The Gentle Approach

Well, we failed The Ferber Method - twice - and I just don't have the determination to make it through even a single night more of kicking and screaming. I can't figure him out or how to make this method work on such a stubborn little boy. So, last week I devised a new plan. It is gentle, so very, very gentle. It's nearly two months long IF every thing goes according to my plan. He's 7 1/2 months old now and the sense of urgency is setting in. This being my second time around, I know that it only gets harder the older he gets. He could begin crawling and pulling himself up any day now, so I must get this child sleeping in his own bed for the whole night through.
My biggest challenge happens most nights by 11:00. He wakes and kicks and cries, we shhh, he cries more, we shhh and hope and pray, he refuses to comply, we rock him, he sleeps - immediately, we hold him for various intervals of time, we lay him down, he kicks and wakes. Some nights we do this just once, some nights we try up to five times. The outcome is always the same, Adam makes up the couch for yet another night of sleep and I snuggle up close to my little cuddle bug. On the rare occasion that he actually does stay asleep past my bedtime, I find myself lying awake for hours waiting and waiting for the impeding awakening.
So, now the crib is next the bed, right next to me. We couldn't get any closer without being in the same bed. It's been this way for almost a week and yet nothing had changed until last night. Last night, I managed to keep him awake during his bedtime feeding and laid him in his bed to go to sleep. It actually worked!! I sang him to sleep with my arm tucked around him like I always have it when we sleep together. Then to my surprise he STAYED asleep until I went to bed, then had a period of fitful sleep for a couple hours until I took him to the rocker for a feeding. I was also surprised when I was able to lay him back in his crib after feeding him. So, when he woke me at 7:15 this morning. I was in my bed and he was in his bed. Now, was that so hard, you little stinker?
I tried the same method of putting him to sleep for his naps today, but failed - twice. The morning nap was more the fault of me and the little miss. She had to pee, I forgot his medicine, she had to pee again. After that, he was just too frustrated to sleep. By afternoon naptime, he hadn't forgotten and cried and cried. I gave in after 10 minutes and rocked him to sleep. Let's hope he lets me stick to my plan for bedtime tonight. After all I am trying my hardest and then some. Please, work with me here, Buddy, I'm trying to be nice!

There's a New Star in Town

It has been a long time since I have posted anything to this blog; probably over a year. But I have a good reason. Sleep in our house became effortless for us all. At 11 months old we used the Ferber method on Claire and she responded wonderfully and very quickly. From that time on, she slept like a dream. 8:00 pm until 7-8:00 am. We have had minor bumps in the road, a few rough nights here and there, but overall she turned out to be a great sleeper. Last year at this time I was in my first trimester of my second pregnancy and I was enjoying getting a good amount of sleep which was certainly needed. I slept 8-9 hours at night and took a nap when Claire went down for her morning nap. What bliss!
Her good sleep habits suffered a minor glitch once there was a baby in the house, but overall she kept right on being a good sleeper. I was sure that my newborn son was going to develop good sleep habits right from the start. After all, I was now an experienced mommy. Boy, was I ever wrong.
When Lucas was 4 months old, I was making small talk with a mother of another 4 month old (about our babies, of course). She commented on how her little girl was sleeping straight through the night until a week ago when she started waking for a feeding at 3 or 4 am. She didn't get any sympathy from me since Lucas had been waking about 4 times each night since we brought him home. It was then that I realized that my 4 month old was still sleeping like a newborn. No wonder I was so exhausted that by 2:00 pm I could hardly muster the energy to tell Claire no for the hundredth time that day. The time of living life as a zombie was supposed to be a distant memory by now. Not an everyday occurrence. I knew that it was time to make a change.