#shes so pretty ive been bawling for seven minutes

[opikiquu]

spooky month scene redraw!!!! :D

[ssamie]

seven. STARGAZING

suna rintaro x fem! mitsuri reader

(kny x hq)

warnings: spelling mistakes,  3k+ words, italicized words/ sentences are her thoughts, mitsuri’s hair+eye color was used.

gen masterlist.      sakura mochi.

"why the hell is that brat crying?!" sanemi exclaimed in irritation as he threw a pillow at y/n's head

"ara~ dont be so insensitive, shinazugawa-kun" shinobu cooed at him "y/n-chan here had just been recently put into the 'friendzone', as she calls it" she said

"hah? that's it?" sanemi scoffed "i know someone who's been at it for years. atleast he's not bawling his eyes out like a child" 

"w-who is it, sanemi-kun?" she sniffled lightly as she raised her head from shinobu's lap "heh." sanemi sneered as he eyed obanai who has been glaring him down for the past few minutes "its that snake fucker-" 

oabani cut him off by quickly kicking him away, making sanemi's body hit the wall with a loud thud, leaving cracks onto the concrete upon contact. "you shouldn't listen to him." obanai said to her "he's just messing with you" 

obanai walked over to her side, taking her away from shinobu and situating her on his lap. 

"ara ara~ have fun you two" shinobu cooed at them as she walked away. but of course, not before sending a jab towards giyuu. "ara~ i bet you're wondering what that's like. right, tomioka-san?" she asked mockingly 

"well you better stop wondering since it's never gonna happen anyways" shinobu laughed "its not like anyone likes you here" 

giyuu didn't react, and simply stared stoicly at her. "im not disliked by people." he said. 

"whatever helps you sleep at night" shinobu cooed as she waved him off

"now.." obanai trailed off "who made you cry like this?" he asked "i'll kill them." he said, as kaburamaru hissed in agreement 

she sulked and slouched back onto his chest, playing with her hair as obanai rested his chin on her shoulders "well, i don't want you to kill suna-kun" she hummed 

"how would he become my husband if he dies?" 

silence. absolute silence. everyone in the room looked at each other before turning ghostly pale, looking nervously at obanai before innocently whistling and pretending to mind their own business. 

"your- your what?" obanai stammered as he let out a shaky laugh 

"my husband" she answered with a huff 

"i've been searching for so long, and who would've guessed i'd find him through highschool!" she squealed 

"ara ara~ b-but you said you were looking for a man stronger than you, y/n-chan" shinobu cooed out with a sheepish laugh 

"i doubt that suna person fits that description" giyuu commented 

she then suddenly perks up and shakes her head with a smile on her face. "nope! but suna-kun makes me so weak when he smiles or talks or blinks or sleeps or breath near me!!" she squeals 

"i feel like turning into a puddle when he talks! a puddle!!" she said 

she laid on the ground in a starfish position with a dreamy look on her face, "like this!" she said as to emphasise her point 

"i see! he sounds like a flamboyant man, indeed!" uzui exclaimed with a grin 

"w-well...i guess all you can do is hope he returns your feelings someday" obanai muttered "if he doesn't then im sure there's still someone out there who would happily love and care for you" he said 

"haha! simply marry one, two, or three flamboyant men you lay your eyes on!" uzui exclaimed with a laugh "im pretty sure you're the only one here who would want three lovers all at the same time" giyuu muttered 

"how unflamboyant of you, tomioka!" uzui sneered 

y/n looked back at obanai and curiously cocked her head to the side, "it's so weird.."

"how could you know so much about topics like these, obanai-kun?" she asked 

"how could i not." obanai mumbled bitterly as a gloomy aura surrounded his form. 

suddenly, a loud thumping of feet caught all the hashiras' attentions. the door slammed open, revealing a very frantic nezuko. she ran towards the love hashira and hid herself under her haori. 

"nezuko-chan?" y/n muttered curiously as she peeked under her haori to look down at the girl. "hmm" nezuko hummed back through her muzzle. 

suddenly, two sets of footsteps followed. as well as loud screaming. 

"nezuko-chaaannnn~" zenitsu cooed loudly "come here, nezuko-chan~" 

"zenitsu! leave her alone already!" tanjiro exclaimed in a frantic tone as he tried to hold zenitsu back "nezuk- aCK! WHAT IS THIS?! IS THIS HEAVEN?!" zenitsu shrieked as he caught sight of the hashira holding the girl in her arms 

"zenitsu! cut it out! let's go!" tanjiro scolded him as he dragged the blond away "NO NO! I WANNA SEE NEZUKO-CHAN AND Y/N-SENPAIII!!!" zenitsu wailed as tanjiro ushered him out of the room 

"leave it zenitsu! let's go eat so you can calm down" tanjiro said with a sigh 

"WAIT! I WANNA JOIN YOU!!" y/n yelled as she hurriedly ran after the two 

"wait-" obanai's words were ignored, seeing as she was already out the door, leaving a trail of dust behind her "i was gonna tell her she didn't have any money." obanai mumbled as he glanced at her bag, which was situated by the corner of the room. 

"hmm, mhhm" nezuko hummed as she sat herself beside sanemi 

"dont sit next to me, you eyesore" sanemi scowled "there's plenty of space there by tomioka!" 

"ara~ it seems even nezuko-chan doesn't like tomioka-san after all" shinobu cooed in pity "how sad." 

"shut up, woman." 

"ahhh, this is so good~" she said with a content sigh as she practically inhaled the bowl of ramen "tanjiro-kun, we should eat out together more often" she said "you seem to know a lot of good restaurants" 

tanjiro smiled and waved his hands dismissively, nodding his head as he placed more food into her plate. "its no big deal, y/n-senpai. i used to come here with nezuko a lot" he said "and, we should definitely eat together more often!" he said with a smile as sparkles seemed to surround him 

'my god.' she breathed in and out 

'tanjiro is so cute! and so nice! he would definitely make a good husband!' she thought to herself 

'and zenitsu..' she trailed off, her eyes slowly averting towards the blond 

'zenitsu is so.. SCARY?! WHAT'S WITH THAT FACE?!' 

she smiled shakily as she caught sight of zenitsu's grim expression, paired along with a glare as he mumbled angrily to himself "what's bothering you zenitsu-kun?" she asked him 

"what's bothering me? what's bOTHERING ME?!?" he shrieked "I SHOULD BE THE ONE SITTING NEXT TO YOU, Y/N-SENPAI! BUT INSTEAD THAT FOREHEAD BOY TOOK MY SPOT!" zenitsu scowled 

"AND YOU!" tanjiro jumped as zenitsu pointed an accusing finger to his face "YOU'VE BEEN STEALING MY THUNDER, HAVEN'T YOU?! YOU'VE BEEN TALKING HER UP SO SHE WOULDN'T BE MY WIFE! YOU'RE SO CRUEL!!" zenitsu exclaimed 

tanjiro blinked in shock as he cluelessly shook his head in response "i wasn't doing anything like that!" he said 

"YES YOU WERE!!" zenitsu screamed in aggravation "now im definitely gonna be left alone. to die. to rot. to reencarnate as a miserable snail that never finds a mate!" 

tanjiro sweat dropped as he gave zenitsu a weirded out glare "what are you even talking about?" 

"ah, but look at it this way, zenitsu!" she chimed in "by sitting across from me, it's like we're on a date! that's usually how it goes with couples, you know?" she cooed as she placed her hands on top of his 

zenitsu paled as his eyes repeatedly dart from her and their hands. "a-a date?" he squeaked out 

"oh well... something like that" she chuckled nervously, not at all used to the blond being this quiet 

"i see." zenitsu stated in an unusually serious tone. "tanjiro." he turned to look at the burgundy-haired boy. "i can now die in peace. my life, dreams and goals are fulfilled. i can die a happy man." 

"what are you talking about?" tanjiro sweat dropped 

just then, a distinctive sound of a bell rang, signalling that a person had entered the doors. she looked back to see who has entered, all while still munching on a piece of meat and ignoring zenitsu, who was currently practicing his wedding vows. 

"suna-kun?" she subconsciously called out as she  recognised the person to be none other than suna rintarou himself

"oh, hey bunny" suna sent her a nod as he trudged into the restaurant, carrying a skateboard with him. 

"suna-kun!! hi! what are you doing here?" she asked him "im picking up some food for later" he answered mindlessly as he walked towards her table

"oh hey.." suna nodded at tanjiro and zenitsu.

"hi, are you a friend of y/n-senpai?" tanjiro asked with a kind smile "friend? more like a leech. he's interrupting my time with her!!" zenitsu whispered to tanjiro

"uh, yeah. she's also our manager" suna answered unbotheredly despite feeling zenitsu's glare on him

tanjiro looked at y/n, who seemed to be too immersed in suna's face at the moment, given that she was staring lovingly at him with lovesick eyes. "y/n-senpai, i think zenitsu and i need to go back to the dojo" tanjiro said with a soft laugh. he gripped zenitsu's haori as he forced the blond to stand and walk away despite his protests. 

"eh? really?" she asked them, "oh well.. okay.." 

"i guess i'll just pay for your guys' meals then!" she clasped her hands in delight as she pulled out a wallet from her pocket "oh no, it seems ive taken the wrong wallet" she hummed in feign innocence

she shrugged and made a shushing motion to the boys "oh well. don't tell giyuu-san~" she cooed 

"we won't!!" tanjiro exclaimed as he waved her goodbye. she waved them off, watching their figures disappear with a smile on her face. she laughed softly as she heard zenitsu's distant screams.

"that was cute" suna snickered "didn't know your friends were that nice. unlike that bandaged dude" 

she smiled apologetically at him and sighed "sorry about obanai-kun.. it takes a while to get on his good side, i suppose" she said "but hes a very nice person. you just gotta be patient with him" she said 

"i don't think i have the patience for that" suna yawned 

"anyways, sushi or tempura?" he asked "why are you asking me?" she asked 

"well, you're gonna be eating with me so might as well let you pick" he said with a nonchalant shrug. she blinked dumbly at him as she watched him start to skim through the menu "wait- why would i be eating with you??" 

"well usually, when guys take a girl out for dinner, they'd be eating right?" suna said with a chuckle 

'take me out.. ME?! AND HIM?!'  she panicked 

'DINNER?! but i already ate..' she looked down at her stomach, and sweat dropped upon feeling it rumble 

'nevermind.. im still hungry' she thought to herself 

"u-uhm.. sushi?" she answered with slight hesitance "sushi it is" suna said with a nod as he proceeded to order. 

'ahshhsjsj!!! is this a date?! am i out of the 'friendzone'?? ' she thought 

"good thing i have you with me. or else i'll have to invite tsumu out instead" suna gagged "that piss head's been testing me lately." he said "so i'd much rather spend time with my best friend" he said in a teasing tone, nudging her with his elbow as he laughed 

"a-ah.. yes.. right" she responded. she smiled blankly as she stared at the air before her, slowly feeling herself wither away into nothingness. 

"here you are, sir! takeout order for sushi!" the waitress announced as she placed the paper bag on the table "that was fast" suna mumbled as he paid her the amount

"ah thank you! sir and maam-" the waitress sweat dropped as she made eye contact with the pink and green haired girl. the lady was well aware that she had already eaten a full course meal a few moments prior. she had personally watched her inhale three bowls of ramen and two plates of pudding. though she still let her be. 

"anyways. i was heading to the skatepark, let's eat there" suna said "i didnt know you skate, suna-kun" she said with a soft smile as her eyes raked down his form 

'ahh, hes looking especially good with a sketeboard..' she thought to herself 

'he looks so cool' she squealed internally 

'calm down, calm down' she thought as she eased her erratic breathing down 

"its just a hobby i guess" suna shrugged as he stretched his arms over his head "i could even teach ya if ya want" suna said with a small smirk as he handed her the board 

her eyes landed on the board with a glimmer of curiosity. she smiled nervously and nodded "sure! though, I'd probably fall a lot.." she muttered 

"dont worry, i'll catch you" 

----

"y/n- y/n please just trust me" suna said with a grunt "it's not that bad!" 

"yes it is! it's so-wait suna-kun it's moving!!" she whined as the board skidded ever so lightly. "calm down" suna chuckled, with a strained smile as he felt her already deathly grip tighten even more around his arm 

"okay, how bout this" suna hummed out as he clasped her shoulders in his hands. "if you manage to learn atleast one trick tonight, we can go stargazing or whatever" 

'stargazing with suna.. stargazing.. suna..'  she chanted repeatedly in her head 

wordlessly, she snatched the board and placed it by the ramp, and skated down with ease. "..." suna stared at her from across the ramp as she landed with a flip. 

"so we've been going through hell and back for so long. when this whole time, you could do it all along" suna sighed "i was just motivated!" she exclaimed as she ran towards him 

"by what? stargazing?" suna chuckled as he ruffled her hair with his hand "exactly!" she replied with a bright grin 

suna shook his head with a smile as he led her to a bench, setting down his board on the ground and the bag of sushi between them  "you're just so adorable, aren't ya" suna said in a teasing tone as he playfully rolled his eyes at her 

'AM I?? AM I ADORABLE?!' she panicked 

"so." suna mused "how's your life going, bunny?" 

"ahm, it's nice.." she muttered back shyly as she took a bite of the sushi "how about you, suna-kun?" she asked him "how has your life been going?" suna shrugged and leaned back on the bench, eyes landing on the constellation of stars above them 

"its been normal. not much going on other than recording random fights at school" he said "but it's been fun having you around, bunny" he said as he turned to look at her

only to sweat drop upon seeing her mutter flusteredly to herself, all while her face burns a bright red color 

'he looks so cool and mysterious like that' she thought 

'he has such a pretty side profile!!' she fawned 

'his eyes are all sparkly from the moonlight and stars!!' she basically seethed as she screamed in her head

"hey, you okay?" suna chuckled as he taps on her forehead "uh im fine.." she muttered flusteredly as her eyes crossed to focus on his finger, which was still tapping on her forehead 

"heh, you better be or else im getting my ass beat by the twins" he said jokingly as he crossed his arms over his chest "the twins.." she mumbled, scratching her head as she pondered over a thought that seems to nag at her 

"the twins, the twins,, oh they're waiting for me at home!!" she frantically opened her phone and went to the messaging app. she smiled nervously as she was greeted with over a hundred texts from the two boys 

"ah.. i forgot about the movie night tsumu-kun proposed.." she chuckled sheepishly as she sunk down on the seat out of guilt "hm.. let's go then" suna said as he held his hand out for her to take 

"im in the mood to crash your guys' movie night" suna chuckled as he pulled her up to her feet

'ADJSFHJKL HANDS HANDS HANDS!!' she panicked 

she looked at their loosely intertwined hands. his grip was quite loose, almost not even there in the first place. his fingers tangled nicely with hers as they walked. it was a cliche she had never thought she'd experience. walking hand in hand with the person you admire under the moon and stars. 

'he's so warm..' she thought as she felt the slightest bit of body heat getting transferred onto her 

"alright. get ready to run, bunny" suna teased as his hand moved to grip her wrist "if you're too slow, i won't be comin' back for you" he taunted playfully as he started running while dragging her along

"okay! i'll run in full speed!" she huffed back with a  smile of determination as she pried his hand off her wrist and went to grip his instead 

"wait wait. not full speed. y/n-" suna chuckled nervously as he tried to plant himself down on the ground with his feet 

he was well aware that her body was simply built different, if anything. her speed, stamina, and strength was enough to make a grown man cry, and frankly, he was in no mood to deal with that at the moment. 

"okay, suna-kun! let's go!" she exclaimed as she started running 

"wait waIT WAIT-" 

-----

"welcome home, y/n" osamu greeted her with a small smile as he ushered the girl into the fort they had made 

"and goodbye suna" he said to the brunette before he could even step onto the porch "oi! let me in!" suna said with a grunt as he blocked the door from closing with his foot "i didnt go through all that for nothing" suna muttered as he waltzed inside their home uninvited 

"oi sunarin!! how dare you hog y/n-chan to yerself?!" atsumu snarled as he went to kick suna on the back "shut up you blond bitch" suna scowled as he threw a random pillow at atsumu's face 

"tch" atsumu scoffed childishly the blond then blinked curiously as a snicker went past his lips "oi sunarin, yer pussy bangs are looking worse than usual" atsumu laughed "what happened to ya?" 

"we ran so fast i think the wind split my skull open" suna groaned as he went to fix his hair "ara~ but i slowed down so you wouldn't be so tired, suna-kun" she said with a tone of concern 

"you slowed down? that was slow for you?" suna scoffed in disbelief 

"well anyways, i have something to tell ya, y/n-chan!" atsumu beamed as he slung his arm around her shoulder "i was supposed to tell you this, but that was before suna stole ya from me!!" atsumu hissed at the brunette 

suna didn't reply, but simply flipped the blond off in response. "what is it, tsumu-kun?" she asked him as she discarded herself of her haori "i want ya to meet a friend of mine tomorrow" he said 

"oh that's nice! i'd love to meet them!" she beamed happily "but one thing to consider" atsumu said in a warning tone. he threw a bottle of sanitizer at her and a pack of masks and latex gloves. 

"we gotta make sure yer clean"

[perfume-on-the-shelf]

top ten favourite movies!

tagged by @raven-reyes-reads , and i am a film student so,,, ten movies gosh okay. i dont know what order they’re going to be in, but i do know that the first four are the top four.

1. Scott Pilgrim vs The World

okay so i literally love this movie, so, so much. when i read the plotline of it i thought it was gonna be terrible and cliche and argh. then i saw ramona flowers and it all made sense. i too would fight seven evil exes to date ramona. this film is cinematically beautiful and i never, ever get tired of watching it. also ramona flowers is a hottie with a hammer i want one.

2. Armageddon

if you dont cry when harry pushes ben’s character into the ship and says “ive always thought of you as a son”, then you have no heart and unfollow me. this movies always makes me bawl like a little bitch and i love it so so much. i know its astronomical inaccuracies should make me resent it but i dont. i dont think it’s possible for me to hate any part about this movie. also the characters are so fucking funny and it’s hilarious.

3. Safety Not Guaranteed

this movie is so beautiful and gives me a sense of wonder and hope and when i first watched it, i couldn’t believe that i had been blessed with something so beautiful. after i finish this i’m gonna watch it again. i cried so hard in this movie and most of them were happy tears. it had heartache and joy and pain and smile but the movie does such a good job and explaining why people would go back in time and change somethings and even if they should go back in time

4. The Godfather

countless times ive watched this movie and not only felt better about myself as a human being but had much more respect for the government and how hard it must be to make decisions sometimes. pretty much everyone in my family got so bored in this movie but i fucking love it to shreds, except the last one. i pretend that one didnt happen.

5. Sense8: Amor Vincit Omnia

sue me, this episode went for two hours and thirty one minutes (2hrs, 31mins) it can technically be a movie. i love sense8. like, so much. amanita caplan is everything i aspire to be and to receive. her ride or die relationship with nomi gives me so much hope for my future and their wedding had me bawling like a little baby. sense8 was so important to so many people and it made people so happy to see an inclusive and diverse cast literally from around the world. it was canceled for future seasons of thirteen reasons why which angers me to my very core. sense8 is a visual masterpiece and i could go on about this show forever. amanita caplan.

6. Love, Simon

again, i bawled my eyes out like a little bitch so many times while watching this movie. i did a whole review on it and despite simon’s friends making his coming out all about them, i whole heartedly loved everything this movie is, was, ever will be and hope and pray that it paves the way for so many more LGBTQ rom-com films. also abby is beautiful. also the soundtrack is literally so amazing and appealing to the young adult audience.

7. Breakfast At Tiffany’s

if you’ve ever met me you know that i fucking love audrey hepburn. this was the movie that made me fall in love with her and everything that she is. she’s fucking stunning and an amazing actress and she makes me so happy. this movie helps me get in touch with my “play hard to get” side which somehow always seems to work for any of audrey hepburn’s characters

8. Lemonade Mouth

baby kiyoko. need i say more? also the soundtrack is fucking dope i wish they were a real band.

9. Christopher Robin

I DO NOT NEED TO SEE THIS MOVIE TO KNOW THAT IT WILL OVERTAKE ONE OF MY FAVOURITE FOUR MOVIES. PROBABLY THE GODFATHER. THAT DOESNT MATTER. I CRIED SO MANY TIMES IN THE FUCKING TRAILER AND I HAVE LOVED WINNIE THE POOH EVER SINCE I COULD REMEMBER. THAT MOVIES IS GOING TO BE EVERYTHING I WILL EVER NEED.

10. Atlantis: The Lost Empire

since i was so so young ive always been a sucker for any type of mythology and this movie was my religion between the ages of 5 and 11. i made me believe in impossible things and encouraged my expansion from egyptian mythology to also greek mythology. i think atlantis is real and i hope that milo is somehow involved in it.

i realised i cry in a lot of movies also i tag @the-shores-of-avalon @neptuneclarke @romanticsapphic @frank-sapphic-ocean @tropiqal-waves @clexa-is-my-sexuality @maria-az @alexisgonenow @ultravioletlesbian

[canbrake8-blog]

Adventures in (Light) Sleep Training

(By Daniel)

He was a sweet and agreeable boy from the moment he entered the world. He didn’t cry when they gave him an IV an hour after he was born. He was happy to let anyone hold him. He didn’t mind diaper changes. He tolerated any amount of noise or light. Like most newborns he only seemed to care about two things: he wanted to be well fed and he wanted to be held while he slept.

So we held him—and we were happy to do it. There is no better feeling than your newborn snuggling up against you, peacefully snoozing away. After some time, we would set him down and he would usually stay asleep for anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour. But we were prepared for this. I splurged and bought a Snoo smart sleeper for 800 dollars. We planned to swaddle him, hook him safely into the snoo, and let the magic robot rock him gently as he slept through the night. But James had other plans. He disliked the Snoo. We kept trying to get him used to it and sometimes he would take to it. But mostly he just wanted to be held.

When we set him down in Snoo, he would wake. When we set him down in the crib, he would wake. But when we set him down in the Leachco Podster, gifted to us at our baby shower, he stayed asleep. It was a blessing. Eventually, our reliance on it would pose problems, but it was a lifesaver at the beginning. In the early days we would put it in between us in the bed. I would generally stay up on my laptop in the bed while he and Andie slept because he was still waking frequently to eat. Andie would get up early and takeover before dawn. Since he was almost always supervised and couldn’t roll over, we were ok with letting him sleep in the podster from a safety perspective.

We eventually moved him into the nursery after several months. We kept trying to reintroduce the Snoo, and it worked occasionally, but never as well as the Podster. Our nighttime routine was difficult but manageable. We would bathe him, swaddle him, feed him, read him a story, and then rock him to sleep. Once he was asleep for awhile, I would gently put him down in the Podster which sat inside his crib. I just am not the type of person who can sleep, wake, and go back to sleep easily. So I still stayed up for the night shift and watched him on the monitor. He was waking three times a night to eat, between 7pm and 5am, up until about 4.5 months, when he went down to two night feedings. After his feedings, he would generally go back down pretty easily.

It wasn’t the best situation. Me staying up all night and sleeping until noon was not ideal. We were nervous about him becoming too used to sleeping in the pod. We were still swaddling because he refused to sleep unswaddled. But he could turn over, so I had to watch him the whole time he was sleeping. It was working…until it wasn’t. At seven months old, he started to wake more and more frequently—crying and only going back to sleep if I held him and rocked him. Then he started to try to turn over in the pod, which was worrying, so we decided we needed to transition him out of the swaddle and out of the pod and into the crib.

At first, I tried a bunch of things in an attempt to make the transition less jarring. I bought a crib wedge to give him some elevation, like he was used to. I bought several different types of swaddles and wearable blankets that would allow us to take out one arm at a time. I continued to rock him and sat in his room all night to comfort him if he started to get upset. But none of it was working. He was sleeping worse, waking more, and becoming more and more irritable.

We discussed the situation with his pediatrician and she recommended sleep training, specifically Ferberizing. It was the same recommendation that Andie’s OBGYN gave her when they discussed how James was sleeping. We looked into this type of sleep training, where you let your baby cry and try to self-soothe for a set number of minutes and at specific intervals, and after talking it over we just weren’t entirely comfortable doing it. But at some point the situation had become untenable. He wasn’t sleeping. I was sitting in his room and rocking him all night long.

We still weren’t comfortable committing to a cry-it-out method, so I looked into other sleep training methods. I didn’t have a solid plan but on one particularly bad night I decided I had to try something. I took the swaddle off of him, fed him another bottle, and rocked him until he was drowsy. I kissed him, said goodnight, then I set him on his back in the crib and left the room. I just wanted to see how he would react and then formulate a plan from there.

He stayed quietly on his back for a few minutes—eyes wide, seeming a bit confused about what was going on. Then he started crying. I told myself I’d wait three minutes to give him a chance to self-soothe. Andie joined me in the hallway outside his door and agreed to my experiment. He kept crying for three minutes and I went in and gave him his pacifier and rubbed his head and then left the room again. He cried again and this time I said I’d give him five minutes. He kept crying but a few times de-escalated and seemed to almost calm himself down before starting up again. I went back in after five minutes and told him I loved him and it was time to sleep and left again. At this point Andie was bawling. I told her I’d give it another five minutes and then I’d rock him to sleep. After 4 more minutes of crying, it just didn’t seem like he was going to be able to do it. Andie and I both realized that sleep training wasn’t really for us. It was unbearable. We moved toward his door, my hand on the doorknob, when suddenly the crying stopped. On the monitor we watched as James rolled over on his stomach and went to sleep. That night he only woke up once to eat, and went right back down to sleep after.

The next night I did the same bed time routine and put him down in the crib and left the room. He cried for about 15 seconds before going to sleep. He never cried for more than 30 seconds to a minute after that point. Now he usually goes right to sleep when I put him down without crying at all. He sleeps from 7 to 3, I feed and change him, then he goes back down until around 6. It’s rare to hear any crying from him at all during the night.

So technically we did use a cry-it-out method of sleep training even though when Andie talks about it she always says we did “light” sleep training. But honestly, we just got very lucky that James adapted so quickly. I’m not confident enough to say sleep training is good or bad, right or wrong. Personally, I wasn’t comfortable doing it at all before he was over six months. And I’m not sure I would have been able to stick with it. Andie had already told me on night one that James could just sleep in our bed forever, so it’s safe to say she wouldn’t have wanted to stick with it either. But I do think it’s a viable option for older babies who are having trouble sleeping. It can be upsetting, but healthy sleep is really important for parents and babies. I think it worked for us because he was ready. He wanted to sleep on his stomach and his previous set up wasn’t allowing him to do that so once he figured out that he had the freedom to sleep in his preferred position (knees tucked in with his butt in the air and his face pressed against the mattress) he was able to sleep soundly.

Figuring out nighttime sleep was great progress for us. Now if only we could set him down for his naps. During the day, we either hold him and rock him or drive him around in the car while playing “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes” on repeat. I’m sure he’ll let us know when he’s ready. Hopefully it’s before college.

Source: http://www.andiemitchell.com/adventures-in-light-sleep-training/