Crying it out...

Well, I have made a decision to let my littlest cry it out at night. I really had to consciously decide to do this this time around. With our first child, it kinda came naturally. I mean we got him to a good weight and age, and then started putting him to bed and letting him cry a little to get to sleep. Then if he woke up at night, we would check on him, etc. but let him go back to sleep on his own. It was hard, but it seemed to work well..and before long he became such a good sleeper! I'm still amazed at how well he goes to bed (most of the time!).

Well, the saying that no two babies are the same couldn't be more truer! Hannah is not a good sleeper. She is almost 9 months old and she still wakes up at night. She doesn't like her own bed, she likes to sleep with us, and she still wants to be fed at night. Well, I am probably to blame alot for her. But this time was soo different. Its hard to let your second one cry it out, when there's another baby sleeping in the room next door. And its even hard when the crying baby has a very high pitch, gut-wrenching scream as a cry! She is incredibly loud! So I've babied her. I've picked her up as soon as she even started to cry. Fed her at night to get her to be quiet. And even let her sleep in the bed with us still.

Well, the other night I decided it was time. Enough is enough! 9 months of not sleeping consistently is too much. So, the other night I fed her and as soon as she was done, I went a layed her down. She screamed for a while, but eventually went to sleep. Then she woke up several times and cried, but I held my ground! And she did eventually go back to sleep each time. And we did the same thing last night, which was alot better. So hopefully its working. And the crying doesn't seem to be bothering Elijah much at all, so we'll keep trying.

But, its so weird, because at night...I'm holding my breath hoping that she'll go to sleep, and she'll stay asleep....but at the same time, I'm also holding my breath waiting for her to make any sound so I know she's still breathing! Last night I layed there for so long debating whether I should go check on her, just touch her to make sure she was ok. Motherhood makes you feel such conflicting emotions sometimes!