Ferber-ized

Dr. Ferber is a genius and Kathleen is my hero for introducing me to Dr. Ferber.

emma is now ferberized. she goes to bed peacefully at 9:00 pm and sleeps until 8:00 am-ish. it was rough at first, but the end result is well worth it.
it all started wednesday, March 23. we put the little one down for bed like we usually do {bath at 8:00, pj's, goodnight moon and crib at 8:45, asleep by 9}. i woke up at 1 am to nurse her {like i always do} and she was sound asleep, so i went back to bed. i work up at 5 am to nurse her {like i always do} and she was still sound asleep. i went back to bed. tim and i woke up at 7:30 and wondered if emma had been switched with another baby who sleeps all night because she was STILL ASLEEP! she slept until 8 am! she had a major growth spurt and slept for 11 hours! she also started sitting up on her own the week prior. we are so proud of our little one and so sad that she is growing up so fast.
with this growth spurt came 4 nights of sleepless nights for our little one {and me}. her routine had been knocked out of whack. i blamed it on teething and tried baby orajel and frozen teethers. i blamed it on her growing and fed her more. nothing was working. she would wake and cry and cry. i would rock her back to sleep and gently place her in her crib and tip toe out. the moment my head hit my pillow and my eyes took one last, long blink...she would cry. i emailed my friend, Kathleen and explained my situation and asked her what worked and didn't work for them and their little one. she told me all about Dr. Ferber and his 'cry it out' method. she gave me a basic summary of this method. click here to read babycenter.com's summary of the method. i immediately ordered the book and implemented the method that night. how did it go? so nice of you to ask...

Monday, March 28 {night 1}

• 8:00 - bath, pj's, goodnight moon, crib at 8:30, kiss on head, whisper goodnight
• 8:30 - cry, wait 5 minutes
• 8:35 - still crying. soothe with my voice, stroke her hair, kiss her head, binky back in mouth, wait 10 minutes
• 8:45 - still crying, {voice, kiss and binky}, wait 15 minutes
• 9:00 - still crying, {voice, kiss and binky}, head hits the sheet, falls asleep
• 11:50 - cry, wait 5 minutes
• 11:55 - still crying, {voice, kiss and binky}, wait 10 minutes
• 12:05 - still crying, {voice, kiss and binky}, wait 15 minutes
• 12:20 - still crying, {voice, kiss and binky}, wait 20 minutes
• 12:29 - asleep
• 4:12 - cry, wait 5 minutes
• 4:17 - still crying, {voice, kiss and binky}, wait 10 minutes
• 4:20 - asleep
• 6:45 - wakes up talking
• 7:00 - breakfast

continue the day with the eat, play, sleep routine.

Tuesday, March 29 {night 2}

• 8:00 - bath, pj's, goodnight moon, crib at 8:30, kiss on head, whisper goodnight
• 8:30 - cry, wait 5 minutes
• 8:35 - still crying, {voice, kiss and binky}, wait 10 minutes
• 8:45 - still crying, {voice, kiss and binky}, wait 15 minutes
• 8:55 - asleep
• 1:30 - cry, wait 5 minutes. repeat the progressive process until...
• 2:15 - asleep
• 5:30 - cry, wait 5 minutes
• 5:35 - asleep
• 7:15 - wakes up talking
• 7:30 - breakfast

we continue the day with the eat, play, sleep routine.

Wednesday, March 30 {night 3}

• 8:00 - bath, pj's, goodnight moon, crib at 8:30, kiss on head, whisper goodnight
• 8:30 - cry, wait 5 minutes
• 8:35 - still crying, {voice, kiss and binky}, wait 10 minutes
• 8:45 - not crying. making little grunting noises and heavy eyes
• 8:55- asleep
• 1:54 - cry, wait 5 minutes
• 1:59 - cry, {voice, kiss and binky}, wait 10 minutes
• 2:09 - cry, {voice, kiss and binky}, wait 15 minutes
• 2:14 - asleep
• 7:30 - wakes up talking
• 7:45 - breakfast

continue the day with the eat, play, sleep routine.

Thursday, March 31 {night 4}

• 8:00 - bath, pj's, goodnight moon, crib at 8:30, kiss on head, whisper goodnight
• 8:30 - not crying. making little grunting noises and heavy eyes
• 8:55 - asleep
• 5:00 - cry, wait 5 minutes
• 5:05 - still crying, {voice, kiss and binky}, wait 10 minutes
• 5:12 - asleep
• 8:00 - wakes up talking
• 8:15 - breakfast

continue the day with the eat, play, sleep routine.

Friday, April 1 {night 5}

• repeat thursday night :)

i knew that emma was capable of sleeping all night without needing to eat, i just didn't know how to break the habit. at 6 months, we are now introducing solids to emma {more to come on that subject}. because we didn't introduce earlier, i felt she needed to be fed at night when she woke and our doctor agreed. after 5 nights of 'sleep training', we have 2 nights of consecutive patterns. we will see how long it lasts.
thank you Kathleen and thank you Dr. Ferber!