Night #1: Night Log
Is this how it's supposed to work?
10:10 - Jerry put him down still awake at 8:00, he cried for 2 hours with Jerry checking on him every 20-30 minutes. He thought it didn't make sense to check on him every 10 minutes because he would just get more upset when he saw Jerry, and we thought that would draw the whole process out. At 10:10, the boy was so frazzled and we felt so sorry for him, that Jerry rocked him and then put him down. We then wondered if that meant the last 2 hours were a waste, like we'd just taught Evan all he has to do is cry long enough and we'll rock him, which is one of the habits we were trying to break.

2:10 - Evan wakes up for the first time. I think this is good, because he slept for 4 hours, which is an improvement from before. I breastfed him, put him down, patted him, and left. He fussed/cried, though not as loud as before.

2:30 - Still crying. Standing in his crib when I went in. I lied him down, patted him, said some kind words, and left.

3:00 - Still crying. Did the same as above. Tried to sing to him but he screamed over me.

3:32 - I got up to go comfort him again, but he fell asleep before I could get there. Success! It worked! The 1 1/2 hours of crying was brutal for everyone involved, but it is an improvement from the 2 hours of crying earlier. Plus, he fell asleep without being rocked.

But then...

3:43 (11 minutes later) - he woke up. Started fussing. This went on until 5:30 am (3 1/2 hours total crying, with us reassuring him every 30 mins) when Jerry went in and rocked him to sleep. He slept from 5:30 - 7:00.

Total hours of sleep for Evan = 5 1/2
Total hours of crying (for Evan) = 5 1/2

I feel this was not a success. Is it possible this method just won't work for him? It was only night #1, so I suppose we should try again, though I am already ready to give up. Something that makes me feel this sick can't be right. On the other hand, everyone I know who has used cry it out says it's hard at first, then it works. So I suppose I should stick with it.