Ferber: Night 1

Here's the update you've been wanting :)

After several days of preparing for going cold turkey, I changed my mind. I bought the Ferber book, and read that if you're nursing several times throughout the night, going cold turkey would be too hard on the child. Friday night I kept track...I nursed Gavin back to sleep, even if it was just a couple minutes, 5 times. So, we decided to go a little slower on the no-nursing thing.

I wanted to start later than his normal bedtime, but he was acting tired. So, we nursed for a little while in his room, then I sat him up and we read a book. That way he was still going down awake. We kissed him, told him goodnight, and left. Of course, he screamed. Jarrod went in after three minutes, then again after five more minutes...I went in ten minutes later. All the while, Gavin's screaming. When I went in, while I was wiping his face off, he threw up on me from crying so hard. No big deal, right? I just cleaned him up and left the room again, just like Dr. Wells said. About 35 minutes into this, I watched him on the monitor "climb" the bed rails...he was leaning over the crib and I swear he was about to fall out. I freaked out, ran in and got him, and Jarrod lowered the bed. So, we were already off track.

I nursed him a little bit more, and then we relaxed together until he seemed tired. I put him down again at 9:30 and the crying started again. After about 10 minutes, Jarrod went in and laid on the floor next to his bed. Within 5 minutes, Gavin was sound asleep. It wasn't the way we were supposed to do it, but it was the first night.

Gavin slept for 4 hours. Jarrod and I decided for the first night I'd nurse him as long as he'd gone 2 hours since the last time (and slowly we'll increase that time). So, I nursed him for just about 5 minutes, laid him down and we started the progressive waiting again. About 30 minutes later, he was asleep. We watched him on the monitor, and he was so cute hugging "Dog Dog" so tight. I'm so glad he has a lovey now.

Again, he slept for 4 hours and woke up around 5:30. I nursed him just a few minutes, laid him down, he cried 3 minutes and was asleep. But, he woke back up a few minutes later and sat in his bed playing with Dog Dog, no crying, for 20 minutes. At 6, we decided he was up for the day so Jarrod brought him out and got him breakfast.

All in all, it wasn't how thought the night would go, but I think he did much better than expected. I'm hoping those four hour stretches slowly lengthen. Sorry this is so long, but I know there are so many of you that would be asking how the first night went, and instead of repeating the whole story a thousand times, I thought I'd just blog about it. :)

I'll update you on Night 2 soon :)