Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Crying it out

Last night (at 3:30am mind you) Thad and I decided it was time to let Brady 'cry it out.' His sleeping has been horrible lately. He got a tooth a few weeks ago, and then things got better. I knew another one was coming, and sure enough, I spotted it yesterday. But by midnight, he was screaming (again), so I nursed him, etc, until around 3:15. When he is continually screaming in bed with us (which is where he ends up after one to two hours in his crib), you know it's gotten out of hand. 
Finally we put him in his crib, and he cried, and cried, and cried. I wasn't feeling well, so took some Tylenol. He must have settled for awhile, because I think I crashed after 4am. Then at about 5:15, we heard him again. It was another rough period. Kate even tried to get us to go in there to soothe him. Try explaining to a six year old why you are torturing the baby!
When I went in to check on him at 6:45am, he was awake, sucking on his pacifier, and just smiling at me like I was his long lost mommy....which to him I was.
This is such a tough thing to do to a baby, but our goal is to help Brady to soothe himself better AND get a better night of sleep. He needs to sleep better....
Stay tuned.

5 comments:

Vicky said...

Oh I so feel ya! Such a tough one, but I never found anything else that worked. Both my boys cried it out and it was torture, but afterwards, I wondered why I hadn't done it sooner :) Hang in there!

Kris said...

Lucy went through a period of waking up in the middle of the night around 5 months. I, of course, assumed she was hungry so I nursed her. After about a month of this, I was EXHAUSTED. My dr. assured me that I would have to let her "cry it out" and then it would just take 3 days tops to break this habit. First night...she screamed for over an hour, next night she screamed for about a half an hour, and by night three, viola she was back to sleeping through the night. It's so hard to do but so good for them (and you).

TBRKO said...

We did it with Ryan. I don't remember even needing to with the girls. I guess my boys just want to work their mama huh?
Kris: I hear you on the nursing front. I had to do it last night at midnight....and many other nights too.
Brady is ready for bed at 8pm on the dot. We put him in his crib, and then after an hour or two, the problems begin....
He is in the habit of waking to eat around five. We have tried unsuccessfully to get him to stay up later, but to no avail...

HHLSS said...

Well I feel for you. I am now up again every 2 hours at night to nurse Boden. He was at a point where he would go 4 hours in between feedings at night but he must be going through a growth spurt now. His crib is in our room however he has been sleeping in my bed since day one. He hasn't cried yet since we brought him home so I need him close to know he needs to be fed! Leiton never spent one night in his crib...(YIKES I know!) Girls must be easier because Hali never had a problem with sleeping through the night in her own room in her crib. Things will seem better soon...once you get some sleep! :)

ABCDH said...

I swear we are on the same wave length because I was just talking about "crying it out" with my cousin yesterday!
It sucks the big one when they won't sleep in the middle of the night. I mean, we KNOW they are tired and just need to sleep, but listening to them cry is torture!
I have to say that I have been lucky enough to not have to endure too much of the crying it out. For whatever reason all my girls are easy to get down and stay down - THANK GOD!!!
Good luck and hopefully you can catch up on sleep soon!