My 11 month old son has never been a great sleeper. At 8 months i nap trained him and he was finally able to take long naps in the crib. We were then able to put him in his crib drowsy but awake for naps and night sleep (i would nurse him, sing a song while walking around the room and put him in his crib). He might cry for 1 minute but nothing too bad, even after going to daycare. His only problem was that his night sleep was inconsistent, and he recently was waking up every 3 hours. If DH went in, he would be unsuccessful at getting him back down and i would eventually go in after 1 hour and nurse him to sleep.

We recently decided to go back to CIO. DH's foot is still recovering from an injury and i'm having back pain again. The first night he went to sleep after 15 minutes of crying (1 check) and then he woke up 4 hours later. After 1 hour of several checks (pu/pd), he went to sleep until 6:30am. Amazing.

On the second day, he was starting to get upset at dinner time! He didn't eat much and he wanted me to hold him instead of playing. Again, he went to sleep after 15 minutes of crying (1 check). As soon as i hold him in a "rocking" position, he gets really sad and upset because he knows i'm going to put him to bed. He woke up 3 hours later crying. The night was a bit of a blur because we had wakeup issues with our older daughter, but at one point i gave in and was okay nursing. Of course, he woke up 3 hours later and almost 5am and it was really difficult to get him back to sleep (meaning he did not go back to sleep).

It's the third night, and he will still cry, but will go to sleep right after the first check. He still gets really upset before i put him in his crib. It has been a little over 3 hours so far. There have been a few cries here and there but nothing that lasts more than 5 seconds.

Is this sleep regression related to separation anxiety? His naps are okay (but there is a little more anxiety/crying compared to before we did the night CIO). Do i just need to keep at it for a few more days? Anyone else have this issue when sleep training older babies?

I really hate hearing him cry but it's just too hard to continue with the way things have been going!

(Sorry for the novel! )