CIO- Day 1
CIO...Crying it out...
I have learned so many mommy acronyms in the last few weeks.
Before yesterday I was completely against letting a baby cry it out. I didn't think a baby as young as 7 weeks would be able to self soothe...but I was wrong.
Micah woke up at 7 am like normal, and went down pretty easily in his crib for a nap. Then after his 10 o'clock feeding it was a different story. He basically cried until 2 even though Bryan and I were holding him, bouncing him, trying to feed him, etc.
I called the wonderful Susanne Leach because she has 3 well-behaved boys and I figured one of them must have had trouble napping. I was surprised and encouraged that she let her sons cry it out. So I figured that it must work and I needed to give it a try.
I fed Micah, changed his diaper, swaddled him, said I loved him, placed him in his crib, and walked away. I knew I did everything I could do so it made it easier to walk away. Immediately he started crying, the kind of crying that hurts to listen to. The kind of crying that makes you think that your baby is dying. Bryan told me to leave the house, but I realized if I went into the kitchen, I couldn't hear it. So I made myself get distracted and about 10 minutes later, I didn't hear any crying. I obviously went and checked in to make sure he was still breathing...and he was sound asleep!!!! I guess it shouldn't have surprised me since he didn't sleep for 4 hours....He slept until 5:30- 3 full hours.
Bedtime wasn't quite so successful. We put him down and put in a movie - "Life As We Know It" (Side Note: Bryan and I both really enjoyed it- it was different than the previews). Micah cried for 45 minutes, before we went and got him. FAIL. I fed him, changed him, and started over. He cried for about 20 minutes the 2nd time. He slept until 3am :)
I am now a believe in crying it out. Why?! Because I realized either way he is crying when he is tired. Whether we are holding him or not. And so far, we have had more success leaving him alone than bouncing, rocking, swinging him to sleep.
Side Note #2 - my blog is a mommy blog. sorry. this is my life right now and it feels really good to write about it.
1 comments:
I'm glad you decided to try letting Micah cry it out. It's hard the first few times, but it does work. Sometimes a good compromise is going in and just touching him to let him know you're there, but not picking him up. We could usually tell when Caleb turned from "I'm tired" to "I'm not going to stop crying until you come in." You'll probably be able to tell the difference in the cries too. Pretty soon, all of this will be a distant memory! (and I like your Mommy Blog!) :)
Post a Comment