Cry Baby

If "crying it out" were a science, I'd have my masters. I've put in many a credit hour on the subject. Initially from reading about it (and vowing it was something I'd never do), then reading about it some more, then trying it and to my great surprise, finding it worked. To the point that what was written in "Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child", was being re-inacted to a T. 


The first time I did it, was because 1.2.1 had got to the point where she was waking every half hour, just for a cuddle, and was up for 1-2 hours in the middle of the night. Not crying, just wanting to hang out. I was exhausted after a few weeks of this, so decided drastic times called for drastic measures. 


The first night wasn't so bad. She cried for 15 minutes, then the second night 10, third night 5, fourth night, zero. Exactly what was said would happen. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! hallelujah! Not too tricky at all. The next week, she cottoned on. Realising that a wee cry wasn't sufficient, she went for a full on, blood curdling, heart breaking wail. I of course went in to make sure she wasn't being malled by a lion. I picked her up thinking there must be something terribly wrong with her, or at least expecting a giant burp, but no, she went promptly back to sleep on my shoulder.


She got smart. Wise to my ways, and adapted her game. So the next night, I had my guard well and truly up. Little did I know that that guard would melt and burn a searing hole in my heart. Again she only cried for 15 minutes, but that was the longest, hardest 15 minutes of my life (almost). My husband held me while mascara streamed it's way down my face. He reassured me that we were doing it for her. We'd seen how much more well rested she was from the week before. But man oh man, how that quarter hour scarred me. If I had to do it again though, I would. It has changed all of our lives. Generally she now sleep 11-12 hours a night, and a total of 2-3 hours in naps per day. There are obviously times where the schedule has been interrupted and a little bit of crying has to be endured, and the less frequent it is, the harder it is to do. But the one thing that gets me through, is the knowledge that they really don't remember the crying. The activity is such, that it is designed to be somewhat erased from memory. I've cried a lot in my life, and the times that I have cried myself to sleep, have definitely been very fuzzy. Plus she wakes up with a big fat grin on her face, she can't hate me that much.


Google search of the day "Capoeira videos" - I believe my nephew would make an excellent student. I will be looking up classes here momentarily.