Sometimes, as much as I hate to even think about it, you need to let a baby cry. I hate this and I never thought in a million years I would be a “cry it out” parent. With my oldest I never let him cry, and he has turned out fine, not spoiled, no issues. But it seems as though this time around we need to allow our youngest to cry. Nap time, bed time, really any time he is tired it has turned into a screaming fit until he falls asleep. Not by my choice, but by his own.
I never thought a almost 7 month old would be able to make his own decisions about things, but he certainly has picked his own route and that is to cry till he falls asleep.
He could be in his swing, being held, rocked, in the bouncer, or anyplace, he just wants to scream until he finally falls asleep.
It breaks my heart to hear him cry, like a crying baby should do to any parent, but sometimes we just have no other choice as parents. Hence picking your battles.
I hate hearing him cry, but sometimes it just what HE needs and I need to tell myself that, just like any parent needs to tell themselves.
We all will have these moments like I have had dealing with this the past couple days. Moments where we feel like bad parents, it happens. No one is perfect and no matter what we do as parents, we are not going to be the worlds best parent, but we are certainly all the best that we can be for our children, and that is what should matter at the end of the day.
Moral of the story, sometimes the kids win the battle.
Somebody sent me this link right after my second son was born, and I thought it was nothing short of brilliant.
http://moxie.blogs.com/askmoxie/2006/06/babies_and_cio.html
My two boys are exact opposites. My first was a baby who released tension by crying – no amount of holding/rocking him at bedtime would help him calm down. He had to scream until he fell asleep – that is, until we discovered his “sweet spot” (the exact right time to put him down so he’d go easily without any fussing, which also involved the use of the Weissbluth “schedules” method.) My second son has always been a baby who got more and more anxious as he cried. He absolutely MUST be nursed/rocked, and that would always quiet him immediately. We were eventually able to get both boys sleeping like champs, but they had to be treated very differently. I found out the hard way that kids can be polar opposites in this arena. Some kids will never get to sleep with parents hovering over them (like my first, he cannot even sleep in the same room with us.) And some kids need to be buried safely in mom’s armpit all night long to sleep soundly. Sounds like you just got two different types of kids.
Comment by TheFeministBreeder — December 9th, 2009 @ 9:43 pm
Oh there is NO question in my mind that these two are as polar opposite as they get!!!! If I had my second first, I would have never had a second! LOL
Comment by elwood — December 9th, 2009 @ 9:47 pm