Sleep adventures

When Havoc was born, he slept like a champ. Most nights, he slept for at least five or six hours at a stretch, and he was super easy to put back to sleep once he did wake up.

Well. Somewhere around six months old, he decided that I'd had enough sleep, and he flat out refused to sleep. He was waking up screaming bloody murder every single hour, every single night, and putting him back to sleep was awful. He would cry and cry, and the only way to calm him down was to nurse him, but at that point he'd gotten a few teeth, and he would bite me. Hard. A lot. I was sleep deprived, frustrated, dehydrated, and sore-nippled. Poor Tim bore the brunt of my exhaustion, I yelled at him all the time despite the fact that he was doing everything he could to help. I was completely irrational. I bought books, I read hundreds of internet articles, I called or emailed every mother I know for advice, I cried buckets, and I drank gallons of vodka.

One day, I reached rock bottom. I was moments away from a complete nervous breakdown, and I just couldn't do it anymore. I sat down with Tim and told him that I wanted to try the one thing we both swore we'd never do... cry it out. I felt like a terrible mother for even being willing to consider it, it seemed like such a mean thing to do to my poor baby, but I was losing my mind. Tim agreed, and we settled in for a long miserable night.

When I put Havoc to bed, he cried. And cried. And cried. For an hour, he screamed. Then he just... went to sleep. And he stayed asleep for four hours. He woke up, and he screamed. For twenty minutes. Then he slept for a few more hours. He woke up and cried for less than five minutes.

The next night, he cried for less than twenty minutes.

Now, he cried for less than five minutes at bedtime, then he sleeps through the night. Like, through the night. Not the technical definition of sleeping through the night, which is only five hours at a stretch, but through the night! He sleeps between eleven and thirteen hours at a stretch.

I'm human again. It's glorious. I have no idea if this is going to keep happening, but I'm going to enjoy it as long as I possibly can.

Now, I'm not saying that this method would work for everyone. I'm certain that it doesn't work for everyone. But, man oh man, did it work for us.