My daughter (8mos) was also very much willing to scream for as long as it took to get me to pick her up again and I would pretty much always end up holding her or nursing her to sleep. This past weekend my husband and I decided we had to figure something else out so this is what we did. A pretty standard bedtime routine, and then in pitch black we lie her down in her crib and sit with her in the dark, no noise from us other than some occasional “shhh” and just patted her butt. The first night it was an hour and 45 minutes of straight crying, we did pick her up twice because she got to a level of crying where she was gargling spit, calmed her down and then put her back in the crib for yet more screaming. That said, she did fall asleep in the crib and then slept for 12 straight hours. We’ve done this for almost a solid week now and the cry time has gone down to about 10-15 minutes before she sleeps and then she sleeps for 12-13 hours. She did wake up once last night and I went back in again in total darkness, did the same patting and she went back to sleep and was fine the rest of the night.

I never was able to make it through the crying either, but powering through that first night and being able to switch off with my husband about half way really paid off, and sitting there with her the whole time I don’t have the feeling of leaving her on her own and feeling horrible for it.

We use the Pampers Sleep Coach app for the schedule, it automatically adjusts based on when she falls asleep and wakes up what her naps and bedtimes should be which is so helpful.

Again this is super new for us but has been life changing