I nursed Samuel, rocked him for a bit, told him I loved him, and then put him in his crib. He cried for about 45 minutes before falling asleep. It took him about 30 minutes for naptime on Saturday, Sunday was a disaster because of church and he cried for an entire 80 minutes for naptime (never slept), but then only cried about 20 minutes for bedtime. Monday was better (about 10 to 15 minutes) and by Tuesday night, he went to bed without crying! Praise the Lord! We had a good week like that - no crying, until this Friday that just passed. He didn't want to go down for his nap, so I thought, oh, I'll just rock him to sleep and then lay down with him. Well, he LOVED that, but then we were back to crying for 40 minutes at bedtime! Augh! I will say though that he went to bed tonight without crying at all. Hopefully I didn't mess him up too bad! One of the other reasons we went to cry it out was b/c Samuel was in the habit of waking up around 4:30 or 5:30 and wanting to be up. It's miserable. This is getting better, but he still wants to wake up at 5:30, 6:00, or 6:30. I am really hoping for 7:00 or 7:30. We put him to bed at 7:30pm. I'll keep you posted.
9 comments:
Leah,
I KNOW how hard this is! I've been trying cry-it-out at bedtime this weekend, and it is a KILLER. I think I'm going to have to try naptime as well when track-out rolls around, and I'm NOT looking forward to it. Are you guys letting him cry when he wakes up earlier than he should? We're starting to have this problem as well . . .
Hang in there!
Mary
Oh guys! I'm sorry :) I honestly know how hard that had to be for you. Seriously! All I can say is kids are not dumb when it comes to bedtime....it's frustrating! I LOVE to rock Camden cuz it's one of the times he'll actually cuddle with me, but when I do, he cries so much more, so I usually have to talk myself into not doing it. Stay strong - you can do it!
AND, good luck with g-ma & g-pa there cuz you KNOW g-pa won't let him cry, so it may be 10 steps back, and a 1/2 step forward :)
Love ya,
Ruth
Mary,
Since we live in such close quarters with our neighbors, we have not been leaving Samuel to cry when he wakes up too early. The doctor we spoke with said to get him and rock him back to sleep and that eventually the night waking would stop. Christina's advice to me was to put him down even earlier. I'm going to talk to Ed about it.
BTW, I passed on your post about making baby food to a friend in New York who is considering it. Thanks for such a great post!
Leah
Oh man, I bet that was really hard on you. Hormonal from pregnancy, probably a little nostalgic that Samuel is not such a baby any more (big one year old), plus it's not like you can escape the sound of his cries in that little apartment. I am really impressed you lasted 80 minutes when he was doing his best to get his mommy to come back in. Stay strong. Soon you can all get some more sleep. You'll be needing it this trimester. love, Jen
Hey girl! I love your honesty...I know it's a hard thing (crying it out). We started James when he was 5 months old and it was taking more than an hour of rocking for him to fall asleep. He was also getting smarter and actually wiggling as much as he could so that he wouldn't fall asleep while rocking (not to mention that I almost dropped him a couple times b/c he was struggling so much). When that time hit, we knew we had to lay him down on his own. Now at 2, at the end of his bedtime routine he simply says "night, night", gets in his bed, and goes to sleep!! So, while hard the method is worth it in the long run!
Michelle
Wow! Well, I have to confess that I don't know much about this because Lydia has been a very good sleeper from the beginning (and believe me this is a testament to HIS goodness and nothing I did as we were in different places every couple weeks for the first four months of her life). But, a couple months ago she started a pattern of getting up in the middle of the night - which she hadn't done since she was 9 weeks old - and I would nurse her back to sleep. I was tired and wanted to decrease nursings - rather than increase! - so we decided to let her cry it out too. It took one night - one LONG night - but after that she has been great. Hang in there, Samuel will be a better sleeper because of it and both you and he will feel better with rest!
You are doing the right thing! Everyone will be happier with more sleep. You are his parent and you need to teach him to be a good sleeper.
I finally resorted to praying that my daughter would sleep through the night without any of my intervention/interference (I've got nothing to lose). Since I started praying, it has gotten worse, but it turns out her 1 year molars are coming through. This may be an answer to her getting all the teething out of the way so she can sleep?
Anyway, even Dr. Sears had to do some night weaning of some sort (don't think it was the crying it out, but it was parent led) and I read once of an AP chiropractor who ended up doing some sort of night weaning, which didn't really result in crying, but he realized it would have been better for his son when he was younger.
Oh, and the going in every 10 minutes and rubbing their backs thing only fuels more crying in our household.
Leah--We did the whole cry-it-out thing with both of our boys and while it was one of the most difficult things we did, it's also proved to be one of the most beneficial--we're a well rested family with 2 kids who got to bed without a struggle and sleep a solid 12 hours...7pm-7am. I'll pray that it's a quick process for you sweet little guy to learn how to sooth himself to sleep!
Hang in there!!!
--Tamara
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