The Ferber Method: Day 1

We decided over the weekend that we needed to institute a little "sleep training" in our house. After talking to a few people and doing a little research, what I found out is that it's really more parent training that baby training. We decided that the Ferber Method sounded good, since it involves progressive waiting instead of plain ol' crying it out. The premise is that you put the baby down drowsy, but not asleep and check on him (without picking him up) after 5 minutes, then 10 minutes, then every 15 minutes until he falls asleep. Each night you increase the initial wait time by 5 minutes, and (in theory) it shouldn't take more than a week for Camden to learn to soothe himself to sleep. This is a summary of our evening:

• 6:30 p.m. - Blake puts Camden in his crib barely awake


• 6:45 p.m. - Camden starts fussing so we go reassure him and give him his pacifier


• 6:55 p.m. - Camden's still crying, except it's gone from an irritated fuss to a "who the hell thinks this is a good idea?" wail


• 7:10 p.m. - We go back in to comfort him, but I'm too upset by the look of abandonment on his face to stay in the room. Dad handles this one alone.


• 7:15ish - the room goes silent. There's a wave of relief over me that I can't even explain.


• 7:20ish - the silence ends. My wave was very short-lived.


• 7:30 - we check on him again, and after this visit he decides he's too exhausted to fight anymore and falls asleep.


• 8:00 p.m. - Camden wakes up hungry (which I knew was bound to happen not too long after he finally fell asleep).


• 9:30 p.m. - He crashes out in my lap and I carry him to bed. He stirs briefly and then sleeps.


• Midnight - I hear him over the monitor so I go in and change his diaper and rock him for a few minutes (which I'm pretty sure is against the rules), then put him back down. I check on him after 5 minutes and then he's out.


• 2:30 a.m. - Camden wakes up ready to eat. I feed him, change him and put him back in his bed.


• 5 a.m. - Camden wakes up fussing. I changed his diaper, put him back down, and after the 5 minute check he went back to sleep.


• 6:40 a.m. - I wake up and hear Blake say "How long has he been in there talking?" Camden was laying in his crib playing and talking to his mobile.

We are cautiously optimistic at this point. I'm definitely more tired today than normal, but that's because I finally shook the laziness and spent the time necessary to start to get Camden out of our bed. How do I have the time to memorialize the happenings of the past 14 hours, you might ask? Because my sweet baby boy is asleep IN HIS CRIB at this very moment!