So she is sleeping through the night now...

Well, I am at least :-) After months and months of worry, getting up multiple times a night, frequent feedings, reading and listening to the hardcore CIO supports and my friends are are big into attachment parenting, I finally decided that my baby needed to sleep through the night. It took one horrible night of her standing in the crib screaming for us only two hours after going for bed, and then us trying for another two hours to get her BACK to bed, and then me finally going to bed exhausted at midnight, with her still crying to sleep. It was hard. But she was fine. I knew she was fine, as I had fed her, changed her diaper, massaged her belly for gas, checked her for any owies, snuggled her, rocked her, sang to her, and loved her up and down. In that moment she did not need anything, and just needed to cry. And guess what? She figured it out.

The next day, I went to facebook for help (whatever did we do before facebook? I love that you can post a status update and within hours, 18 people are offering useful tips and encouragement,) and surprisingly, the majority of my friends urged me to try to just straight up let her cry it out. No frequent checks, no physical soothing, no "ferberizing;" just shut the door, turn the the monitor, and let her go. But wait! Won't she cry a lot? Probably. Won't it be really hard and heartwrenching? Yes. But, they assured me, it would only be bad for three days. After that, it would work.

And guess what? It did!

So I did our little bedtime routine, kissed her goodnight, gave her a bunny blanket and a pacifier, then shut her door, coming back in only to dream feed her before I went to bed and check on her.

Night one was bad. Maybe two hours of crying, with me waking up in the middle of
the night and hearing her cry.

Night two was better. We stayed out later than we normally do, but she only woke up once that night and cried for less than a half hour.

Night three, she slept straight through. 8-7. Thank God.

It is still not perfect. She still sometimes cries for a long time before naps or bed, and sometimes I will wake up in the middle of the night and she is crying. However, I have gotten to know her cries better, and know when it sounds like something is wrong vs. her just being mad. Now, the majority of the time, she falls back asleep within minutes, even at naps. She sleeps about 11 hours at night, and how takes...wait for it...2 naps a day that are EACH 1-2.5 hours long! And she is so HAPPY! We still have snuggle moments and she still sleeps in bed with me on Saturday mornings. I do not feel like a horrible unfeeling mom. I do not feel like I damaged her by letting her cry. Honestly, I do not think she remembers it the next day.

All that said, I still do not really regret the choices I made prior to this. While I may try sleep training sooner than 7 months next time around, I do not intend to immediately use CIO from day one. I still believe that there is an appropriate age to sleep train, and an age that is too young to cry for hours. And even though sometimes it was hard, I am thankful I got to spoil my firstborn a little. I mean, she is the only one I have!

Not gonna lie though...getting more than 3 consecutive hours of sleep is NIIIIICE!

(This was her sleeping arrangments during a week where she was sick. Hopefully, we will not be doing this again any time soon!)