And I adore my precious son who has decided he can sleep all night without a feeding! It wasn't as easy as it was with Holden, this little guy can be stubborn, but he did it and we survived.
For those of you who don't know, Dr. Ferber is this sleep expert who is quite controversial because he advises that babies need to be left to cry for gradually increasing periods of time in order to learn how to fall asleep on their own. I was adamantly against his practices...until Holden was 8 months old, still waking up 3 times a night, and not taking naps...ever. I had tried every cuddly sweet sleep trick known to man. Then one night at 4 am after being up for the third time, I put Holden in her crib, she wailed while I cried tears of sheer exhaustion and desperation in her rocking chair. Ian came in to witness the breakdown and the next morning I was handing over my $19.99 to the clerk at Borders and RUNNING home to find out what Dr. Ferber had to say for himself. We started that very afternoon and Holden was sleeping through the night in 2 days. MAGIC, I tell ya. That glorious Dr. spun some magic around my sleepy little girl and granted her (and me) much needed sleep.
So, after that nonsence we were not going to end up in the same situation with Everett. We have been tough from the beginning because I knew I would die if I had to endure 8 months of 4 hours a night. Mr. Man was getting up twice a night and we decided it was time to break out the book and get this guy down to once a night feedings. We stayed strong, go in every few minutes, tell him he was ok, kiss kiss, pat pat, BUT DON"T PICK HIM UP or the whole entire thing is ruined! This was especially difficult when Ian was in Denver for three days and I had to stare at the rise and fall of the monitor lights at 3 am, as my poor sweet baby cried his eyes out. (If you were wondering, I turned off the volume and held a pillow over my head becuase I couldn't take the screams)
But every day it got a little better and then on night 6 he woke at 2 and fussed for a few minutes. I didn't go in because his feedings were not to occur before 3:22 OR THE WHOLE ENTIRE THING WOULD BE RUINED, and we would have to start from scratch. Anyway, he went to sleep and I woke at 4 with a start...hmmm..no noise. Back to sleep, and I woke up at 4:48....hmmm...no noise. Then I woke up at 5:25...still nothing. Finally at 6:34 I heard Everett babbling to himself in his crib (I had turned the volume back up on the monitor). ARE YOU KIDDING ME? He went all night with no feeding at all. Then and there I decided if he did it once he can do it every night.
And we all lived happily ever after.
No comments:
Post a Comment