Cry it out Method

We went for our monthly Dr appointment for Connor the other day. While discussing what was going on with him we talked about how he has not been sleeping well. We believed it is due to his stomach but the Dr suggested that he has just become used to using me to get his gas out and used to eating multiple times at night. So he said to start doing the cry it out method.

He advised us to feed him while he was sleepy right before we went to bed, which is about 10pm for me. Then he suggested to just let him cry if and when he wakes up to get him used to getting himself back to sleep. The way he said it made it sound so simple and easy. Like it was just a little event and in 3-4 days he would be sleeping 12 hours a night...Well I underestimated the power of my baby's cry!!!

The first night I fed Connor at 10pm and he ate for almost 40 minutes. I am thinking to myself "wow he is eating alot I doubt he wakes up at all...this is going to be so easy"...I am pretty sure I jinxed myself because at 4 am Connor woke up. Shane was there to help so he would rock Connor for 30 minutes but as soon as Shane laid him down he woke up screaming. So then I tried rocking for 30 minutes and the same thing happened.

After a little debate we choose to follow the Dr's instructions and just let him cry. He did pretty well, 10 minutes of crying and then slept for 20-30 min and then another 10 minutes of crying and sleeping 20-30 minutes. This went on until about 6:30am and then I fed him.

Night 2 was a whole different Ball game. First of all Shane was not home and secondly Connor had different plans for me than sleeping. I fed him about 11 pm last night thinking maybe if I fed him a little later he would sleep better. Instead he woke up at 3am. I put his binkie in thinking maybe he would go right out, but nope...this just pissed him off and he lost it. He finally stopped crying about 3:45 and slept until 4:20 and then the chaos began. Connor did not stop crying until 6:00am when I fed him again. No matter what I tried he would just get more upset. So I just laid in bed and cried.

Maybe the reason it is called the cry it out method has more to do with the Mommy crying than the baby crying.  I am hoping night 3 goes a little better. There is nothing harder than to listen to your baby cry out for you and to ignore it. I kept reminding myself he will not remember I am torturing him. He will love me anyway. He will be better for this. Sure enough soon after starting to feed him he looked up at me and smiled...Either to say "ha I won" or "I love you anyway mommy" I would like to think it is the second option :)