Eating my Words...and We're All Getting More Sleep. Sort Of.

Gosh, it's hard to know what's the right thing to do in this parenting adventure. Like, what's not going to scar (totally wrote "scare" first; guess that's a concern, too) this precious child for the rest of his life? What will serve him best as he grows up?





Remember my first post? I'm not sure how to link it right now, like some of my other favorite bloggers, but I'll work on that. Anywho, it was all about how The Prince isn't sleeping through the night, and how I just can't let him "cry it out"...





I changed my mind. I think the first time we tried this, neither Daddy or Mommy could go past twenty minutes or so, and The Prince was so upset that it took a long time to get him relaxed enough to go back to sleep. The thought with "crying it out" is that you let the child figure out how to get himself back to sleep, instead of rocking/feeding/whatever, so he won't be dependent on you to sleep. With this early attempt, it just didn't seem like he was getting any closer to sleeping.





Fast forward to a week when I'm at my wit's end. We'd gone back to every two hours, and I know that he doesn't need to eat that much. The final straw was that it was affecting The Prince. He was tired all day, very different from his normal, cheery self. So, at the 9:30 waking, I took a big breath, and let him cry. It lasted for...three minutes. Yep, that's all it took. I couldn't believe it. The night was still pretty long, with more wakings, but they almost all went for only five minutes or so. I did feed him again at midnight, when the cry was longer and especially urgent.





So, we're making progress. Baby boy is still waking a couple times each night, and usually needs fed two times. This is a big improvement from five or six times. Throw in a few obstacles - three more teeth coming in, an very exciting visit from out-of-town relatives, the dog jingling her collar - and we move backward. The encouraging thing is that The Prince sleeps consistently well for the first half of the night. And that he still smiles at me in the morning.