by Idyllwilde

Created on: March 24, 2007   Last Updated: May 11, 2007

My son was a high-need baby. In fact, his needs were somewhere up in the stratosphere. I was not allowed to sleep. I was not allowed to sit. "Don't even think about leaving the room or reading while sitting next to me," was the look in his eyes.

And cried. And screamed. And I was relatively certain I would have a nervous break-down before he reached one year. He nursed all night. He nursed all day. He slept in my bed, because I was so exhausted when I went to get him at night that a few times I almost tipped over while I was carrying him.

My Dad kept saying, "Just let him cry" when I would tell him about every sleepless night. I tried. But unless you are a parent, you have no idea how hard it is to hear that sound, and wonder what is wrong.

At last, one evening, as we began our routine of pretending it was bed-time and he was going to sleep, I put him down and called my dad. Almost immediately the wailing began. "Go outside," my dad ordered. I did. He kept talking to me. Soon I could hear the shrieks of pain and agony where I stood outside on the doorstep. So could my dad. "Walk far enough away so that you can't hear him," ordered my dad. I did.

He talked to me through more than a half-hour of earth-rending wails of anguish, until, exhausted, my son slept through the night.

The next night, we went through the routine, I put him down, and called my dad. The crying began in earnest within approximately 30 seconds. "Go outside," said my dad. "Further," he instructed as we heard the bawling from the doorstep. After fifteen minutes, their was a blessed silence, and my son slept through the night.

Three is the magic number, right? (Well, almost.) I put my son down. I called my dad. I stood on the doorstep and he talked to me, and after five minutes, all was quiet. After ten minutes I went in and peeked into the bedroom. Blessed sleep.

After that night, my darling angel went to bed nearly every night without a hitch, and slept through nearly every night. Talk about tough love, but it worked.

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