We recently started full blown "cry it out". Every time we have tried it in the past, we would do it for a couple days and then Kayden would get sick and we wouldn't feel comfortable enough continuing to let him cry in his crib. It was also really hard for me to get back into the routine of cry it out because Kayden would SCREAM bloody murder. It's seriously not just the crying... it's screaming. My child has lungs.
We then tried just rocking him to sleep and then laying him in his crib. I kind of enjoyed rocking and cuddling with him and then laying him down. I just wanted him to sleep in his crib. However, that wasn't working out very well. Getting him to actually stay asleep once we put him in the crib was hit or miss, and then after about an hour he would wake back up and not be able to put himself back to sleep. I knew something had to change. Especially with me going back to work and Kayden going to a babysitter during the day. We were still having to hold him in order for him to take his full length in naps (2, 2 hour naps). I know that his baby sitter will not be able to do this so I knew we had to start something.
Enter-----> full blown cry it out method. After talking to a friend and telling me that she recently did cry it out with her son (who is only a week younger than kayden), I decided that we just needed to do it. I know this friend does a lot of research on stuff when it comes to her child so I knew that it wouldn't scar him for life :) The first night we did our bath, bottle, book, rock/cuddle routine and then put him to bed awake but drowsy. A lot of people have told me not to do the rocking and cuddling part, since that is how he is use to falling asleep but I have a very cuddly baby right now, and when I go back to work I know that those moments are going to be so precious so I will continue it as long as he will let me. He cried for 3......THREE HOURS. I didn't go check on him once. We have a video baby monitor so I could see him every second and I knew if I went in to his room, it would just make it that much worse (found out from the previous cry it out experiences). It was sooooo hard to let him cry for three hours. And after three hours, I went in there, sat next to his crib and he laid down and fell right to sleep in his crib. I just held his hand, but he went to sleep in his crib. That was big for us. That was a step. But as the next couple weeks progressed, I felt like I was going to have to go in and sit next to his crib for the rest of my life. It wasn't that bad. I enjoyed going in and sitting next to it and holding his hand. It usually didn't take long after I went in there for him to fall asleep, no longer than 10 minutes, but usually just 5 or even less. It was just the fact that he would still wake up in the middle of the night crying and would eventually go back in to our bed. I felt like he still wasn't learning how to put himself to sleep.
I started lowering the time I let him cry before I went in there. The second night (after our 3 hours long scream fest), I just let him cry for an hour and a half and then went in to sit next to his crib, then an hour, then 45 minutes. Every time it still wouldn't take him long to fall asleep once I went in. We had to take a little bit of a break from this though so I thought tonight would be twenty times more rough than it had been. We had a really busy weekend so he never got good naps during the day and then we were out late so I usually ended up just rocking him to sleep and then putting him to sleep in our bed. We took about a 4 day hiatus, and then tonight we did our normal routine, I put him in bed and let him start crying. I was going to wait 45 minutes tonight and then start decreasing the crying time after tonight but much to my amazement, 20 minutes of just crying... NO SCREAMING... he was laying down and within the next 10 minutes he was completely asleep. I still can't believe it! It was such a fresh breath of air.
I feel like we have struggled for a long time with sleeping. I was getting really worried about sleeping, especially with me going back to work and needed my rest. He may not sleep through the night, and may still wind up in our bed sometime during the middle of the night... but I am ok with that for now. It's good cuddling time. I just really needed the late evening part of bedtime to work so that I could get things ready for the next day and get the house work done without listening to Kayden screaming. He will hopefully now get better rest seeing as how he is actually falling asleep closer to a normal bed time now, and he will be waking up earlier than he is use to in order to go to the sitters on monday, wednesday, and thursday.
We still haven't tried naps. I wanted to get night time down first. Hopefully nap times will be easier once we get the whole bed time, falling asleep on your own thing. We will see!
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My cousin did cry it out and it really worked well for them! We did the No Cry Sleep Solution. There is a book if you are interested, but it is basically that you work your way out of the room. Putting them in their bed with your hand on them for a week, then sitting by the crib, then sitting on the other side of teh room. Then...EVENTUALLY, just laying them down and they go to sleep. It was a lot of work, and we got stuck for awhile on the sitting in the room in the dark stage, but now he just goes to sleep. We had sleep issues from the start, but didn't really start fighting them until I stopped nursing at 14 months.
ReplyDeleteEither way works fine, I just kept caving with the three hour cry fest, so I knew we needed to try something else.
Thanks for your comment on my blog! As for Avery, we are still waiting, but recently have found out that she may not ever be coming home. They are in the final stages of finding out for sure. I will be posting about it in a couple of weeks, but wanted to let you know since you asked.
Thank you for following along with our family! Your little boy is adorable :)