I am really sorry to hear that this has been such an issue for you guys and reading your post entirely tore my heart out of my chest. I personally would not be able to listen to my child cry for even one minute let alone 5 or 15.

Dh does not have "nerves of steel" but he is simply not hardwired to tune into this child in the way that you, his mother is. Perhaps he can handle it better, but he didn't carry that child inside of him for months and bond to it in the same way. You respond to your baby because your are biologically designed to. I personally find it heartwrenching to hear that you had to be restrained from your baby when you were feeling such angst and your baby was needing you. Why should you both suffer needlessly? It doesn't make sense to me, but then again, I am not a CIO mom.

Many babies who are subjected to CIO do vomit. Babies have a very loose sphincter at the base of the stomach and the pressure of crying hard can cause stomach contents to come back up. Imagine how hard you would have to cry in order to cause yourself to vomit - I've been there a few times when I've cried hysterically about one thing or another. With babies it just happens a little easier, but this is not atypical. I am glad you caught it so that you could fix it and dry him up.

"I've heard some babies can choke and die when they spit up"

Well yes, they can. I am sure it is not common, but they can aspirate (inhale) the vomit and gag/choke.

"I don't know if I can take anouther night of this. It is pure torture"

I would not be able to do this so I can relate. It does sound like torture from all angles.

Please don't beat yourself up over this. There is sooooo much conflicting advice about sleep that I'm suprised that any new parents are able to keep their sanity. Weissbluth and Ferber are MD's with a lot of experience researching babies and sleep. Generally babies can't put themselves to sleep until 4-6 months of age. I know Erzo says babies can do it at 8 weeks, but the APS says that is really unrealistic and some parents that have tried to follow his method have ended up with babies that are not growing like they should.

However since the crying really got to you, you might want to look into some No Cry Sleep Solutions (Pantley) and see if any of these work for your baby. (Although she says you should let them suck to sleep, and Aileen does it all the time without any sleep issues)

I hope that helps.

Jilda

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I've heard that spitting/throwing up is not that uncommon. I think you need a break from CIO... we tried for 5 weeks with my daughter when she was 8 mos old and she would still cry sometimes. I finally put an end to it.

My two cents... and I know this goes against the philosophy of this board, but I would continue nursing/rocking until you are sleep-deprived enough to be inspired to do CIO again. By then maybe he will be more ready to self-soothe

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Jen (36) David (44)
Mommy to Megan, DOB 6/25/2003 (My baby is 5!)
and Cameron, 12/29/06
Megan and Cameron's blog
Tons of Megan pics

My two cents... and I know this goes against the philosophy of this board, but I would continue nursing/rocking until you are sleep-deprived enough to be inspired to do CIO again.

-My two cents, too: With my first two children I found that being "sleep-deprived" enough was the only way I could be consistent with CIO. That's because, IMO, if something's not broke (yet), like nursing, rocking, co-sleeping, why try to fix it? I wasn't able to. Sleep-deprivation gives you MOTIVATION. LOL. Also, waiting until 6 months is good advice, as is reading the Weissbluth book. Check it out at your library.