...about the whether or not to let ms. amelia cry it out. we will. last night sealed the deal. she was up for about 2 hours straight. silly one about drove her parents batty. so tonight i mourned with her, although she had no clue we were mourning, of course. i got my snuggles in extra long...we sang an extra song. when i put her down (awake) in the crib, i wanted to desperately to pick her up & just rock her in the crib until she was snuggled on me asleep. but that's NOT how i feel at midnight 1, 2, 3, 5 & 6 a.m. soooo... cry it out it is. & the gerbicks to the hard core cry it out, not any of that 'sissy' ferberizing stuff, lol, wink wink. once we put her in the crib, she's there until at least 5 a.m. (unless she is stuck in the crib or hurt or has totally vomited all over herself or crapped all over herself or peed all over herself. those constitute a baby from the crib removal).
thinking back...the time when adeline went through cry it out. she was barely 5 1/2 months old, a youngin' for this method. but i was beyond exhausted. i was breastfeeding & she refused a bottle & refused any type of solids & was nursing every 3 hours around the clock. did i mention i was exhausted?! so our pediatrician in boise, dr beauchaine, who we adored (i secretly called her dr beautiful b/c her name sort of is spelled like beautiful & b/c she always helped us out & was so kind & amazing & yes, she had a very beautiful spirit) anyway, our pediatrician seriously took one look at how pitiful i looked & started writing out this plan in steps with numbers beside them. you know #1 give baby a bath at 7:30 #2 feed baby #3 read a book & sing a lullaby #4 so on & so forth telling us how to do this extreme but very successful cry it out method. we followed it to the tee. adeline cried for i believe over two hours the first night straight, then a few hours later she cried for about half an hour, then i was allowed to feed her at 2 a.m. or something like that. anyway, i soaked in our large wonderful tub icing my engorging breastfeeding gazungas (spelling error there, i'm sure) b/c every cry addy gave, my milk let down even more... oh my, that memory seems to nearly give way to a let down reflex.
anyway, i'm anticipating a terrible night sans a wonderful soaker tub & luckily i won't experience the engorgement (well, that happened about 4 months ago). sometimes i think that if i close my eyes & click my heels together 3 times & say "there's no place like home, there's no place like home there's no place like home" & then open my eyes, *POOF* i will find myself again in my bed, in our home in boise.
anyway, what i find the hardest about all this cry it out stuff, is that i sort of think maybe adeline's severe independence is partially from the fact that we did this cry it out stuff at such a young age. i'm not sure if this is just a case of mother's guilt or if it has a nugget of truth to it. but a true nugget of truth is that after 4 days of crying, adeline was a champ sleeper. she didn't sleep through the night until about 8 or 9 months or maybe even longer, i really don't know & that wasn't expected of her & that's not even what we expect of amelia (we're wanting her to sleep until around 4:30), we just don't think this getting up & staying awake for hours is realistic & healthy. ya know, for anyone in the family. anyway, that was a load of a paragraph, i don't want to damage our kids by doing this, but i don't want to damage their sleep habits by not doing this. we haven't had a problem with adeline's sleeping since we did the cry it out with her. so why are we so hesitant with amelia? b/c she's the youngest? b/c she's a bit more reserved? b/c of her reflux? hhhmmm?
by the way, comments are appreciated. but i have to warn you...if you leave a snide remark, this medication i'm on does have a side effect of severe anger mood swings... egads, was that a threat?
thinking back...the time when adeline went through cry it out. she was barely 5 1/2 months old, a youngin' for this method. but i was beyond exhausted. i was breastfeeding & she refused a bottle & refused any type of solids & was nursing every 3 hours around the clock. did i mention i was exhausted?! so our pediatrician in boise, dr beauchaine, who we adored (i secretly called her dr beautiful b/c her name sort of is spelled like beautiful & b/c she always helped us out & was so kind & amazing & yes, she had a very beautiful spirit) anyway, our pediatrician seriously took one look at how pitiful i looked & started writing out this plan in steps with numbers beside them. you know #1 give baby a bath at 7:30 #2 feed baby #3 read a book & sing a lullaby #4 so on & so forth telling us how to do this extreme but very successful cry it out method. we followed it to the tee. adeline cried for i believe over two hours the first night straight, then a few hours later she cried for about half an hour, then i was allowed to feed her at 2 a.m. or something like that. anyway, i soaked in our large wonderful tub icing my engorging breastfeeding gazungas (spelling error there, i'm sure) b/c every cry addy gave, my milk let down even more... oh my, that memory seems to nearly give way to a let down reflex.
anyway, i'm anticipating a terrible night sans a wonderful soaker tub & luckily i won't experience the engorgement (well, that happened about 4 months ago). sometimes i think that if i close my eyes & click my heels together 3 times & say "there's no place like home, there's no place like home there's no place like home" & then open my eyes, *POOF* i will find myself again in my bed, in our home in boise.
anyway, what i find the hardest about all this cry it out stuff, is that i sort of think maybe adeline's severe independence is partially from the fact that we did this cry it out stuff at such a young age. i'm not sure if this is just a case of mother's guilt or if it has a nugget of truth to it. but a true nugget of truth is that after 4 days of crying, adeline was a champ sleeper. she didn't sleep through the night until about 8 or 9 months or maybe even longer, i really don't know & that wasn't expected of her & that's not even what we expect of amelia (we're wanting her to sleep until around 4:30), we just don't think this getting up & staying awake for hours is realistic & healthy. ya know, for anyone in the family. anyway, that was a load of a paragraph, i don't want to damage our kids by doing this, but i don't want to damage their sleep habits by not doing this. we haven't had a problem with adeline's sleeping since we did the cry it out with her. so why are we so hesitant with amelia? b/c she's the youngest? b/c she's a bit more reserved? b/c of her reflux? hhhmmm?
by the way, comments are appreciated. but i have to warn you...if you leave a snide remark, this medication i'm on does have a side effect of severe anger mood swings... egads, was that a threat?
Good luck! Sleep training is SO tough, unbelievably tough, but worth it in the long run. I've been holding Audrey a lot the past week while she snoozed since she was sick, so right now she is crying upstairs, protesting going to bed on her own.
ReplyDeleteYou can do it!
Good luck Heidi and Wes. We haven't let G cry it out yet. I am so tempted some nights but haven't done it. Tonight might be the night. He is fussier than ever. You will have to let me know how it goes.
ReplyDeleteNo negative thoughts here. Emmy had a nap cry it out after her first really tough sickness. It was only 45-minutes, but I feel for you. We have always (since maybe 5-weeks) made her cry like she means it before we got up...the narcotics I was on helped me not get out of bed and I like to think that is one reason (that and luck) that she sleeps so well. Good luck.
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