Thursday, August 21, 2008

"Ferberizing"

We've decided to "sleep train" Grace. We haven't been having any problems getting her to go to sleep at night or even sleeping through the night. She's been doing that since she was about 4 months old. The problem is that she always falls asleep while having her bedtime bottle. She never gets the chance to go down while still awake, thus making her learn to soothe herself to sleep. We decided to try the "Ferber Method" tonight. I mixed up her bedtime routing so that I would put her down in her crib when she was tired but was still awake. I gave her a bottle, then she had a bath, then I read a couple books to her, and then I turned on her lullaby music and we said goodnight to her. We turned off the light and left the room expecting her to cry and wail for a long time, but much to our surprise she only cried for about 5 minutes. I stood by her door after she quit crying and I could hear her playing in her crib. A little while later I checked on her again and she was asleep. I couldn't believe it. I think this was just a fluke. I'm sure tomorrow night will be horrible.

4 comments:

Hilary said...

Yay! good luck with tonight.

Dallas and Shelby Scoffield said...

I love the Ferber method- Okay that sounds really dorky- but it worked with both of my kids. I expected it to be way worse than it was too. Does Grace take a binky? That makes it way easier too- especially the first few times they wake up in the middle of the night and you use the Ferber method. I can't wait to talk mommy stuff with you in a few days!

Tatiana said...

Well, they dental hygienist in me is very excited that you were able to get her to bet without the bottle. I hope it is still working! Unless of course it is a bottle of water. Then it's ok. You'll have to let me know how she's been doing.
-Tatiana

Anonymous said...

Good luck with the wohle sleeping thing. Jared is 3 months old and doing well with it. It is a good idea to put them down while they are awake. We've done it with all of our kids. It always blows me away when I hear people still rocking their 3 year old to sleep every night!! Yikes!!! Nice to hear from you Amy. You have a beautiful family.