Confession: Rock to Sleep

Submitted by: Stacey

Brooklyn, NY

When my daughter was a baby we used to rock her to sleep, not realizing what a terrible idea that was at the time. So I had to retrain her to go to sleep without being rocked. My pediatrician said let her cry for 5 minutes, pick her up & calm her down, put her back in the crib, & then do it again at 10 mins, 15 mins, etc. Each time increasing by 5 mins. It was the worst night of my life. I wound up sitting on my terrace balling my eyes out, trying to drown out her screaming & crying for just about 4 1/2 hrs straight by blasting music through headphones! I think i went through 2 packs of cigarettes & a bottle of wine. She actually finally cried herself to sleep right before that 4 1/2 hr mark. But increasing by 5 mins to get there, you can imagine how long that was. But it worked, I never had to rock her again. 1 long night of hell was all it took. FYI my daughter is 28 years old now, it’s still one of the worst nights of my life!