[notfarnow]

Originally Posted by legion

Your choices are pretty much do controlled crying or be on the kid's beck and call. I had to set an egg timer to prevent my wife from running upstairs immediately. First 5 minutes, then 10 minutes, then 15 minutes...all the way up to 30 minutes. The first time he wore himself out from crying and fell asleep, we were worried that he wasn't okay. It's a mistake to run in and check on the kid, though. It will give them new energy and feed the belief that they just need to hold out until you come running. I found it was best to check on them 30 minutes or more after falling asleep.

You need to have a bedtime routine so that they know it's time for bed. For us, it's going upstairs, putting on pajamas, brushing teeth, then stories on mom and dad's bed. My wife will rock the little one for about 5 minutes then deposit him in his crib. He used to fight and cry at this point, but now he's right off to sleep. In the beginning, she would try to rock him to sleep, but he'd always spring awake when she stood up and insist on sleeping on her.

*drops mic*

This is awesome advice.