Cry it out.

Well, due to extreme lack of sleep, we made the decision to let Eliot "cry it out" through his typical 2am wake up. He was getting plenty to eat during the day, and he didn't need to eat at that time. What he did need was more than three hours of uninterrupted sleep (and so did mommy!). I tried to go in and calm him when he woke up, but that was a total disaster. My presence caused him to work himself into a little frenzy of hungriness. So, we bit the bullet and did was all of our parents did...

Here's what happened:

Night 1- 2 hours of crying, from 2-4am. But he woke up happy and laughing as usual in the morning, so I decided it must have been way more traumatizing for me than for him!

Night 2- 1 hour of fussing and light crying from 3-4am

Night 3- 15 minutes of crying, then 10 minutes silence, then 15 more minutes of crying, around 3am

Night 4- No crying! Woke up at 5, ate, then slept again until 7:45 when I woke him up!

This morning- No crying! Woke up at 5, ate, and slept until 7:30, when I woke him up.

I know this method isn't for everyone, but it does work.

We put Eliot to bed at 7pm, wake him up to feed him around 11, then don't hear from him again until 5. That means I'm getting 6 hours of uninterrupted sleep, and Eliot is getting 12 total hours of night-time sleep! Lovely! Now we'll gradually try to eliminate the 11pm feeding, then the 5am feeding over the next few months.