Sleep

That's what I want Matthew to do...that's what I want to do. Why is it so hard???

We've been trying to decide what to do about Matthew not sleeping. Letting babies cry it out has always seemed so heartless to me, but nothing else was working.

A friend loaned me the book "Happiest Baby on the Block" yesterday and I've skimmed through parts of it. It has some great information and suggestions and I really agreed with and related to a lot of what was said. So, we decided to follow the plan in this book and let Matthew cry himself to sleep (or learn to self soothe). I like thinking of it the latter way.

So, I was all geared up and ready to try it out tonight. I bathed Matthew, got him ready for bed, fed him, read stories, and then turned the light off to sing songs. He started screaming right away. I finished singing, kissed him and put him in bed. The screaming lasted 45 minutes...not bad. I really expected it to be worse.

Jon and I sat listening to the quiet for a few more minutes and then decided to peek in on him. He looked so sweet and innocent and I felt so proud that he had actually fallen asleep. I love watching my babies sleep.

We watched him for a minute and then left the room. However, a well intentioned attempt to remove some toys that were in his crib woke him up. And he spent another hour and 45 minutes screaming. And screaming and screaming. It is now 9:30 and I think he's finally gone to sleep. (Fingers crossed)

It was interesting to me to see how Jon and I each handled this. I feel like I had prepared myself mentally, emotionally, etc for the screaming so it really didn't bother me much. Jon, on the other hand, was the one having a hard time with it, wanting to check on him and hold him. A major role reversal.

I don't know where I'm going with all of this or if any of it makes sense. I guess I was just trying to keep busy while I waited for the screaming to end.

So, I'm just curious...do you all let the little ones cry it out? What things have worked for you?