Emma hasn't been the best sleeper over the past few months. It seems as if she regressed and started waking up every few hours. We always gave in to her middle of the night cries and fed her. I think part of us still thought we had that poor little string bean of a kid who couldn't gain weight. Well, she has meat on her bones now and has no problem gaining weight, so I decided that it was time that we got serious about this and changed her sleeping habits.
Lucky for me, Doug was on board! I had been hearing from family that we should let her cry it out, so that is exactly what we did. I researched the
Ferber Method and we started it this past Thursday, and here is how it has gone:
Night 1 Mama’s turn
Thursday 10/15/09
Bath time, rice cereal, then bottle with story time and singing.
8:13 put her down and went back in every 5 minutes to soothe her.
8:45 Emma is out for the night.
5:30 am, Emma woke up.
Night 2 – Dada’s turn
Friday 10/16/09
Bath time, tried a bottle and story. She was not in the mood for a bottle so Doug put her down.
7:45 pm put Emma down
8:00 pm Emma was out
11:30 pm Emma woke up
11:45 pm we gave in and gave her a bottle.
She had not eaten since 5:00 pm so we knew that it might be a bad night to ferberize.
Night 3 – Mama’s Turn
Saturday 10/17/09
Bath time, Lullaby and Bottle
8:17 pm Mama put Emma down
8:18 NO CRYING!!!
Night 4 – Dada’s Turn
Sunday 10/18/09
Bath Time, a song and some prayers
7:54 pm Dada put Emma down
7:54 She let out one cry and then silence.
I realize that there is still progress to be made and that we need to stick to the routine, but so far so good. So I have to say, "Mr. Ferber, I love you and your method."
Emma really is sleeping much better, which makes for happy and well rested Mama and Dada.
Here are a couple of cute pictures from playtime last night.
Such a sassy face.
Doug says that she was working on her Derek Zoolander impression.
Acting like a doggie with a toy doggie in her mouth.
Working on her steps.
And even working on her one handed walking/pushing.
Thank you to all of you who gave us advice.
Thank you to Douggie for supporting my out of the blue ferber idea.
Most importantly, Thank you to Emma for being a pretty easy going kid!
4 comments:
We were also going to try the Ferber method too, not because Rachel wakes up, but because I don't want to take an hour to put her to sleep every night. It was so hard the first night and eventually I gave in. Then...she got sick again and so I stopped trying. Rachel usually still falls asleep nursing, but on the nights she doesn't, it takes forever. Can you and Doug come over and Ferberize Rachel for me, please? I know I will have to do it soon, but it is hard.
I LOVE THE ZOOLANDER PICTURES! They are soooo cute. What a little ham you have on your hands.
Oh yeah, I love the doggie picture too!
It is the best method ever- worked with both of our kids like a charm. Of course now that Lauren is 3 she's a nightmare, but it worked from 6 months- to age 3 so that was good enough for me:)LOVE the Zoolander look!
Love the Zoolander face. So glad to hear that something is working for you. Keep up the good work Emma (and Mom and Dad!)
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