Attachment Parents try Sleep Training

We follow the attachment style of parenting as described and advocated by Dr. Sears... and in contrast to 'Babywise.' We have definitely come up with our own style, but it definitely involves co-sleeping (when it works), extended breastfeeding (passed 12 months), babywearing via a sling or other carrier, natural birth via Bradley Method, natural/organic food, positive discipline, non-vaccination, etc.

We were faced with a dilemma when planning our first trip away from our kids overnight. What will the baby and grandma do when mommy and nursing are not available in the middle of the night? Yes, I still nurse my 13 month old when he wakes at 3 or 4 am... after all he does go to sleep at 7pm. So we decided to 'sleep train' so to speak. He has always been able to put himself to sleep from a very early age (2 months!) - it's just staying asleep that is the hard part. He had reflux and (still has) allergies that caused frequent night waking... and now it's teeth or just plain old routine. I was worried if we didn't fix the 'problem' they would have a horrible time when we were gone.
(Note: this picture was NOT taken in the middle of the night)

Prep work:

• remove allergens: no bumper, clean sheets/pillow case, vacuum often, use vaporizer and Benadryl for allergies/runny nose
• give a sippy of water in bed in case of thirst
  

Day 1: 4:30am - 6am??? 1 1/2 hours of crying. I was wide awake until 1am so when the crying started at 4:30 I had no energy to go. After 1/2 hour and no movement from Mike, I decided to let this be the first night of not going in....IT WAS HORRIBLE. We've always gone to our crying babies in the night - we don't always feed or pick them up, but we always go check and reassure. We tossed and turned and felt horrible laying in bed listening to the screams. I'm not sure if he ever went back to sleep. When we got up at 6:30am we heard him in there talking. We must've fallen back to sleep, but we're not sure if he ever did. I remember seeing the clock around 6am before I finally dozed off for 30 minutes. Owen probably did too b/c I can't sleep through my babies crying!
Day 2: 3am - 3:45am 45 minutes of crying. After the first 20 minutes or so I went into the room to turn off his fan - I didn't want him to be crying b/c he was cold!Seeing me made him freak out even more so I went back to comfort him but didn't pick him up - I just leaned into the crib and hugged/talked to him. 15 minutes after I left he fell asleep. Thank God!
Day 3: SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT for 10 1/2 hours. I put him down at the normal time of 7pm and he didn't wake up until 5:30am.

Ever since this he is consistently sleeping 10 -11 hours... every now and then waking once from teething pain - but Tylenol and 10 minutes of me takes care of that. When we went on our vacation he didn't wake up - so no drama for baby or Grandma! Yeah! I definitely don't recommend this method until your baby is at least 6 months old. Before then they are missing needed nutrition. Personally, 12 months is my cutoff for nursing in the middle of the night - but only because co-sleeping doesn't work for us that long. If you can nurse and sleep through it - more power to ya! That's what I do when they're little, but as they get older it gets harder. I'm a light sleeper now and wasn't able to ever co-sleep with my 2nd longer than a few hours. We're all happier now that we're getting a little more sleep but sad if we hear crying. And that's my experience with sleep training.