Cruel to be Kind.

It's no secret that Nathan's had a terrible time sleeping for the past month or so. We struggled to get him to sleep in his crib every night, and more often than not he'd wake up between 12 and 3, and refuse to go back to sleep until he passed out on my chest hours later. We were all pretty miserable, and the lack of sleep was making us all very, very cranky. He wouldn't even nap in his crib.

We had originally tried a number of sleep methods at around 10 months old. Some older, more experienced parents all told us that even though crying it out sucked and sounded horrible, it was the only thing that truly helped their kids sleep through the night and sleep well. By the time we resorted to it, we were in dire straits - but it truly did work. It took over a week, but only the first two or three nights were awful. And he slept like a dream for months and months.

So we finally got to the point where we knew we'd have to do it again. The night before we left on vacation last week, he was so exhausted and it was 5:30 and we had to get up at 7... so we stuck him in his crib. And eventually, he did go to sleep. Last night after our flight got in, we did the same. Within 15 minutes, he was out. Naptime today, he was out in 10. Tonight, he was out before I could even unload the washing machine.

Are we out of the woods yet? No, but god, the sleep has been nice, and during the day he is a lot happier. The lack of sleep was hurting him, too. I know there's a lot of parents who think crying it out is terrible, and cruel, but a miserable kid who isn't sleeping is bad news for the kid, too. We make our choices. I have to be the parent and make the decisions for him. It's not always easy. And on that note, I'm going to sleep...