Cry About It

When Eli was 9 months old he did this weird thing at night where he woke up hysterically crying for no apparent reason and was completely inconsolable when we tried to go in and comfort him.

After 3 weeks of that, I asked his pediatrician about it during one of his well-child exams. The pediatrician suggested it was time for Eli to "cry it out."

Eli was cured of his sleep issues with two surprisingly short nights of crying it out. After seeing how successful the method was, I remember saying to my mom, "I don't know why I didn't do it sooner! It was a couple bad nights but now we're all sleeping so well and so much happier!"

Then child two came along. He was so good at sleeping at night until he got a cold and started waking up every two hours. The cold disappeared but left Carson with several habitual night feedings. And let's not get into how he's been waking up for the day between 4:45-5:30.

You should see the bags under my eyes.

I made excuses for why Carson wasn't ready to cry it out -- he'll wake up Eli, he won't be able to fall asleep unswaddled, he'll cry for hours, he's too little.

Then I read an article that said 4-5 months is the best time to sleep train your child because they're old enough to sleep through the night but little enough to not put up too much of a crying fight.

And then Carson started falling asleep without being swaddled.

And then I remembered telling my mom I wished I would have had Eli cry it out sooner because it wasn't as horrible as I expected.

So poor Carson had his first night of crying last night. He cried for a quick 20 minutes at 12:00, 5 minutes at 3:00 and then he slept in until 7:00 which has left me once again wondering, "Why did I not do this sooner?!?"

May my 5:00 mornings be over and Carson's wakeful nights be behind me. And may this be another mental note to myself that a couple nights of crying it out is totally worth the sleep!