There’s an eternal mommy debate about when and whether to let babies CIO (cry it out) in a room alone when trying to get them to sleep. Bennett gets fussy and cries in the evenings. Certain things will soothe the crying out of him, like going for walks in a stroller, sitting in the back yard, being played with, and, of course, being picked up over and over and over again. While it’s important to shape a child’s behavior early on, I think a four-month-old baby needs supervision whenever it is crying unconsolably. Its system is still fragile and anything can happen with unconsolable crying–from vomiting to coughing to stuffing fingers in the mouth to self-soothe.
There is a good essay on young babies and crying, which mentions the importance of discernment in why a baby cries. AskMoxie suggests that babies this young (and sometimes even adults!) cry for different reasons, and it’s good to know which motivates your baby: does his crying increase his tension, or decrease it? If it decreases his tension, then the baby’s crying will calm him within a few minutes (10 at most), put him to sleep. If a baby’s crying increases his tension, then 10 minutes might pass and the baby still cries, and is even more agitated and tense than before.
Which one is Bennett? In the days, he’s a “tension decreaser” crier, who will have a good cry on the verge of sleep and then fade into slumber. But at night? Bennett’s parents are still trying to figure that out. In the meantime, everyone’s longing for a sleep-thru-the-night experience…