Operation CIO

Grayson started sleeping through the night for abuot 7 hours straight just before he was 2 months old. He has always been a really good sleeper. When we moved him from his bassinet to his crib in his room (which is shared with big brother Grant) he started waking up once a night at around 4:00 am. All he wanted was his binki. He didnt want to eat or be held, he just wanted his binki back. With Grant being in the same room I didnt want to let Grayson cry for too long, in fear that he would wake Grant up. Grant really needs to get a good night sleep because he has to get up early for school in the morning. So when Grayson would wake up I would run in there and give him his binki. He would imediately go right back to sleep. I obviously didnt realize the monster bad habit I was creating. Lately Grayson wakes up several times a night, wanting his binki. When I say several I mean 8-10 times a night. Noone around here is getting any sleep at night. With him waking that many times, he is waking Grant several times a night too. Jared is a bear because he is so tired and ornery after a long day of work on no sleep. Grant is so moody because he really does need a good night sleep to be a happy boy. His school work is even slipping a little. I am so fed up I am beside myself with frustration at the whole situation. When I took Grayson in for his 4 month checkup I asked the doc if he had any advice. You know what he told me? He told me to go out and buy a whole bunch of binkis and put 5 or 6 in his crib with him so that when he loses one he can just put another one in his mouth. Wow great advice doc. Grayson is not to the point yet where he can even put his own binki in his mouth by himself. So we have moved to plan E, "Operation CIO" (which of course stands for CRY IT OUT)
I believe it is perfectly ok for a baby to cry himself to sleep and to learn to self sooth. It is not going to hurt him one bit. So last night I made Grant a bed on the floor in my room and that is where he slept. Grayson went down to bed great like he always does and I didnt sleep much because I was listening for him all night so that I could time him. It may seem a little extreme to some of you, but my plan was this.. I was going to let him cry for one hour. Then if he was still crying I would go in and reassure him that  I hadnt abandoned him, by gently stroking his face for a few seconds, but I was not going to give him his binki. That would just kinda defeat the purpose. If he didnt settle down I would leave without saying anything to him and let him cry for another hour, or however long it took.
This is how it went for our first night. He woke up at 3:40 am and cried for 20 minutes. Then he stopped for about a minute and then continued to cry. After that he cried off and on for the next 30 minutes and then he was out for the rest of the night. All in all it was about 50 minutes total. All in all I think he did good, a lot better than I had expected. We will see what happens tonight. I am hoping that the crying will be shorter and that tomorrow night it will be even shorter. Hopefully this will only take a few days and then he will know how to sooth himself back to sleep without a binki at night. My goal in the end is for everyone to get a better night sleep, including Grayson! Wish us luck!