Well, I tried the same thing for afternoon nap and while Delia went down like a champ, Elsie has now been screaming for an hour now with now slowdown (just like yesterday). She stopped crying when I went in and patted her, but didn’t fall asleep and cried again when I left after a few minutes. I can’t believe Delia can sleep through the racket, and Emma too, in the next room. I am pretty scared she will wake up early if I do not intervene at some point.
What I hate about CIO (cry it out) is that everyone seems to think it is the holy grail of sleep fixes, and that the first day will be the worst, but in the days following it will get better and better, and by day 3 or 5 or whatever you will be down to no crying and perfect sleep. That is so not my experience. When I do it, my kids, especially Elsie, just cry for an hour or more (sometimes less, but then long again on subsequent days), day after day after day, until I break down. I just don’t see any progress when I let her CIO. Several hours of crying for a 40 min nap every day with no progress over time seems insane. Why am I doing this?
Back now after going to pat Elsie to sleep. She fell asleep pretty quick if I stood there patting this time. Whew. Despite the crying with Elsie, in general things are going better. Its baby steps forward, so its easy to get caught up in the day to day stuff and not notice the progress we’ve made. They no longer sleep on me all through the night! They can (sometimes) fall asleep without nursing — by either being held/rocked/patted by Lonnie or me. They can sleep next to us in our bed, or in their Ambys pretty well, and now (Delia in particular) their cribs! If I watch them (or the clock) like a hawk so that they don’t get overtired, they fall asleep within 10-15 minutes. They can be transferred sometimes without a fuss, even if they wake and know whats going on. Emma was never like that — transfers were always out of the question!
Night is a different story, though. I still (often!) resort to letting them cosleep/nurse to sleep because I need sleep too! The nightwaking is still pretty insane — every 2 hours generally, sometimes more like every hour, and sometimes they are up for an hour or two several times in the night as well. LAME.
But, progress on the nap front. Elsie, we gotta figure this out for your sanity and mine….
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you are a saint! Months of sleepless nights.
NO MOTHER can forget sleepless nights, nor will envy you during this time.
I breastfed my son until he was about 1 years old because the “ferber or CIO” thing drove me to a completely, sleep deprived, insanity. I had to accept that I was not cut out for CIO.
What is the harm of my baby getting mommy comfort and I benefit from a reasonable nights sleep…. They grow so fast…
I think that I cried as much as he did sometimes.
I think that it is great that you are blogging your experiences because it is hard to remember things in “hind sight”…
You are blessed with amazingly beautiful and healthy children. You may need to take a mommy break sometimes, but remember that YOU are raising your children. there are not that many children being raised by their moms and dads these days.
AGAIN… you are a great mom and working on sainthood!!!!
Reading your experiences remind us all that we are not alone in the sleep deprived battle of raising babies!
Aiden cried for at least 3 hours before sleeping when we sleep trained him out of desperation. The long long crying times lasted for about 3-4 nights and then tapered off after that.
I’m sure you know this already, but we ultimately C+C’d Matilda (several times) and it was never the “one or two nights and then tapering off” thing. It just doesn’t work like with some kids.
I’m so impressed that you’re just figuring this out. It must be so hard, slogging through it. But you’re the mama, and you’ll figure out the best thing for E + D. Matilda and I are thinking of you all!