Thursday, October 4, 2007

crying

Today marks the beginning of letting Kale cry himself to sleep. I didn't plan on starting today. In fact, I keep making excuses not to start. "I'll start next week" and "What we're doing now works". However, this morning I was tired so I thought I would try. I put him down after his early morning feeding with his pacifier in his mouth but he was awake. Usually I rock him to drowsy or to sleep before I lay him down but he just wanted to look around this morning. So, I laid him down and went back to bed. He of course spit his suckie out and started crying. I decided to put the pillow over my head and see what happened. To my surprise and delight, he fell asleep! I was so proud of him and of myself for not going in to hold him. I was also very thankful for the extra hour of sleep I got!

Just now, I put him down for a nap after he had fallen asleep in my arms. He of course woke up while I was laying him down. Instead of holding him or putting his suckie in, I decided to see if he was up to the challenge of falling asleep on his own again. It worked! He cried for about 15 minutes while I kept myself very busy so I wouldn't go in there. At one point he was extremely mad but now he is asleep! It gets a little easier to let him cry now that I know he won't go on forever! Like I say, every day I learn something new. I really like this mother thing!

3 comments:

Harvey Globetrotters said...

you are too great. I don't know the first thing about mothering, but I do know that setting boundaries and goals are a part of life- congratulations to both you and Kale for this big step :)

Deeapaulitan said...

4 weeks and already you are taking the big steps! Wow - I can't believe it's been a month! Time does fly.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! You are a very strong mother. With both kids I would sit outside their bedroom door for the first week we had them cry themselves to sleep and I would cry with them. You're doing great. Take care.