Cry It Out?

I was nursing my DD every 2 hours (and occasionally less) until she was 6 months old because, as you say, you don't know how much they're getting. I felt bad not offering her food, as I didn't honestly know if she was hungry or not. (I know a lot of moms figure out their baby's cries, but I never could differentiate...) I was turning into a very angry and unhappy zombie with getting up that much (especially since she didn't nap well either), and finally let her do some CIO, which I hadn't done at all previously.

I tried just comforting her when she cried at night without feeding her, but because she'd come to expect that from me, it made her angry and she'd cry harder. So, basically I refused to go in unless it had been at least 4 hours since she'd eaten. So, I'd put her to bed at 6 and she got in the schedule of waking up at 10 and 2 every night to eat, then being up for the day at about 7. That meant I only had to get up once after I'd gone to sleep, which was manageable. At a year old, when I weaned her, I let her CIO again to get her off those two nightly feedings. That was hard, as it took about 2 weeks before she stopped crying at all at night, but it was effective. She sleeps pretty darn well now.

I personally couldn't do CIO any earlier than 6 months, but there is some element of needing to save mom's sanity in it, I think. I felt like it worked well for us.