Giving Crying-It-Out a Try

Sometimes I think Ethan is the poster child for how-to-destroy-child by-co-sleeping. Other times, I enjoy the bond that comes with co-sleeping. Basically, Ethan could not sleep unless he is seriously helped, and he wakes up easily, with a temper because he did not get enough sleep. On average, he sleeps 8 hours at night and about 1 to 2 hour nap in the afternoon. That's not enough for a 22 month old.

As you can imagine, I had been thinking about putting baby girl to sleep in the crib on her own. The nannies in the neighborhood tells me that if the child sleeps on his/her own, the child usually sleeps longer, like up to 12 hours straight. I also know friends who have children who sleeps that long on their own in a crib.

So tonight, after nursing, I gave myself no more excuse to postpone the inevitable. Artimus landed in the crib, smiling as usual. After an unusually long 10 minutes, she started crying . . . louder and louder . . . then some coughing, then a brief silence followed by a high pitch scream and more desperate crying. The seconds felt like minutes and minutes felt like hours. I could just see her face with all the tears stream out of her eyes, and her arms swing and her legs kicking. I cried too. After about half an hour, JK and I decided that perhaps our kids are just born to need co-sleeping.

JW