Operation "Bloody Murder": Days Four & Five
A little catching-up to do, and alas I have been lax with taking detailed and scientific notes about the CIO process, mainly because it has been working so well.
Friday night: From what I can remember, putting Isaac to bed was similar to Day Three -- 15 or 20 minutes of arguing about being in his crib, despite his obvious exhaustion, but he gave way. I vaguely remember Dad getting up to deal with Isaac at 11 or 12, but as for myself, I was half-conscious. The recap from Dad was that Isaac was screaming half-heartedly at that time and not even standing up. A few pats on the butt from Dad and Isaac was off to dreamland until his usual 5:00 wake-up time.
Saturday night: This was O'Neal family date night (more on that later), where Dad and I hit the town and Isaac spent the evening all alone with his best girl Alicia. We got home shortly before 7, the official bedtime, and Alicia was chasing a super-flirty giggle-monster Isaac all around the upstairs. She musta wore him out while we were gone -- I gave him his boobie nightcap, during which his sweet little eyelids kept getting droopier and droopier. But in our new sleep-training world, there is no nighttime falling asleep at the boob, so I detached him, turned off the lights, swayed with him around the room while we said his prayers, and then put him in the crib and wished him goodnight. There were two cries (not two minutes of crying, no, just two cries), and he was out. AND HE SLEPT TILL 4:15 WITHOUT WAKING UP and I couldn't believe it it was so wonderful. That's 9 straight hours there, people.
I hope it's not too early to say, but I am pleased beyond words at how this whole "tough love" approach has turned out. I must admit that I had been skeptical of this kind of sleep-training, and I will even say that I was really not ready for it until now. I remember following other moms on the April 2004 Playgroup bulletin board and hearing them talking about "Ferberizing" a baby as if it was akin to selling him for crack. [For the unindoctrinated, this term comes from some dude named Dr. Ferber who is a pediatrician and a sleep researcher and suggested this whole 5 then 10 then 15 minute kind of approach that we have been loosely following]Hearing this method so defamed by the moms on this bulletin board, and following my initial instincts, where I was flatly horrified at the thought of "letting" my baby cry for extended periods, both Dad and I agreed that we would never do that. Turns out "never" becomes "until he approaches his 11th month and is still waking at least every 3 hours and usually wanting to stay up for a two-hour-period at night and won't fall back asleep unless Mom kicks Dad out of bed to make room for the baby." Despite the obvious rewards that we are reaping now, I think it's good that we waited this long to sleep-train Isaac, simply because I could handle the sleep-deprivation before and wasn't desperate enough to realize that this could really turn out okay. The crying was actually a lot easier to take than I thought it would be; for those looking into this method I suggest starting it on a night when there are veritable mountains of dishes to be done -- a noisy and hand-busying task to help you focus on other things. Anyway, everything is just fabulous so far here, but if this sleep thing sticks I think we might try to shift bedtime to 8. It might be nicer to wake up at 6 rather than that god-awful hour of 5.
Friday night: From what I can remember, putting Isaac to bed was similar to Day Three -- 15 or 20 minutes of arguing about being in his crib, despite his obvious exhaustion, but he gave way. I vaguely remember Dad getting up to deal with Isaac at 11 or 12, but as for myself, I was half-conscious. The recap from Dad was that Isaac was screaming half-heartedly at that time and not even standing up. A few pats on the butt from Dad and Isaac was off to dreamland until his usual 5:00 wake-up time.
Saturday night: This was O'Neal family date night (more on that later), where Dad and I hit the town and Isaac spent the evening all alone with his best girl Alicia. We got home shortly before 7, the official bedtime, and Alicia was chasing a super-flirty giggle-monster Isaac all around the upstairs. She musta wore him out while we were gone -- I gave him his boobie nightcap, during which his sweet little eyelids kept getting droopier and droopier. But in our new sleep-training world, there is no nighttime falling asleep at the boob, so I detached him, turned off the lights, swayed with him around the room while we said his prayers, and then put him in the crib and wished him goodnight. There were two cries (not two minutes of crying, no, just two cries), and he was out. AND HE SLEPT TILL 4:15 WITHOUT WAKING UP and I couldn't believe it it was so wonderful. That's 9 straight hours there, people.
I hope it's not too early to say, but I am pleased beyond words at how this whole "tough love" approach has turned out. I must admit that I had been skeptical of this kind of sleep-training, and I will even say that I was really not ready for it until now. I remember following other moms on the April 2004 Playgroup bulletin board and hearing them talking about "Ferberizing" a baby as if it was akin to selling him for crack. [For the unindoctrinated, this term comes from some dude named Dr. Ferber who is a pediatrician and a sleep researcher and suggested this whole 5 then 10 then 15 minute kind of approach that we have been loosely following]Hearing this method so defamed by the moms on this bulletin board, and following my initial instincts, where I was flatly horrified at the thought of "letting" my baby cry for extended periods, both Dad and I agreed that we would never do that. Turns out "never" becomes "until he approaches his 11th month and is still waking at least every 3 hours and usually wanting to stay up for a two-hour-period at night and won't fall back asleep unless Mom kicks Dad out of bed to make room for the baby." Despite the obvious rewards that we are reaping now, I think it's good that we waited this long to sleep-train Isaac, simply because I could handle the sleep-deprivation before and wasn't desperate enough to realize that this could really turn out okay. The crying was actually a lot easier to take than I thought it would be; for those looking into this method I suggest starting it on a night when there are veritable mountains of dishes to be done -- a noisy and hand-busying task to help you focus on other things. Anyway, everything is just fabulous so far here, but if this sleep thing sticks I think we might try to shift bedtime to 8. It might be nicer to wake up at 6 rather than that god-awful hour of 5.
posted by Claire at 7:39 PM
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