Update on Jake

Many of you have asked me how Jake has been sleeping since I recently posted a plea for help. Well, this story might sound "too good to be true", but it really is true. I knew there just had to be something I could do to get him sleeping through the night. Well, I pretty much took advice from everyone so it was a culmination of many things that probably contributed to his ultimate success. First of all, he wasn't sick. I had already had the doctor check him out. So I stopped drinking caffeine (cold turkey), limited spicy foods and dairy products, filled his tummy up before bedtime, and swaddled him. I did keep him in his own bed because I felt like if I got him used to sleeping somewhere else, then I'd have to go through this again anyway when I wanted to move him back to his crib. So anyway, on top of all those things, I took him to his doctor for his 4-month check up. That was on January 14th. He suggested I try the "cry it out" method again. He said one of the things I could do to make it easier is go in and soothe him (without taking him out of the crib) then leave for 5 minutes. If he's still crying, go back in and soothe him then leave for 10 minutes and so on adding 5 minutes each time. I decided to try it that night. As pathetic as I am, I knew I couldn't handle 5 whole minutes. I figured I'd start with 2. He was still crying after 2 minutes, so I put his binkie back in and then sat in the rocking chair in his room. This time I was going to do 3 minutes. It was awful. He was wailing and it just kept getting worse. I almost gave in, but I just stared at the clock and was waiting for it to hit 3 minutes. Well, just when I almost gave up, before three minutes hit, he stopped all of a sudden and fell asleep. He seriously slept for the rest of the night. Well, I did that for about three nights in a row where he woke up only once each night and I let him cry it out, which lasted less than three minutes each time. So now he's sleeping 12 to 13 hours a night straight. Isn't that an amazing story?!? So thank you all for your help and suggestions! All of it put together worked like a charm!