So after weeks of 2 hour sleeps, I've decided to bite the bullet and try crying it out. Mostly out of sheer lack of patience, I'm not as upset as I thought I would be listening to her cry. We started last night. I gave her a bath, then the boob and then we played in her crib together and she was very happy. Then when I had her distracted with her toys, I snuck out. Things were quiet for a good 5 minutes and then it started. Instead of standing by the door, (which I think is crazy, of course you'll give in if you have to stand by the door listening to your poor baby cry their lungs out!) I went downstairs, turned on the radio and made dinner. That took a good 30 minutes and I was sufficiently distracted. I could hear crying in the background, but I was able to stick to my task at hand.
Gerwyn came home from the gym and I warned him that I had started "Operation: Cry It Out" and let him know that he could go in and soothe her if he wanted but he couldn't bring her out of her room. After he went in, she calmed down and of course, once he left, she started back up again.
At the 45 minute mark, I started to get antsy. Luckily the crying wasn't as hard as when she first started but she was still crying nonetheless. After just over an hour, the room was finally silent. It was well past her usual bedtime (9:30pm) but she finally did it. Cried herself to sleep. I was hoping this might mean she would sleep for a longer period before waking up but alas, I only got 3 hours. Technically I should have continued to let her cry it out throughout the night but since Gerwyn has to work and I need SOME sleep, I went in every couple of hours again and breastfed her back to sleep.
Today is attempt number 2, nap time. Once the eye rubbing started, we went upstairs, gave her the boob, read some stories and then again I snuck out and crying ensued. This time she only cried for 45 minutes and I'd say only about 15 of it was "hard" crying. On the one had, I do find myself with more time to myself while "waiting her out". But its not nearly as enjoyable with a crying baby in the background.
Every time I've thought about "Cry it out", I always thought it was so harsh and didn't think I would have the heart for it. Turns out, I'm not as soft as I thought and don't mind the crying so much. We'll see how the rest of the day goes, another nap and bed time to go...
Update: For nap number 2, there was only 23 minutes of crying. But it was hard crying the entire time and a bit difficult to sit through. But seeing as how the crying is getting shorter, hopefully that's a good sign.
3 comments:
AWwwwww! You poor thing! Both of you! It's brutal to hear them cry. I'm thanking my lucky stars Sasha is so good at entertaining himself (so far). In fact today, I started getting a bit worried that I was neglecting him. Today was a civic holiday here and E and I wanted to sleep in. We fed Sasha at 7:30 then put him back in the crib. We THINK he slept for an hour somewhere between 7:30 and 11am but don't know for sure. The rest of the time he was playing. These past few days (maybe a week or two?) he lies awake for up to an hour before his naps or up to 30 minutes after his naps just playing. So lately, I've started worrying we're neglect him and that he's lonely or anti-social (again, we don't know many other babies ~ lacking in socializing...). I guess either extreme is a bit worrisome. I try to enjoy my "free" time - but it's difficult and I'm constantly checking-up on him! Don't you ever wonder what they'll be like in the long run ~ like if this really matters THAT much psychologically?
at one point Di, i thought it was you who had to cry it out. as i read further, i learned it was marley!!!
hahaha...!
Not sure if you looked at the "Ferber method for Crying it Out or not(CIO)? Anything I have read about CIO, talks about the importance of not sneeking out of a room, but making sure that you akcnowledge that you are going to leave the room and that you will be back.
The thing is as much as you miss your sleep now... " this too will pass" and believe it or not... you will miss this stage too! :)
At the end of it all, you need to do what works for your family
Good luck.
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