Cry-It-Out Method

I talked about this a couple months ago on my blog when I was transitioning Eva out of her car seat. But I was recently talking to a friend who has older kids and she asked if Eva is a good sleeper and it made me realize how incredibly happy I am about implementing this method, so I want to share it again with some more of my opinions and tips.

First of all, I owe Eva’s great sleeping habits to a fellow blogger. Her baby is about one year ahead of mine and when Eva was about five months old and only napping in my arms and wouldn’t sleep in the crib through the night, I remembered I had read a blog post from her several months back about letting their baby cry it out. She said to be a good mom, we need sleep too. I searched it on google and the only things I could find were negative. People would say it was cruel or that it hurts your baby. But then you also hear and read that your baby needs to learn how to fall asleep on their own. After talking to Eva’s doctor about it and assuring me that 30 minutes of crying wasn’t going to hurt my baby at all AND that a baby at six months should be able to sleep for 7-11 hours without getting hungry, I decided to do it.

It took a couple of days and back in May I worked up to letting her just cry it out completely. There have also been times this summer where I have had to do it again after Eva’s been sick or after travel, but after letting Eva cry it out for a night or two, she learned (/ remembers) how to put herself straight to sleep.

The results were almost incredible back in May. A routine finally came into our life. I started being able to depend on Eva napping two times a day for about two hours each. I knew she’d go to sleep without a problem around 8, and I finally felt a bit of serenity back into my life!

So, looking back I’ve come up with one conclusion. A healthy baby can become a good sleeper. You just have to give them a chance to do it. If you jump up every time they cry in the night or never give them the chance to fall asleep on their own in the crib, they will never have the opportunity to learn how to fall asleep on their own. And from what I’ve heard, it’s a lot easier the earlier you do it!

And one last tip before I step off my soapbox. I read about a study where parents had to listen to a baby’s cry for a certain amount of time. When they were asked at the end how long they thought the baby was crying, their guess usually was MUCH longer than the actual time. So, if you want to start letting your baby cry it out, look at the clock and count the minutes instead of relying on yourself. You will be surprised.