Well, I am a wimp when it comes to CIO. I think Blake is too little, and I am not quite sure if/when his cries are due to gas pain. I really don't want to just put him down when he is crying because of gas. Another part of the trouble is that, especially during the morning naps, Blake is inclined to lie there happy and content and not cry, in which case we need to figure out how to get him to fall asleep so that he doesn't miss the nap altogether and get overly tired. But that is a slightly different topic on getting him to sleep soon enough that he isn't over-stimulated and I don't miss the window of opportunity...
It seems that just recently (maybe around week 4-5) I noticed that Blake was not so quickly comforted and soothed to sleep by just my holding him and rocking him, and at the same time Mike was reminding me that I really should start letting the little man cry if I actually wanted to try to implement the Baby Wise philosophy. After a short but painful trial period of a couple days (when Blake seemed to need to learn that we would, in fact, let him cry!) it now seems that Blake's cry/sleep pattern involves less than 5 minute of crying. Meaning, when I put him down and let him cry (if he is not experiencing gas pain) he will only cry for 5 minutes or less. Might change tomorrow, of course, but that is what I seem to be finding, and it is a great mercy to a mom who would be quite happy to rock her baby for hours rather than hear him in fit of rage! Generally when I put him down he is happy/quiet, and then in a few minutes (typically when the nuk falls out) he will gradually get fussy then start to cry. Then I start to implemement CIO, which, while I HATE to hear him cry, because his crying time is so brief it isn't as painful as I thought it would be.
This pattern doesn't exactly hold in the evening, when most babies are said to be at their most fussy and Blake is starting to show the same/common fussy symptoms when we try to put him down for his evening (8pm) nap. One night (and one night only) he CRIED (good, strong, Mama-hurting cry) from 8pm - 12am, with breaks in there for feeding every 2.5 hrs. Other nights he has been calmed with "Happiest Baby On The Block" techniques, particularly side-shushing. But that is only when he isn't troubled by gas, which we can usually hear rumbling inside of him. And I am very sad when I can't do anything to help his gas pain!
On a slightly diffferent topic, the past 2 nights Blake has slept 5 hours, from about 11pm - 4am. Praise the Lord! I have just started to let him sleep until he wakes up - through week 4 I had been waking him up every 4 hours to nurse if he didn't wake himself up earlier. And he has already stretched his sleep time to 5 hrs!
All in all, I'm learning. And Blake is excessively patient. What a beautiful, gentle, sweet little boy! I am so blessed. Here is daddy holding Blake in the "side shush" position, in his swaddle. Notice the big grin on the little boy's face! (He wasn't actually being shushed in this photo - Daddy and Blake were just hanging out.)
