Ferber

So, Blake has officially been sleep trained successfully. I feel bad about this whole thing but it worked and I am trying to keep that in mind. There are plenty of people that I talk to that tell me I have to let him cry, and I have to make him do basically whatever it is I want him to do. Then there are just as many people who say that you should only do what the baby wants and they would never make their child do something they don't want to. So of course this makes me feel guilty (but really what doesn't?).

We started last week by moving Blake's bassinet into his crib, so he was still sleeping swaddled with towels on either side of him in the bassinet. He did that for two nights. Then on Friday night we started doing what Ferber recommends which is to establish a bedtime routine (we already had done that awhile ago)then lay him in his crib drowsy but awake and leave. I should have taken his binky away buy I couldn't do it so he still gets it but we don't put it back in once it falls out. After we left he was quiet for a few minutes then started to cry. After three minutes of crying I went in to try and soothe him but not pick him up. It was incredibly hard, I was able to resist picking him up even though he cried a lot more when he saw me but I wasn't able to resist giving him his binky. So he cried for another five minutes and I had Ryan go in, Blake wouldn't stop crying for Ryan either but at least we let him know we where there. Then Ryan was to go in in another five minutes but Blake feel asleep. We were both amazed at how fast he settled down. He did wake up three times that night, the first one he cried for 30 minutes and the other two he cried for maybe 15 minutes so one of us (usually Ryan because he was better about following the "rules") went in so Blake knew we where there and he wasn't alone. Then he slept until almost eight.

Every night since then he has gone down with out crying AT ALL! I can't believe it. Every night he just goes right to sleep. The last couple of nights he has cried but he never cries for more then a minute and goes back to sleep, unless he is hungry. He even slept in his pack-n-play for his Aunt Shannon today. So the next thing is to work on his schedule and get his naps on track. I think that they will be easy to do once I figure out what I want to do about them. Everyone in the house, including George, is getting a lot better sleep. I am glad that we finally made the switch.