Calling All Moms....

I am in need of some serious help! Since Carter was 9 months old, after our first CIO (cry-it-out) attempt, he had been going to bed on his own without a fuss. We would put him in the crib with a lovey and his nukie and he would roll over and fall asleep. Waking up was much of the same either he would wimper a bit or sometimes we had to go in and check on him only to find that he was quietly playing in his crib. It.was.AMAZING!

Let me re-phrase. It was amazing until last Thursday or Friday (I can't remember when it actually started). When all of the sudden Carter would FREAK.OUT after being put in his crib. Like not just crying but shrieking at the top of his lungs like someone was trying to murder him!

The first night I thought, "maybe he just isn't tired yet." So we let him out of his crib to play but later (when I knew he was tired) he did the same thing. I ended up staying in his room with him until he fell asleep, which wouldn't have taken too long except Carter would pop his head up every couple of minutes just to make sure I was still there. And now he wakes up screaming too!

This continued all weekend at every naptime or bedtime. What.the.heck?! We had to stop going in to his room because it seemed to only make matters worse. Like the one time he heard me coming and when I walked in his was trying to climb out of his crib! Lord help us all :).

So we just listened to him cry scream for at least a half hour and sometimes closer to an hour. It.was.awful! And now I am terrified to put him to bed, which is silly because he clearly will need to eventually go to sleep. Now I don't necessarily have a problem with the CIO tactic. It worked really well for us when Carter was 9 months old. But back then his crying spurts got better with every nap/bed time and he was completely falling asleep on his own, with no fuss, by Day 3. But now he seems to be getting worse with each sleep and I don't know how many more nights Matt and I can take listen to our poor baby scream his head off!

So that's my problem...any suggestions?!

"People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one." ~Leo J. Burke