baby mo is normally a good sleeper, but in the past week weeks it's all gone downhill. after some research, we found out that baby mo's bedtime is waaaay too late and he is going to sleep only because he is exhausted. this weekend, we decided to try ferber.
ferber is not cio, in that you don't just let them cry and cry for hours and just ignore it. you go in after a set amount of time and comfort, leave, and then come back after a little while longer.
on friday night, we did our whole evening routine a whole lot earlier, and put baby mo down while he was wide awake. he proceeded to cry louder than i have ever heard anything cry in my life. thank goodness it was only 8:00 because i thought our neighbors might call the cops.
kid was in serious distress, yo. at one point, he was actually pulling his hair out. the next morning, i had to lint roll his crib, it was so disturbing.
anyway, dh went back in after five minutes of screaming, and then i went in for the next ten. i made a HUGE mistake of picking him up because when i put him back down, he screamed extra super loud and i had to start all over again. he was asleep by 9:00.
and then the little monster slept until 7am, and woke up while he was laughing and playing with his feet.
saturday night, we tried it again. put to bed awake, crying for half hour. forty-five minutes but really only half-heartedly. no serious distress and only had to go in once. awake on sunday morning by laughing and feet playing.
sunday night, same thing. bed awake, crying half-heartedly for about forty minutres, and then asleep. he woke up once at 2am crying -- two cries, then mumbles, and then back to sleep.
we know we will have to re-ferber when he reaches other milestones like sitting up, pulling up, etc., but it will be much easier.
that first night sucked (dh and i wanted to craigslist him) but every night after was much easier. and really, we look at it this way -- if we go in there and go back to our old patterns of picking him up and comforting him until he falls asleeps, we just made him cry for nothing.
