I'm in love!

Jacob is such an amazing young man. He brightens my heart daily. He challenges me at times and yes it drives me up the freaking wall and makes me want to scream at the top of my lungs but then there are times when he runs up and gives me the biggest hug, pats me on the back, and looks at me with those big blue eyes and says "Momma". It's amazing to think that the decisions we make as parents can shape our children, for example.....I have spoken to various people about night night time. Some parents swear by the CIO (cry it out) approach to help their children go to sleep on their own. I tried that last weekend and I WILL NEVER DO IT AGAIN. The approach I take is to nurse him and while he's still awake, I lay him down in his crib and let him fall asleep on his own while I am still in the room. This is working and he feels safe and knows that Mommy is there but is still able to fall asleep on his own. Also when he wakes up in the middle of the night, I let him cry for a bit to see if he falls back asleep, if he doesn't I will go in , pat his butt and he falls back to sleep. I don't see anything wrong with the approach I am taking. I don't believe he is going to have issues down the road because I stay in the room while he falls asleep but I do believe that he will have issues if I leave him in the room and let him cry. I can't imagine what he was thinking when I didn't come back in to get him. How can they say to put your child in timeout a minute for how old they are but leave them in their room for 10 minutes to cry before going in. Makes no sense. I am going to follow what my body and heart tells me to do and that is make sure my son feels safe and secure.