We decided to move my 14-week-old daughter from her bassinet into the crib.

Crying…so much crying.

The sacrifices are made now (i.e., sleep, intimacy) so that she will sleep better as a toddler, child and adult.

We “sleep trained” my son.  The little guy doesn’t cry in the middle of the night with a 104 fever (I’d actually prefer him to be a little more vocal…but we can tell if something is up).  The road there was arduous.

Before I proceed any further…I need to mention this: our most invaluable tool is the video monitor.  Absolute must have.  We have a model from “Summer” that is our favorite.

Anyway, back to my son.  First we tried to let him “cry it out” at 4 months.  Basically, the hope is that your child will learn to soothe themselves and not freak the fuck out when they wake up.

Well…4 months is probably too young.  He was relentless.  Pillow over the head (mine), earplugs, nothing could drown out those cries.

We scrapped that plan.

Then we went to “progressive waiting”.  This is the shit.  Your kid cries, you wait a set amount of time.  After that time you go to their crib and for one minute ONLY just comfort them physically (rub their belly, head…something calming)…no verbal interaction whatsoever.  No eye contact.  THEY WILL (probably) GO FUCKING CRAZY when you walk away.  But then strangely…they calm down.

After the first interval, you wait for a longer period of time for interval 2.  We used 5-10-15-15-15….  Strangely enough, we never had to do 10…he relaxed and learned to calm himself down.

So, here we are with my daughter, and we are currently in the shit.

Oh look there, you’ll need to pardon the abruptness with which I end this dialogue, I have a screaming child to tend to.

Until a little later.

-EM

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