Cry it out?

May I start off this post by stating that I do not believe any one parenting style is superior to any other.

In my opinion, there are babies who can cry it out and ones who can't. In that same token, I think there are parents who can let their babies cry it out and those who can't. I also have found that some babies respond to different things a different stages in their lives.

In my limited knowledge of what babies do and prior to having one of my own, I thought the labor and delivery of having a baby would be the most difficult part, that we would bring her home and that she would respond to me. I thought I would be able to solve all problems, that just my voice or my touch would calm her. Little did I understand that she would have a mind of her own and that sometimes that mind would make up for herself what she needs and what she doesn't need.

So, when she was a newborn, I thought she needed to cry it out in order to go through whatever it was she needed to go through. Yet, we found out really quickly that she would not be crying it out, but rather would work herself up to a sweaty, irate mess. So we stopped letting her cry and began to help her soothe when she was upset.

As many of you have read, we then began having sleep problems....for 3 MONTHS!!

All of a sudden, about a week and a half ago, she would wake up and play and fuss a little...not cry. Sometimes there would be an outburst here and there but a lot of times there would just be "talking" or fussing. One night she rolled around in her crib talk-fussing and we decided to see what would happen. She did this for about 30 minutes and then went back to sleep! So we started trying that a little more often and sometimes it actually works! I believe this is our level of "cry it out" and it hasn't always been a capability for our little one.

So I am of the mind that you can have a cry it out baby at one stage and not at another. For example, this morning at 6, she was actively crying for 10 minutes with no intermission of fussing or talking, so I got her out of her crib and put her in bed with me. We slept for another hour and 15 minutes. I don't think she would have gone back to sleep on her own and she was not ready to get up for the day. At 7:30, she was and we started our day.

All this to say, if you're frustrated by others supporting one way or another and thinking your baby should be able to do "this", you simply (which is never really simple) must follow what your baby will tolerate. I do believe we will have to break some things/habits eventually because we have one strong-willed child...but you can not reason with a newborn or infant and sometimes you need to do what you need to do to get by.

{I'm happy to report that our sleep has improved slightly and we are hopeful that we will continue on this path at least for a little bit - although we are in the midst of the teething battle and are experiencing some extra fussiness and crying than usual.}

Be encouraged, dear friends who experience sleep troubles. I am a pessimist who sometimes has trouble seeing the light, but I am here to tell you that there will be light!