For the record: night 7 (or is it 8 now?) did not a pattern make. Amelia woke up at 2:25am, and after letting her cry for 15 minutes I decided to go try to pick her up and comfort her without nursing her. As soon as I picked her up she began to wriggle herself into the breastfeeding position. So I put her into the crib and she SCREAMED. After quickly checking with Dean I went ahead and nursed. She went back to sleep quickly and woke again at 4:48, and seemed to almost wake herself up for the day, but I managed to put her back down. Sadly, she was up again at 5:53. Dean got up with her and I slept for another hour or so, but I still feel groggy and kind of headachy. My voice was all hoarse this morning, and Amelia's nose is runny again, so maybe this cold is just hanging on. Anyway she is down for a nap and I have exhausted my poem energy for the day.

I guess tomorrow night we will have a more specific plan again. After only 2 nights of sleep we were both unprepared for the night crying. I think I might try for a 30 minute limit tonight.

In the meantime since I have been trying this sleep/crying experiment I have written to the MOTHs and gotten about 50 emails from parents about their experience with crying it out. (MOTH="Moms on the Hill;" it's a Yahoo group of like 4000 parents who live in Capitol Hill. You can post questions, give away or search for baby items, and do all kinds of other things. We found our real estate agent--in Denver--through MOTH.) I want to compile all of their advice, as well as the advice I have gotten from my friends (thanks everyone!), into a crying it out tip sheet, and hope to do that soon.