Our Sleep Training CIO Journey! Finally Feel NORMAL Again!! 💯💯💯

We would put our son to bed in his crib and upon his first wake-up I would bring him in my bed out of survival - baby would then be up as many as EIGHT TIMES per night and need to be soothed back to sleep. NOBODY was sleeping well! So we decided that at 6 months old + having our son on a very regular schedule (key) that it was TIME to sleep train. So... Night 1 baby cried for about 45 minutes, and finally fell asleep. He then woke up crying periodically throughout the night - upon waking up my husband would go in and pat him and replace his pacifier, etc. Each subsequent night has been different, but Night 1 was definitely the most painful. Now out of 8 nights he has slept 3 whole nights with ZERO interruptions - it really is a freaking MIRACLE!!! Our son's daytime nap schedule has really fallen into place thanks to sleep training as well - he will go down in his crib after about 5 / 10 minutes of protesting after we lay him down drowsy but awake, which he NEVER would have done previously. We are SO PROUD of him! Note: I still do 2 dream feedings (nursing) at night (11pm and 3am), which I will eventually cut down to one then none. I only pick him up though when he is asleep as to not send mixed messages. Those who say CIO is cruel are wrong - it is SO not the case plus IT WORKS!!! You just have to get through a rough couple of nights, but everyone in our family is better for it, and now baby knows he can self-soothe and everything is okay. Finally feel like we are getting back to normal, and best part is my husband is back in bed again too. 💕