WOW...I'm not sure what advice to give you. I mean when Dylan gets going we usually let him go but like you said, Sammy has other concerns for you to take into account. I think you have to be strong and stern like you were but also take into account the stress that the situation is putting on him, like you did. Tell me where to send cookies and I will send them...

Ugh. Crying it out takes on a whole new level of complicated when you can't really let him cry it out for heart reasons. GAH. Good luck with that.

E..
When you figure it all out, Let me know..
Best of luck... That T.V thing is a blessing sometimes and a curse other times...
D

you know, as a woman in my early thirties, without children, at 4 in the morning, i think one of two things would have happened. i would have either put him outside and gone back to bed or i would have ended up in hysterics and screaming. yep.

but the cookie image is priceless. what do you do when you want to eat the cookies he is eating.

That is a tough call. Its hard to make any suggestions considering I don't know what its like to have to worry about a heart condition. I think you did the best you could in the given situation. One thing that comes to mind is that maybe (if it happens again), you can let him cry it out till you think it needs to stop (as you did) but then if you have to give into the tv, then tell him you'll let him watch it but only for so long (10 minutes, or 1 episode, etc). When G turned two I started telling giving him time frames. Not that he could really grasp it, but it helped (i.e. Mommy has to leave in 3 minutes). To this day, at almost four, I still give him time frames. When its getting close to bedtime I can tell him he has x minutes until bedtime and he says, "okay!".

As an "old" Mom, I can assure you that screaming for one hour and getting his way, will ensure you that next time he'll just cry for an hour and 15 minutes. When Sarah was a toddler, she pitched a fit, and cried until she puked. I just moved her, and cleaned up the mess. Never happened again.

You are not alone. Sometimes the TV just has to go on at 4am when there are sobbing hysterics going on.

Thats the way it goes over here too.

The second the tv goes on, he's happy.. and then we can all rest easier in 15-30 minutes instead of listening to heartbreaking sobbing for an hour.

I do it. I hate it... but I do it.

Ugh. I just left you a HUGE comment and it disappeared because I forgot my name! I basically said I can completely understand the not wanting to let them cry thing as a fellow mother of a child with HLHS.

We tried to let Marcus cry it out to get him to go to sleep at night and the first time...45 minutes straight with no end in sight and he threw up. So that was the end of that.

I still don't like him to cry that much. He fell of his chair at the table yesterday and has a HUGE goose-egg on the back of his head and the only way I could get him to stop crying was to cuddle him in my arms like a baby (yeah, he's no baby...he's 3 1/2 now) and let him drink his sippy cup of soy milk. Still his comfort measure.

Cookies? They're off limits for me and Bill. He has high blood pressure (which we're working on getting under control) and I want to lose about 13 more pounds. So...there ya go.

Love you bunches,
Shari

As a mother of three (two grown), I would suggest that getting him out of bed is appropriate after a bout of crying. I would maybe, though, try to stand next to his bed with him until he calms down, then put him back down. I also would keep the room quite dark while you stand with him. Yes, he'll cry again, but when he sees that his crying will not get him TV or long-term perky mama in the middle of the night, he'll develop a better understanding of sleep time. And, yes, you'll probably go through this cycle/routine numerous times over a few nights, with him starting to cry again and you standing next to the bed with him. I think this solution might ease your mind about possible heart complications, and still teach him how to sleep (which, it seems, many parents don't realize is their job! Not you and Jay. Your posts indicate clearly that you're trying to do your job quite well.) A child who finds his way to Mom and Dad's bed never finds the way out of that bed without being shoved.

P.S. My kiddoes all slept through the night early (2-3 months old), but developed restlessness at about two. My advice above really did work, though I was tired and tense until the few nights passed. Then, I had some champion sleepers! (Still are. ;-)

oh hell, don't we turn on the tv when WE can't sleep, too?? *giggle*

You did exactly what any normal parent would do. You did the 'be tough', 'be stern' but then you did the 'I can't take it anymore' and the 'what ifs' (especially because of his heart), for your sanity and for the safety of Sammy you let him watch some TV.
Most of the time Trevor goes to bed watching some sort of DVD. He usually falls alseep before it's over. I haven't had te 3am I want to watch TV, I get the 3am climb over mommy and snuggle in mommy & daddy's bed.

Wow. Never thought about the parenting aspects associated with this ... all I can say is I hope it gets better. Sheeeesh!

Hmmmm, I wonder if you could do some kind of 'first sleep' then 't.v.' reasoning? How about the Happiest Toddler on the Block? The calming techniques for the babies were so good; do the tactics to defuse a tantrum help with Sammy now?

Letting them cry it out is the hardest thing the world, I can't imagine how much harder it is with health worries thrown into the mix.

My son is 7 and I definitely gave in a lot when he cried during the night--but I just got into bed with him for extra snuggles until he (or we) fell asleep.

Bad result: at 7 he still needs a few minutes of snuggles from mommy to fall asleep; Good result: at 7 he still wants snuggles from mommy before bed.

Ummm...what did I get myself into??? HAHA J/K