Baby will not sleep alone

Hey everyone!

 Little man has just reached the "don't put me down stage" and it's a bear to get his to sleep in his crib. Everytime I go to put him down he's up about three seconds later, crying and screaming his head off and reaching for me. I've tried to let him cry it out but he'll be crying for over 45 minuets, and he'll start to gag from screaming/crying. Then I have to go to sleep, so I'll just take him into bed with me and my husband. It really cuts into our "cuddle" time, and I'm beggining to get fed up with the dear booger!

I'm going to start not taking him to bed with me on Friday. Does anyone have suggestions on how to make this go smoothly?  

My first son (he's now two) was kind of difficult in this way. None of them like to move on to their cribs, haha. 

So what I did was let him cry. You have to. I would just sit there with the monitor on low so I couldn't hear him but I'd watch those little red bars go up up up for a while until he passed out. Yes, it was torture...but he will learn. When I first decided that this is what I was going to do I'd let him cry 20 mins, go back in and sing a song then leave and give him another half hour if he still went at it. They get pretty tired by this point. Just don't give in because then he will learn it's only a matter of time until he gets what he wants. 

We also used one of those little crib toys that plays music with low lights and stuff. That really helped him. 

Dr. Sears has a great book on getting your baby to sleep.  There is also this cool video about it on BabyCenter, http://www.babycenter.com/2_baby-sleep-the-se ars-method_1487508.bc.

How old is your son?

He will be 9 months on the 2nd. He's also cutting his 4th tooth, so that might be another reason he'll wake up.

Update: I let him cry it out yesterday, and he went back to sleep in about 4 min. Last night was no such luck! He cried for almost 30 minutes, with no signs of stopping.

My son started doing the same thing around the same time.  He'd been sleeping fine on his own through the night, then one night he awoke at 1am.  He did this for a week.  At first I would get up and feed him so he'd drift off to sleep, but then I realized I was just reintroducing another feeding that he didn't need, and I didn't want it to become a habit.  I am not a fan of the cry it out method, but I tried it in this instance.  He cried for about an hour before he fell back asleep, but that was the last time he woke up in the middle of the night.

If that's not working for you, may I suggest another book?  I read The No-Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantly.  It was helpful, and it has advice for all types of sleepers.  The book covers co-sleeping extensively, so it might help you.  Good luck! 

Another good book is by Dr. Marc Weissbluth, its called something like happy baby, healthy sleep.....something like that. It is hard to let them cry it out, but I found it to be the best way for me. It took a few days but all my kids slept thru the night from an early age. So, it worked for me. It is super hard though, to let them cry and cry. But in the end, it was way worth it, for me to go that route because they slept so well once they got the idea. Good luck on whatever you decide!

An update on the dear booger

He's getting used to going back into his crib. He still wakes up and cries but not as often. I closed all the AC vents in his room last night and he slept like a log from 9pm-4am, so I think he was waking up because he was cold. My husband is a hot sleeper, so we still have the A/C on at night.

I was going to bring him into bed with me when hewoke up this morning at 4 am, but I just took the extra 5 minuets and nursed him on the couch. He went back into his crib and slept for another hour and a half or so.