Ferber, Part Trois

I'll update this post instead of creating new ones to tell you how sleep training goes.

Tonight we started putting Léo to bed using the Ferber method again. If you remember I botched the first two attempts. This time I am ready! He is getting over a cold, he's not teething, he just went through a developmental milestone so I'm guessing he's not going to go through one any time soon, and we're not going to move/travel/go through any changes in the next few weeks. I checked his baby book in which I write when he sleeps/eats/poops and saw that he has stayed up for an hour or two every night since August (when we unswaddled him and when I went back to work). According to Ferber, he stays awake because he doesn't need that many hours of sleep. We're going to work on that as well as the way he falls asleep -no more rocking- and on decreasing night time feedings.

I realized tonight that I was reluctant to do Ferber because:

1- of course I am dreading tears

2- I fear he won't need me anymore -right now he does need me to fall asleep and as much as I need to sleep I relish these moments where he just lays on my chest since he's not so cuddly during the day (this is changing though. Post coming soon)

3- I am afraid he's going to resent me for leaving him alone.

I know all those fears are unfounded. We need sleep. So does Léo. Ferber seems the only thing that can work quickly.

I'm so hopeful that this time will work! Please do pray that it works. Also, in the comments, can you tell me what your kids' routines looked like when they were about 9 months old? That'd help me set our own routine.

Here we go!

Saturday Dec 3rd to Sunday Dec 4th

Léo was so tired after not taking a nap all day that he fell asleep in 2 minutes. I had braced myself for the worst, so this was quite easy! He woke up at 1115. We fed him and put him to bed. He talked to himself for 25' and then started crying -and so we started counting minutes. We checked on him at 3-5-10-10-etc minutes. After 50' he was really mad. He kept on standing up and stomping his feet on the crib. Finally I saw that ht was putting his hand in his mouth. I thought that he has either hurt himself or that his teeth were hurting. So I went in his bedroom, put him back on his side, and whispered to him and stroked his hair. That did it and he fell asleep at 1250. I know this is cheating because he's supposed to fall asleep alone but hey, I didn't rock him and left him in his crib. He slept until 530!

When he got up we noticed that there was blood on his PJs, sheet, and crib. I am guessing he must have hurt himself when he was stomping his feet -maybe knocked his gum on the crib rail or something. Poor baby! We'll be more careful watching the monitor and setting the camera where we can see him when he stands up tonight.

This afternoon we also noticed that his upper teeth are coming out. D'oh! The little man is teething again! It's ok. We're going to give him Tylenol if he hurts. We're not stopping Ferber right now!

Keep on praying please!

Sunday Dec 4th to Mon Dec 5th:
Again he fell asleep in no time. When he woke up for his night feeding he cried for 30' (I checked on him often) and finally I just went to his bed and stroke his hair. That did the trick. He was back asleep right after and slept until the morning.
PROGRESS!

Mon Dec 5th to Tue Dec 6th:
He fell asleep at 615p -he was exhausted for some reason- and slept... until 430am!!! He slept for TEN hours. Stuh-raight.
It worked!! Hopefully it won't be a roller coaster form there. We're quite happy with this Ferber method. It sucked quite a bit but it was worth it.