WIO

"I was a much better parent before I had kids."

Have you heard that quote before?  It's funny really.  We all have these dreams about what our lives will be like when we have babies of our own.  We judge, criticize, and swear that we will never do that.  I think I've done all of that and will probably continue to do more.  

Now, you are probably wondering what those three little letters (WIO) stand for, and I will get to that in a minute.  I always swore that I would never be rocking my baby to sleep.  I wanted my baby to teach himself/herself to fall asleep without my help.  I knew I would never nurse my baby to sleep.  I was going to follow the Baby Wise schedule which is eat, play, sleep.  I always thought that the Cry It Out (CIO) method would be exactly what I would use.  It's fine for babies to cry, right? 

Then, along came Kai.

 In the early, newborn days, Kai would fall asleep anywhere, anytime.  Then, he became a little more alert and would need some help falling asleep.  Insert rocking chair.  I discovered that reading some books and rocking would put Kai right to sleep and then I could transfer him right to his crib.  (There goes 'never rocking my baby to sleep'.)

I still follow the Baby Wise, but definitely not to a T.  There are days, especially now that daycare has started, when all Kai wants to do after he eats is sleep.  A few months ago I would have tried everything to keep him awake.  Today, we both napped after he ate.

CIO?  Definitely not for me!  I've tried it, for all of 30 seconds.  I cannot listen to him lie in his bed and cry.  It just breaks my heart too much.  I keep thinking, "He must need something if he's crying."

So, do you think he has me wrapped around his finger just a little bit?

Well, I will have you know that I now only rock him until he's drowsy.  He will fall asleep in his crib alone.  There are even nights when I rock and rock and he isn't getting sleepy, so I just lay him down and he'll eventually fall asleep (after chatting away at his mobile).

Here comes the WIO method - Wait It Out.  I read this blog where the mother is writing a letter to her daughter and it spoke to me.  This is (almost) exactly how I feel about sleep training.

Read it
http://nurshable.com/2012/07/19/the-wio-wait-it-out-method-of-sleep-training/

So yes, even though I am tired and I need sleep, I can wait it out so that Kai doesn't have to cry it out.  I secretly think I'll miss our middle-of-the-night cuddle sessions when he no longer needs me then.