Our Cry It Out Experience

At Michael's 4-month appointment, the pedi asked how he was sleeping at night. I responded that most nights, my son wakes up at least once or twice to bed fed. He suggested that we may want to wean him from feeding at night because there is a window between 4-6 months of age where they start to develop habits even at night, and didn't want us to be burdened with the middle-of-the-night feedings for the long haul.

David was pushing for me to wean our son, and I still gave in to the feedings. Most nights I would bring him into bed with me to feed him and let him stay there until it was time to wake up. For the life of me, I did NOT want to do cry it out (CIO), especially in the middle of the night. I opposed CIO because I didn't want Michael to be distressed and less trusting in me/us, I didn't want to hear him cry, and I didn't want to lose precious sleep. So, David and I were seriously butting heads.

At Michael's 6-month appointment, once again the sleep issue was brought up. And again, we were strongly encouraged to wean Michael from the night feedings. David renewed his push to have Michael CIO in an effort to break his habit. I finally gave in since Michael wasn't doing this on his own.

On Thursday, we started the process. I nursed Michael to sleep like always, and he awoke right around midnight. I put on my noise-canceling headphones and cranked up the iTunes while David went in periodically to check on him and pat him. After an hour, Michael finally went to sleep. He awoke again at 3:00AM, and David was the one who went in to check on him every 15 minutes. I put in my ear plugs in order to avoid hearing the cries. It took another hour, but he finally went to sleep on his own.

Friday night, Michael woke up at 1:00 AM after being nursed to sleep as usual about 5 hours earlier. After 30 minutes of crying during which David dutifully checked in every 15 minutes, Michael dozed off. About an hour later, he awoke, this time on his belly. Michael HATES to sleep on his belly and protests loudly when he's ready to not be in that position even though he's fully capable of rolling over onto his back from his belly. David rolled him back over, and he cried himself to sleep after another 30 minutes.

Last night, bedtime was the same routine, and Michael awoke at 4:00AM. He cried for only 5 minutes and was silent until 8:30AM. David and I both woke up feeling refreshed, and Michael was found on his belly in his crib playing with one of his toys. There is no telling how long he'd been in that position.

I hope this trend continues. If so, then thank you David, thank you ear plugs, and thank you noise-canceling headphones for getting me through the first two nights.

Now, if only I could get him to nap on his own. Baby steps. Baby steps.

Ashley