Crying it out

It had to happen, and now it has. I worked so hard to do EASY (eat, activity, sleep, your time) with Jason, but he was always very hard to put down even if I didn't nurse him to sleep. He only slept in his car seat, on me in the carrier or holding him, or next to me in our bed reliably until last Sunday when Nicholas and I committed to getting Jason into his crib. The problem was that I started nursing him to sleep around the time he got his first tooth because I couldn't get him to sleep any other way. He took a paci if I forced it on him for a while, but that ended over a month ago now. Around the end of April he started waking every forty-five to ninety minutes or so at night, so I nursed all night long, which wasn't as bad as it sounded except that I had to be there to get him back to sleep every. single. time.

Last Saturday when I hosted Bunco, Jason wouldn't sleep, and he just stayed up with the ladies and me until 10:30. We started cry-it-out the next night. I will not admit to how much crying there was the first night, but it was measured in hours. The next night was down by half. The third night was the best so far. I am still nursing him at reasonable intervals because I don't think he is ready to go 10-12 hours without eating. That will come.

Tonight he went down with NO crying!! Woo hoo!!

Last night we went to our neighbor's house for a big 4th of July party, and I brought Jason back and put him down at 6:45 and kept the monitor. It was great not to have a sleepy baby on me!!

We are also down to two to three naps a day--three only if the naps are bad, but usually two, each about an hour and a half. This is a huge improvement, too. And I am sitting down to nurse Jason instead of just nursing in the carrier and having him fall asleep there.

These are the shocking pictures of Jason asleep in his crib...which seriously had hardly ever happened before this week!

Here he is awake, but calm and putting himself to sleep.