"Say Goodnight and Don't Look Back"

"Say goodnight and don't look back," advocates Dr. Spock. We've now done this for three nights. I thought my heart would break to hear Raeford crying inconsolably for hours, so I went shopping as soon as we put him down on the first night. He wailed.

But, he was done in 20 minutes.

Then he slept fairly soundly for most of the night. He ate at 1 am; I ignored him at 3:30am and he fell back asleep.

The next night, I planned to leave again and let Mr. Graff tough out the crying. We did our dinner-bath-play-song bedtime routine. Raeford knows what is happening when we start to sing. He howled for a few seconds, realized it was getting him nowhere and fell asleep.

Score.

Last night, we put him down because he was acting tired. He cried for attention for a few minutes and fell asleep. He stayed asleep for almost 7 hours! He woke at 3am to feed and fell asleep until morning.

Why didn't I do this earlier?

I was afraid that Raeford would not stop crying. That he would hurt himself. That letting him cry would make me a bad parent. That he would not trust or like me in the morning. Oh, this is so not the case.

I feel much better now. I get rest. I sleep deeper and feel better when I wake up. I'm a better parent during the day; I get more done around the house. I have patience again. It's amazing. Raeford, too, feels better. He eats more during the day (and less at night). He wakes up happier. He poops better. He plays independently better. He's more enjoyable to be around.

This is what we call a win-win.