Before I was pregnant I thought the crying wouldn't bother me. I have been around kids my whole life. My mom owned a daycare, we had foster children, etc. I have always LOVED children, but the crying never got to me, never bothered me....until I had my own.
Prior to his vaccines at 2.5 months old, Hunter slept great. This was also before he really started spending the night at other places also. We had a bedtime routine-bath, lotion, swaddle, bottle and then we would put him down AWAKE...and he would go to sleep on his own. We thought we had it mastered, but he had other plans.
Like I said, somewhere around the 2.5 months he started waking up more frequently during the night. I didn't think much of it and would nurse him back to sleep. I thought eventually it would get better. It slowly got WORSE. We had tried everything, swaddle, non swaddle, white noise, country music, bedtime routine, putting him down earlier, putting him down later, sleeping in a pack n play in our room, sleeping in the rock n play sleeper. Nothing seemed to work. We even tried co-sleeping which Alan was adamantly against. He also had eczema so we couldn't do a bath every night, so his nighttime routine had changed a bit.
We had contemplated CIO, a couple of times, but I just wasn't ready. I knew that in the end, overall, he would end up crying less because he was so, so fussy and hard to get down for naps and bedtime. I just couldn't stand the thought of letting him cry. On his 8 month bday, Alan and I discussed getting into more of a routine, always having him home by 8 to start the routine and then down in crib at 8. I said we would do it for 10 days and then begin trying to get him to fall asleep on his own. Alan wanted to change it to 7 days, but I refused.
However, that night Hunter woke up at 12:35am. We had finally got him down around 9:30 after lots of singing, bouncing, rocking, feeding, etc. This was actually a good stretch of sleep for him at the time because he had been getting up hourly during the night. I went in his room and nursed him. He fell asleep and I put him in his crib. The moment I tried to lay him down, he woke up screaming. I picked him up and repeated the process. Nurse, asleep, crib. He woke up screaming again, as soon as I laid him down. I did this one more time, and something inside me clicked. I thought, he has to learn to sleep.
So, I shut his door, and went back to our bedroom. I decided I would go in at 15 minutes. It was very hard for me to hear him cry, but I knew it was best for him. We had tried everything else. I went in at 15 minutes, picked him up, calmed him down and then put him back in his crib and told him it was time to go night-night. I decided I would go back in at 20 minutes if he was still crying. He was, so after 20 minutes I repeated the process and decided I would go back at 30 minutes if he was still crying.
After 28 minutes he started to stop crying. He was on his belly and just whining a bit, so at 30 minutes I did not go back in. This was a long process and lasted until 2:35 when he finally fell back asleep. He was back up around 4:30, I nursed him and put him back down. He cried again. I went in at 30 minutes and he fell asleep before I needed to go back in (he cried right at an hour that time.)
The next day, we put him down for naps the same way and have continued the same process at bedtime. I was napping for work during nap time the 2nd day and was at work for bedtime the 2nd night. Alan put him down and said he cried about 30 minutes but slept from 9 until 4:45, which is huge for him. The 3rd night he cried about the same but was up more frequently. We stuck with it and continued to put him down awake. He has been sleeping great ever since. He goes down for naps pretty easy, usually whining less than 5 minutes. Bed time takes a bit longer, normally around 20 minutes.
He doesn't really cry anymore, just stands in his bed and hollers. I wanted to document this in case I need to come back and reference when we have our next child. I was so scared of doing CIO. I worried that he would cry for hours and hours and not ever go to sleep. Now, I wish we would have done it sooner.
Prior to doing this, Hunter was usually whiney. He didn't crawl and he never pulled up on things. When trying to get him to go to sleep, he would pinch, scratch, grab, and swat whatever was near him. He was always so restless. It was getting really hard for me to nurse him because he would hurt me with all the pinching and hitting.
After a few nights of good sleep, I'm happy to report, he is crawling everywhere, pulling up, and is much less restless. Overall, he's a much happier and playful baby. Nursing is much easier than it previously had been and momma and daddy are much less stressed and rested better so we have more energy and patience.
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