I remember the days when I would tell people, "Eric is such a good sleeper. He slept 7 straight hours last night!" But then one day our good little sleeper started waking up every hour...for three weeks in a row. Obviously, everyone in this Bergman household was tired. After talking to the pediatrician at Eric's fourth month appointment about sleep training, we were given the green light to try the Ferber Method a.k.a. the "cry it out" method. I read up on the blogs and asked every parent how they got their baby to sleep. Some parents were against letting their child cry it out, but others who tried it said there were a few painful nights, but the reward was worth it. Since we were completely sleep deprived, we decided to go with our pediatrician's advice and follow the Ferber method.
Armed with detailed advice/instructions from cousin Jackie (thank you!), we started with the regular night-time routine. But instead of rocking him until he fell asleep, I put him down while he was still awake. Cue the crying! Per the method, we checked in on our crying babe at the various intervals. After about an hour of crying, Eric settled down and fell asleep. We congratulated ourselves for being strong and thought the worst was behind us. Then 15 minutes later...he woke up...crying. We continued following the method, checking on him, which usually pissed him off more; then finally at 1 AM he fell asleep. He slept until about 4 AM, then we started the whole process again until 7 AM or so.
On night two of sleep training, we expected the another night of crying and parental guilt. However, Baby Boy did great - he slept 8 hours! Of course Mom and Dad woke up to check on the little guy, but in the end we got a lot more sleep than normal, which was fabulous.
Hopefully, I am not jinxing myself by writing these next statements, but since Saturday, Baby Boy has slept really well (one night of 10 hours!) since we started the "training." He has figured out how to comfort himself and goes down easily at night after we read a book together. Eric loves to sleep on his side, with his neck tilted way back, or on his tummy with his face completely schmushed into the mattress. Thankfully he snores loudly, so we can always make sure he is breathing :).
Armed with detailed advice/instructions from cousin Jackie (thank you!), we started with the regular night-time routine. But instead of rocking him until he fell asleep, I put him down while he was still awake. Cue the crying! Per the method, we checked in on our crying babe at the various intervals. After about an hour of crying, Eric settled down and fell asleep. We congratulated ourselves for being strong and thought the worst was behind us. Then 15 minutes later...he woke up...crying. We continued following the method, checking on him, which usually pissed him off more; then finally at 1 AM he fell asleep. He slept until about 4 AM, then we started the whole process again until 7 AM or so.
On night two of sleep training, we expected the another night of crying and parental guilt. However, Baby Boy did great - he slept 8 hours! Of course Mom and Dad woke up to check on the little guy, but in the end we got a lot more sleep than normal, which was fabulous.
Hopefully, I am not jinxing myself by writing these next statements, but since Saturday, Baby Boy has slept really well (one night of 10 hours!) since we started the "training." He has figured out how to comfort himself and goes down easily at night after we read a book together. Eric loves to sleep on his side, with his neck tilted way back, or on his tummy with his face completely schmushed into the mattress. Thankfully he snores loudly, so we can always make sure he is breathing :).
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