My Ferber weekend

mssaint · September 2011

We decided this was the weekend we were going to do it, and so we started on Friday night.

LO cried for 40 minutes, with 3 or 4 check-ins and then slept until 6 am. I woke up refreshed and thought to myself that I would happily hug Dr. Ferber if I ever met him.

Night two, he cried for 15 minutes, then slept until 5 am. Hmmm. Still awesome, but 5 am is not my preferred wakeup time.

Night three, he woke up at 3 am. I let him cry and he was back out in 5 minutes. Then he did it again at 5. We had a busy day and he skipped a nap, so I figured his sleep might have been erratic because of that.

Then yesterday he turned into the crankypants monster from hell at about 2 pm and was just so fussy. He was a little warm, but not feverish, and he wanted to nurse all.day.long. And when he wasn't nursing, he wanted to cuddle. He napped in my arms 4 times and in his crib once.

So last night I wasn't sure whether or not we should let him CIO since he was clearly not himself. While I was internally debating it, he fell asleep in my arms 5 minutes into our 10 minute night-night routine, so I put him down asleep, then he cried out about an hour later, but put himself back to sleep within 2 minutes (while I was deciding what to do, lol). But then he woke up again at 3 and then 4. Both times he put himself back to sleep pretty quickly, but at 5:30, I brought him to bed with me and nursed/dozed with him.

So it looks like where we are is that he can now put himself to sleep in about 5-15 minutes, but is crying while he does it. And he wakes up loudly. Thinking about his wakeups, I didn't actually go in for any of them, but they still woke me up because of the crying.

WinesNot Whines · September 2011

It's hard to know what to do. I think you have to trust your instincts. If M is sick or otherwise not himself, I usually do more comforting at night.

DCtoLowcountry · September 2011

Sounds like you're on the right track to get more sleep - congrats! Like pp I also go with my gut - if I think he's not feeling well I check in, but if it's just "Hey I love 5 am" I try to let that go.