CIO is not so bad

CIO, or "Cry It Out" is a method of sleep training that allows a baby to cry for a specified period of time before the parent will offer comfort. Some people follow Dr. Richard Ferber's approach, and call it Ferberization. I've heard nightmare stories about babies screaming their heads off for an hour before finally passing out, while the parents are left crying themselves. The idea is that it will take 3 nights of misery to get your baby to learn to put themselves to sleep.

About a month ago, we tried it for the first time. Brenna cried for 10 minutes, and then she just fell asleep. We thought we were too lucky, it was a fluke, but we didn't have to try it again until last night.

Well, last night was even better - she sobbed for 4 minutes, then she was out.

Tonight, she seemed hyper again at bedtime, so instead of waiting until I thought she was more tired and rocking her in the dark later (our old approach), we tried it one more time. We laid her down in her bed with the blue rubber ducky (more on this in my next post) and kissed her goodbye. She immediately popped back up with a huge smile, and jumped up and down. She was practically saying, "Pick me up, I want to play." We closed the door and she let out a huge desperate cry for, oh, 20 seconds. And then she was sound asleep.

I am in shock. I can't believe it works. I can't believe that I have wasted the last few months rocking a semi-sleepy baby to sleep in the dark to Rock A Bye Baby, U2 Version, when her last bottle of the night didn't put her out.

And, as happy as I am about the success of CIO for us, part of me is sad that she doesn't really need my rocking to put her to sleep, and I feel like my baby is getting too big.