CIO

I finally made the decision (early this morning at 4 am when Matt and I were arguing) to start the CIO method. (Cry it out.) I am so nervous about it! I am such a softy when it comes to letting Alida cry. I absolutely hate it!! She has been waking in the night for the past 2 months now to eat (or to be with her mama - not sure which) and I am really starting to feel the effects of not getting solid sleep. Ugh! I was hoping that it was just something that she was going to grow out of....a growth spurt or a teething phase....no such luck! So, tonight will be the first semi CIO night. I say semi because I won't let her cry longer than 15 minutes or so. Fussing is one thing but flat out screaming is something I cannot handle! My plan is to let her cry if she wakes before 8 full hours of sleep. If she has slept 8 hours and she wakes I will feed her. That's the way I plan to do it for the next week and then I will increase it to 8 1/2, then to 9 and so on. I really feel as though I can't expect her to sleep 10 - 1 2 hours off the bat and since she has been getting the night feedings her body will need to adjust to eating a little more during the day. At least that's where my "thinking" has led me. She won't be able to sleep longer than 10 hours anyway....since I have to wake her by 6 am to feed her and get her ready to drop off. I just checked out some message boards and read about 10 - 15 different posts on June babies, all Alida's age and all of them are sleeping through the night! Insanity! Alida really spoiled me with that sleeping through the night thing at 3 months old! I was too confident that she would just keep it up forever! I hope tonight goes well......poor Alida. I feel bad for her already!!