Cry It Out.

Last Friday my mom and I took Griff to the doctor. Sweet boy wasn't acting sick, but wasn't going to the bathroom very often and we wanted to make sure everything was ok. We also double dipped and did his 4 month appointment at the same time. Griff weighs in at 15 lbs 11 oz (61%) , is 25 inches long (47%) and I believe has a 17 in head. {70% - that sounds really big right now!} Luckily he is right on track with the growth curve and is right about the same percentages as he was at his 2 month appointment.

I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but our pedi is also our Sunday School teacher. Which is really nice when you can text him one night and say, "Griffin hasn't pooped in 5 days... should I be worried about this???" and he can then say, "See you at my office tomorrow at 8:30" {don't worry, nothing's wrong. just natural at 4 months!}

It also means that when I'm at his office, he asked me how sleeping was going and gave me straight forward instructions:

You need to decide that you're ready to do it, and then do it. Feed him, rock him, do whatever your schedule is and put him down for the night. Don't go back in there. He'll cry for about 30 minutes and then go to sleep. 

To which I said, "but he still seems hungry in the middle of the night! he's still eating a lot."

Psssh. Of course he is. He's going to do that as long as you let him. He'll be fine, I promise. If you want to do it though, you have to do it. None of this going back in after 30 minutes. Baby's are smart. And they know if you came in one night after that long, they're just going to cry that long the next night until you give in. Now is the easiest time to do it. You don't have to do it though. But when you come back in at 6 months, then I'll tell you you have to. And if you haven't done it by 9 months, phew. Good luck. That's when they cry for hours on end.

Cody got in from traveling that night and I told him the bad news. We both agreed that we needed to start it on a weekend because we probably wouldn't get much sleep and then said there's no time like the present. So we went through our night time routine, kissed Griff good night, put a towel at the bottom of the door and pulled out our sound proof head phones. {and no, I'm not kidding.}

Wouldn't you know he did great? Seriously. He cried at the 4 hour mark since he ate, but only for about 15 minutes. He then cried one other time during the night but only for about 10 minutes. Both cries weren't even his top "I'm so mad at you I can't stand it" cry either!

Saturday night passed by about the same, without any major fits. I was really nervous about Sunday, as Griff had his shots on Friday and his 2 months shots made him extra sleepy for 2 days. That night ended up being his best night and he only woke up once. We did have one bad night, which was totally my fault. I got to spend all of 15 minutes with Griff after work on Tuesday before rushing off to a church event, so after he cried for 20 or so minutes that night, I went in to rock him to sleep. Sadly I only ended up waking him up more, so much so that I eventually had to lay him down, put the pacifier in and then walk out... which resulted in him crying for a reallylongtime. {cue major mommy guilt} He bounced back well though and Wednesday went off without any major problems.

Tonight will mark a week since we've started and I think we've got it down. I still feel more tired than when he was first a newborn and we were on the 3 hour clock, but I have to remind myself people don't just get over 4 months of sleep deprivation in one 8 hour night! We are super thankful that Rob pushed us to CIO and even more than that, that Griff was ready for this transition and didn't make it too hard on us.

Well, except for this happening on Saturday afternoon.

This is what I like to call Revenge Of The Cry It Out.

Obviously his issues of why we went to the doctor were resolved. :)

{if you're not a parent and you're reading this, sorry for that visual. sometimes all you can do is laugh and grab the camera!]