I had the same problem with Amelia at that age and I spent MANY weeks sleeping in the sofa with her in swing at night because it was the only place she would sleep, small sarcifice IMO. At 12wks or so she just decided that it was okay to sleep in her bassinette instead and did till she was 6months. I think BF babies are a little more needy for closeness when they are small.

I've read in many places and heard several health professionals say that a baby shouldn't be left to "cry it out" until they are at least 6months, younger babies don't understand the concept and need the comfort and reassurance.

If you are going to use Controlled Crying though please be sure to check him every 10-15minutes.

It seems like watching the images on the DVD player soothes Tess so it may not be the music, but actually the images. Not really sure.

The swing is the BEST present we ever recevied. Ive been using it since day 1 though so it may take awhile to get Alex used to it.

When my oldest was a baby, I waited until my he was way over a year old to let him cry it out. He woke up several times a night up to that point and I worked full time. I was just soo tired and frustrated. I was so upset to let him cry it out. But once I did, he slept soundly through the night after day 2. I was kicking myself for not doing it sooner. I did it much younger with my other son.

Yep that's why I don't really want to let Alex cry but I need to do something about it as I am tired of sleeping so much during the day...

Thanks Vicky, I have tried the masage before but it doesn't work with us b/c Alex always giggles when I do it. The nurse saw me do it and she said I do it right but for some reason he just giggles when I do it.

Alex has a DVD in the car for when we go somewhere and he always listens to some soothing baby romanian songs and the images are of watter and skies and he always fals asleep like that. I might try to bring one of the screens in and see what happens.

That is what I normally do...check on him, but it is probably like every 5 minutes. Sometimes he will cry it out within 10-15 minutes(just being fussy, fighting sleep)...if not I pick him up and we go on. Normally when he goes on for 15 min his little face is all red and he is hot and sweaty so try not to let him go that far too often. We are not really on a schedule yet during the day, but at night he normally will sleep from 10:30pm to 3am and then after he is fed he will then get back up about 6-6:30'ish. Not too bad during the night. The other night could not get him to sleep till 1am...I was drained.

His is such a hard issue to deal with!

I think it is a presonal choice as to what works for you. My best advice would be to look to the future. What do you want to be doing at bedtime/ naptime a year from now? Do you want to have to lay down with him everyday for the next year? What about 5 years from now?



I thought I would just share my experience with you!

I have four children. My oldest is 15 and my youngest is 8...so it has been a while since we have sone the whole baby thing. I made a decision when my oldest was little that at 6 months we would let her cry herself to sleep. It was really hard the first night! Really hard! I didn't think my DH would make it. We did not check on her until she was quite for a while...hoping she was a sleep... and she was. I think it took us 45 minutes the first night. After a few night she would go right to sleep and we NEVER had any problems with her getting up in the middle of the night. We did this with all of our children. None of them has ever given us any problems about going to bed.

I have always had sound machines in all my childrens rooms to drowned out any noises. They still use them today!

My sister, (who I love more then anything in the world) can not listen to her children cry not even for a few minutes. Has had nothing but problems getting her children to bed. Her oldest is 8 and still gives my sister problems about going to bed. Her youngest is 3 and they end up laying down with both children until the kids fall asleep. If the kids get up in the middle of the night...they lay with them until they go back to sleep. I don't think my sister or her DH have had a good night sleep for years.

When I look back on it, I am glad I did it. It was painful for a few nights. But, paid off for years to come.