Sleep Training

Eli has been in intensive sleep training since we returned from our MN vacation a few weeks ago and I have to say, it is going FAMOUSLY! We had him trained before, and by trained I mean laying him down awake and letting him put himself to sleep, but before we left for our two week vacation where we would be sharing a tiny cabin with my sister and her husband we kind of let the training slide....and boy was that a mistake!

Unfortunately, while we were gone things really went downhill, the boy was getting up every few hours, and while I would always try to feed him in hopes that he would quickly and quietly go back to sleep, sometimes he just wanted to cry and cry and then cry some more. Let me tell you, in a camp of just 12 cabins, everyone knew what our nights were like....and would then offer us advice.

So we tried everything. One day we decided not to let him nap more then 90 min. at a time. So that day I woke up a cranky baby and then had high hopes when I laid him down at night- he didn't get the memo that he was supposed to be more tired that night and was up just as often. Another day we tried letting him sleep for as long as he wanted with the thought that a baby that sleeps better during the day sleeps better at night. He also didn't receive that memo. We tried cereal right before bed, cereal at dinner time, cereal multiple times a day..... no luck. Finally, a few nights before we drove home my mom (IE my savior) slept with him few nights and I was able to sleep for 6 hours IN A ROW! At that point I would have paid any amount of money for sleep but she didn't charge me :) So needless to say I was anxious to get Eli home and in his own crib for some remedial training.

The first night we got back I had a talk with Eli, we hummed a few verses of the Rocky theme song to get in the training mood and then we laid him down in his crib and let him work it out until he fell asleep. PRAISE THE LORD the kid finally slept!!! We have made more and more progress since then until last night we laid him down at 9:00pm, heard a little peep from him at 10:00pm (but not enough to intervene) and then not a sound until I woke up at 6:00am when Dylan got up for work and ran into his room (all the while reviewing my infant CPR as I was sure he was dead) to check on him. He, of course, was fine and I resisted the urge to pick up the poor sleeping child and swing him around out of joy for the sleep I had!

Final thoughts on sleep training- while it is difficult for a few nights to hear the baby cry it is OH SO WORTH IT!!!! Dr Ferber is my hero and if he were here I would kiss him on the lips!