Crying it Out

In honor of my friend Erica, I feel inspired to blog about "Crying it Out"...

Parker was a great sleeper until we moved him into his crib in his own room a few months ago. In his cradle he slept soundly, 7 hours, no waking up. Then he moved into his room, across the house from our room, and there was no more sound sleeping. In its place there was screaming, hollering, restlessness, hunger, kicking, hysteria. Very bad trade. Lots of walking across the house for binking, feeding, snuggling, rocking, tucking in, and frustration. Lots of it. LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS OF IT! I work the night shift and then sleep the next day, but never for long enough. And I wasn't sleeping at night. So very very tired. And, I will admit, rather grumpy.

Last week Jona decided we needed to let Parker "cry it out." He is old enough to sleep through the night. He isn't really hungry, just spoiled. He doesn't really want to be soothed by anything other than the boob, which brings us back to me being completely exhausted since I am the only one around here with the right equipment. We never let Hailey cry anything out. Everyone said it was because we were first time parents, but really I'm just not the cry it out kind of mama. Its hard for me to commit myself to letting my child be unhappy when I know I can fix the problem. But I was tired. I mean really really tired. The kind of tired that leaves you in a fog and has you waking up in the morning with a yawn. So I agreed.

I work Monday nights, so last Monday was Parker's first night of self soothing. Jona said he did well, I think he turned the monitor off. Either way, he survived the night and was smiling in his crib when I got home in the morning. Tuesday night I had to participate. And no, I was not committed. But I was tired, beat down, and LORD KNOWS I needed some sleep. So I did it, I let him cry. It was not easy. Jona says he needs to "cry is out" all casually like its no big deal. Let me tell you, it is one very big deal to this mamasita. Its an uphill battle. Both ways. In the snow. Barefoot. Seriously. But the Little Man did surprisingly well. Only woke up twice. The first time was 10 minutes, only 5 of which was crying, then he was just pissed off. The second time was only 5 minutes of anger and then joyous sleep.

So its been a week and a half. That is 10 nights of NOT walking across the house to self soothe the baby who can do it himself. 10 nights of sleep, glorious sleep.

So Erica, it works. And it gets better. And its worth it.

Now Hailey wakes us up to sleep in our bed ....@#$%&*!!!