CIO Fired!

(3:30 a.m.) In the days before Ethan, I understood the acronym CIO to have one meaning: Chief Information Officer, a job title common within large companies. In the land of parenting, however, CIO takes on a different meaning and is probably one of the most hotly debated conversations in the 6-12 month old "circuits" of parents or pediatricians. THe "Cry-It-Out" method (aka "Ferberizing" after the founder, Dr. Ferber) suggests that if you let the baby CRY it out when he wakes in the middle of the night, he will learn--- within 3-5 days --- how to soothe himself back to sleep. I was determined to stay clear of this method of "sleep training" but night after night, EO had been waking up at 3 am and I was at a loss of how to help him (and me) sleep through the night. After 9 months now of this unpleasant routine that was adding unsightly bags to my eyes in the morning, I was really ready now to begin our "sleep training" for the Summer, I mean Somnia Olympics!
Well, it is 3 am now and EO finally fell back asleep! What worked...tonight? After a couple of nights of CIO, i could not bear hearing his distressed cries at full lung capacity (and what must my apt. neighbors be thinking??). While I waited the specified interval times for the Ferber method--- 5 minutes of crying, then 10 minutes--I searched for additional tips and hints on both the internet and my books with respect to this method. I read from parents who found it to work to those who opted for the No Cry Sleep Solution (Elizabeth Pantley) that aligns more closely to the Attachment Parenting ideology (Dr. Sears). The latter would say it is okay to pick up your child and hold him when they are crying in the middle of the night. Ferber would say that under no (okay, few!) circumstances should you pick up the baby. But this evening, after an hour of the crying, I gave in and held EO in my arms, comforting him until his deep gasps of crying dialed down to a soft snore of a ten month old boy trying to find his way to a good night's sleep, stress-free. Within a few minutes, I gently placed him back in his crib ---it has been an hour now and still soundly asleep. Mom, of course, is wide awake from this exercise and wondering if this same approach (picking up baby) would work tomorrow. We can only WISH. The past three nights, I have been lucky to get four hours of uninterrupted sleep so I am going to aim high, and shoot for five hours tomorrow! Thinking, no CIO in this home.
zzzzzz......