Crow for Dinner, Humble Pie for Dessert

We did it. We did full-blown CIO for naps and bedtime last night.

It sucked. But at the same time, it was great.

For their morning nap, both Maddie and Riley cried for about 10 minutes, then both took great naps, over an hour each. Normally both of them top out at 45 minutes, one sleep cycle. They broke the barrier yesterday.

The afternoon nap was the killer. They both cried for 45 minutes. We checked on them, calmed them, and gave them kisses every 10 minutes. Once the fell asleep, they both slept great again.

At bedtime, we switched things up so that they ate at the beginning of their routine, then had baths followed by infant massage and PJs. Then, into the crib. If there was five minutes of crying, I'd be surprised. They slept until 1:00, cried a bit but less than ten minutes, then slept until 5:45.

I'm not going to lie: It was awesome.

And not only did they sleep great, but they were in their room, in their bed. This was the first time they did not sleep in our room and the first time in a long time they did not sleep in their car seats.

I just put them down for a morning nap. Five minutes of crying and they are out.

I don't want to get cocky. I know that CIO can be derailed by illness, teething, developmental spurts, etc. But for now, even for that one night, I think it was a good, if heart-wrenching decision for all of us. We all got more sleep, and that's a good thing.

Even better, perhaps now I can write about something besides sleep or lack thereof.

MMM . . . pass that humble pie, please.