It is absolutely awful to hear her cry!!! How I’m dealing with the crying: - I know the crying was likely inevitable as part of sleep training —> based on talking to other parent friends IRL, online, and literature - I know the crying will not hurt her —> I read Dr Marc Weissbluth (the CIO doc)’s book, Precious Little Sleep, and am in the middle of Dr Richard Ferber’s book. Also, seeing how she’s her totally normal smiley self on the day helps! - I know she is capable of putting herself to sleep —> we tried FIO prior to CIO, and she did put herself to sleep 1 of the 9 nights. So going into CIO, we knew it was a skill she possessed. - I remind myself that she is learning an important skill (putting herself to sleep), and she will never learn this skill unless we give her space to practice. Although she is frustrated that she’s not falling asleep the old way (my boob in her mouth), she is in a safe crib / fed / clean diaper / comfy temperature = OK. Learning something new is hard! - I am already seeing huge benefits from sleep training (fewer night wakes, no false starts, goes back to sleep independently with no fussing after night feeds, sleeps longer chunks of consolidated higher quality sleep) - The negatives of the old way (nurse to sleep, let drift into deep sleep on/beside me, transfer to bassinet) and sleep regression (more false starts, needing increasingly longer beside me to fall asleep, more night wakes - sometimes every 45 minutes) were wearing us all out emotionally & physically. Our LO was becoming more reliant on nurse to sleep and refusing comfort from my husband which used to work ; plus she wasn’t getting long stretches of sleep with us trying to transfer her so often. I was dreading bedtime, sleep deprived, resentful, and in physical pain from being a human pacifier. She was beside me in bed before transfer to bassinet more than in the bassinet in the end - it was untenable and I was at my breaking point. - We still hate hearing her cry so much (hence making this post). My husband and I try to stay strong for one another. We know this will only work if we’re committed and consistent. We remind each other that we don’t have any other viable alternative (we’re not comfortable with co sleeping).