Right & Wrong When It Comes To Baby

When I had my son I vowed that I would be the best mom that I could be, so far I feel like I've lived up to everything that I've wanted to do with him. From day one of bringing my little nugget home my husband and I decided that we were going to have him sleep in his crib. People looked at us weird and had their comments but we stuck to our guns and he now sleeps in his crib every night. When he started getting comfortable with sleeping in his crib I had no problems, he started sleeping 10-11 hours when he was 2 months old and I told myself that I had the perfect baby, but there was one more hurdle that we had to jump and I didn't want to do it and that was moving all of his naps from his swing to his crib. I read many articles about making the transition easy for baby and parent and I was armed with different methods of trying to get him to calm down if he were to get upset. So over the three day weekend I told my husband we were going to have baby boot camp. Day 1 we moved his swing into his room, day 2 we turned off his swing after being asleep for 20 minutes, and day 3 (which was the hardest for me) we moved him into his crib. Before we started baby boot camp I tried numerous times to put him in his crib and all he did was scream and cry. So when day 3 rolled around I told my husband I think we're going to have to have him cry it out. I'm not a believer of the CIO method but drastic times call for drastic measures. Many of my girlfriends told me they did the CIO method with their kids and if I were going to do it that I would have to start when I was ready. I knew I was NEVER going to be ready. So I told my husband that day 3 was the day! He stayed home and I went for a very long run and when I came back my little nugget was fast asleep. I asked how long he had cried and my husband said an hour. I was shocked! He slept for 45 minutes and woke up happy. Round two came a couple hours later. I made sure he wasn't hungry, he had a clean diaper, and I read him a story before I put him down. He didn't cry but held a conversation with himself. After 20 minutes of talking he fell asleep and slept for another 45 minutes. It was the hardest thing I've ever had to do. Everyone has their opinions of how to get a child to fall asleep. There is no right or wrong when it comes to your kid. I always worried about what family and friends would think of me if I had him CIO. I was at the end of my rope and I had to toughen up. Looking back I'm happy with my decision. As parents we're always trying to figure out what's right and wrong when it comes to raising a child. There's so much information out there and experiences that we're always second guessing ourselves and methods. I've came to the conclusion that I don't care what other people think about my methods. I'm comfortable with everything I've done and couldn't be happier. He wakes up and happy and well rested. I make sure when he wakes that I give him extra love and I tell him "I told you I would be here when you woke up." What I've discovered as a new parent that everything is trial and error and what works for some people may not work for you or vica versa. My son's attitude or behavior has not changed since having him CIO. I love him so much and I'm glad my husband and I made this decision!