On Sleep and Things

A few days ago, my cousin wrote a blog post about a decision her family recently made to do something she thought she'd never do.  We had a similar situation here last week and the results have been wonderful!
As you probably know, my son never sleeps...well unless you're willing to hold him and even then...It is not abnormal for him to wake up every 2 hours or even sooner all night and then turn around and only take 3 20 minute naps the next day.  No joke.  And his bed? HA!  Don't even get me started on that.  I tried and tried to get him to sleep in his bed and sometimes I succeeded but earlier this month he woke up every. single. time. I would try and lay him down in his bed.  Out of exhaustion, I just let him sleep in his swing which he loves.
Earlier in his life, we'd tried the crying it out method twice.  Both times he screamed for at least an hour.  I decided that I wasn't a fan of the method.  It is one thing to make your child cry it out for 5 minutes but an hour?  That seemed a little extreme.  I decided that I would just wait it out.
However, out of desperation, I decided that it was time for him to learn how to sleep in his own bed even if it involved screaming.  One night a couple of weeks ago, he woke up as normal. I rocked him to sleep and then laid him back down in bed.  He immediately woke up and started screaming which was also very normal.  I told him that I loved him and climbed back into my own bed.  He screamed for an hour straight.  Finally, he started to doze off and I thought he'd given up.  But no, he dozed for 30 seconds and then screamed for 30 seconds for another hour straight.  Finally, I just accepted that I had failed and I went in and fed him and got him back to sleep.  I was kind of sad the next as I felt that he was immune even to the extreme version of  crying it out.  Boy was I wrong!  Starting the next night we heard him crying in his bed.  Aaron and I were talking so I planned on finishing my conversation before getting him up.  3 minutes later, he calmed down and put himself to sleep.  We were dumbfounded.  Ever since them, I just lay him in bed and if he wakes up, I make him cry himself back to sleep.  A few times I've even just laid him in bed when I knew he was tired and let him cry it out.  Sometimes he cries for 10 seconds and the longest he's ever cried is 15 minutes.
I still get up with him at night if he wakes up but I think he's been waking up less than he used.  Last night he only woke me up at 10:30, 12:30 and 5:30.  Do you know how wonderful it is to get to sleep for more than 3 hours in a row.  I feel so amazing that I don't even need coffee in the mornings!
I guess I write this just to say that don't say "I'll never do that."  Sometimes that is the very thing that will save your sanity.