Let him cry it out

It seems so obvious, right. Baby cries, parent's ignore it, baby falls asleep, never cries again.

Parent's of older kids talk about it like it's that easy. "We let little Billy cry it out." They say it with a hint of all-knowing bias that ignores the fact that they are currently not letting little Billy cry it out now.

We are.

And it blows.

The first night was Sunday. And it didn't go well. Gavin began crying at around 2:00AM (somewhat on schedule). At around 2:15AM, Rhona went in. She couldn't take it anymore. She fed him. Put him back down when he fell asleep, and we attempted to re-fall asleep. This isn't easy. We're worked up because we've spent the last half an hour listening the anguish in the little boy. We don't want him to anguish. We want to go to him, hold him, and make it all better.

But we're letting him cry it out.

Back to Sunday. 5 minutes after he seemed to be asleep, he woke up. And puked all over the place. He spent the remainder of the night in our bed.

Monday. With ear plugs in, Rhona seemed a little more prepared for the whole thing. And when he cried at around 3:00AM, we let it go for 20 minutes, then Rhona went in.

But she didn't lift him up. She rubbed his shoulders and back, and stayed near. That was enough to get him to sleep.

Which brings us to Tuesday night. This is when it's beginning to come together. Because on this night, when the cries came, we stayed strong. They only lasted about 10 minutes, and he got homself back to sleep.

This is it. We're winning.