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At our one year checkup, while discussing K’s inability to fall back asleep on his own, the DR encouraged us to work on letting him cry it out, and soothe himself during the night rather than running to the rescue. I know. I know. We probably should have been doing that for a while now, but it’s so hard to listen to him scream without going in to help him. And I do mean scream. We’ve actually attempted the CIO approach before, and the record for the longest I’ve let him go before I intervene is 90 minutes. Turns out, he can stand and scream for 90 straight minutes without so much as a break. He was miserable. I was miserable. He likes to cuddle. I like to cuddle…why choose the lose/lose situation there?
So…breaking him of the need to be rocked to sleep will be tough. Just as breaking me of my need to rush to his side will be tough. I’m in no hurry, as I don’t mind the special time together, despite the occasional sleepiness. But she made a good point in that if we don’t start working on that now, he’ll soon be big enough or old enough to climb out of bed and hunt for us when he wakes up. And that’s just dangerous. And given his interest in climbing (he can already get on to the couch) and the likelihood that a gate or a door won’t stop him (he already reaches for knobs and is trying to figure out how to open the baby gate at the stairs) we need to start working on this now. So…here’s hoping Mama and Daddy can be more persistent and patient than K. I have my doubts…
Any tips from someone who had a cuddle bug and how you transitioned them to a more independent sleeper without driving you and the baby crazy in the meantime?
Mama Laughs 
Oh, that was so hard with my oldest. He screamed. He wanted to be in bed with me.
My advice is once you start with CIO, stick it out. Going back to the cuddles starts the process all over again.