It worked!

 Jack naps!  And has been sleeping realllly well! Good, cause I was about to start pulling my hair out!  Bobby and I couldn't be happier parents right now!  I went back and forth over all the different "methods" of sleep solutions.  I can't believe how strong minded people can be about the different methods, especially when they haven't tried it! 

I knew the basics of the cry it out method.  I mean it sounds self-explanitory right?  But I hadn't really done much reading on it.  Like I said before, not much time for reading these days.  So after whining talking to my BFF about what the heck to do with this child, I decided to let him learn to fall asleep on his own.  And if that involved a little crying to get some sleep, we would try it.  She told me I might need to let him cry for up to an hour! How was I ever going to listen to my poor baby cry for an hour?

So the first night, we started our routine.  Eat dinner, playtime, bathtime, nurse in his quiet room, little lovey baby/mommy time, then Daddy put him in his crib.  He was good for a minute.  Then cried.  For 40 minutes.  I cried too.  I wanted so bad to go pick him up.  There was no way this was going to work.  Finally around 8:30pm, he stopped.  My first thought is "OMG is he still alive?"  After making Bobby check that he was still breathing, we got to relax.  Well for like three minutes before Bobby was asking to go to bed.  He's such an old man now that he gets up at 4:00am.  I guess I can't blame him.  Before we went to bed, I did something I should have done a long time ago.  I turned off the baby monitor.  See, our house isn't that big.  Jack's room is right next to ours.  I can hear him breathe practically.  I didn't need the monitor to hear him cry.  All it did was wake me up every time he squeaked.  I needed some sleep too...

At 4:00am the alarm goes off, I panic.  Jack had not woken up yet.  But I take a breath, relax, and realize he's probably fine.  I mean, the kid had not slept well for a least a week, he was probably exhausted.  I fell back asleep, but not very well since I kept thinking I heard him crying.  He ended up waking up at 5:00am! 

The next day we started our first naptime routine.  About 9:00am, we go into his room, read a book, nurse, and I put him down in his crib and turn his seahorse on.  This time he only fussy cried for like 15 minutes.  And napped for like an hour.  Much better than the 20 minutes he used to sleep huh?

And here we are now, almost a week in.  He naps three times a day, wakes up once during the night again, and falls asleep on his own!  Usually it's less than 5 minutes of fussiness, I really wouldn't call it crying!  He is so much happier too.  I am happier too in case you couldn't tell!

In the end, I learned that you just have to go with what works for your child.  Be open to everyone's advice and don't write it off until you've tried it.  Every child is different, so everyone's parenting technique will also be different.

On a different note, I'm getting the mirena put in on Wednesday.  Anyone have one?  I am not looking forward to pain in that area again.  I tried asking the NP all these questions like whats the pain like? how long does the procedure take? how long will I be down for, if at all?  But in typically military healthcare fashion, she told me to read the handout, "all the questions you could ever ask are answered in there."  Obviously not lady...