No-go on all things Ferber related last night and today. My baby has his first cold, and it's a bad one. Poor monkey. I can't possibly let him cry when he's miserable and coughing, so I've gone back to rocking him to sleep and answering promptly when he cries. Maybe we'll try again next week.
Read more...Well. The difficult part was actually 9:40 p.m., shortly after I posted yesterday's entry. That's when his nighttime wakings usually begin. He cried on and off, more off than on, for an hour. We went in to soothe him twice. It wasn't too bad. I was worried about what to do about wakings after we went to bed, but as it turns out I didn't need to do anything! He fussed briefly once and cried once, at about 3:30, when I decided to change his diaper and nurse him. It turned out to be the best night we've had in some time.
Today, we put him down for his naps drowsy but awake, and neither time did we have to go in for soothing. He certainly didn't go right to sleep, but he didn't cry much, either. Which makes Mommy feel better about this whole thing.
Unfortunately he seems to be a bit sick today. Feeling sorry for my exhausted little monkey, I rocked him all the way to sleep at bedtime. Oops. That was 3.5 hours ago and he hasn't woken up yet... will this be the first time he's slept through the night in months? (Or did I just jinx it?) Will update tomorrow.
After several more wretched nights, I have reluctantly agreed to try the Ferber method. Gulp.
Tonight is night one, and so far so good. I put him down drowsy but awake 1.5 hours ago and he went to sleep within five minutes. He's fussed briefly a couple of times since then but nothing serious yet. But I think this is the easy part: nighttime wakings will be difficult, especially since we sleep in the same room. (He has always slept in his crib, but his crib is in our bedroom.) I'm also anticipating him having difficulty falling asleep at naptime.
I'll keep you posted!
I still rock my baby to sleep. I know that I should probably stop, that I need to give him the chance to learn to fall asleep on his own, but rocking works so well for us. And I love it. Those are some of the most tender moments I've experienced as a mother.
For the most part, when I rock him to sleep, he goes down for naps and for the night quickly and with little protest. If I lay him down "drowsy but awake," on the other hand, his eyes will pop open the moment his head hits the mattress and he'll kick and flail and roll around until he gets stuck and needs to be rescued. Or, lately, until he falls to the side from a push-up position and hits his head on the crib rails and I rush to comfort him.
However, for the past several weeks he's been waking up MANY times a night, and I wonder if sleep training would help that. I've tried just rubbing his back instead of picking him up when he cries, and that worked for exactly one night. The second night he was having none of that — backrubs only made him more upset.
But last night was wretched. I don't know if I can take much more.
November favourites:
December favourites:
Christmas photo shoots:
Sorry, whatever readers I have, that I have been MIA for the past two months. You haven't missed much. I had to check in tonight to wish you (yes, YOU) a happy, happy new year. May all your wishes and dreams for the coming year be fulfilled.
Obviously 2009 was a BIG year in my life. Becoming a mother has been an amazing experience. My baby is my whole world (no offence to my hubby) and I can't imagine it any other way. The year 2010 will see me officially become a stay-at-home mom, although I will attempt to bring in some money through freelancing. Perhaps 2010 will bring me a BFP for baby #2...
Now, a mini update: My little sweetheart is now seven months old. He's so strong, sitting and rolling and pushing up but not quite ready to crawl yet. He's doing well with eating solids (no teeth yet), and hopefully his next doctor's appointment (not till nine months) will show a good weight gain. (At his six-month appointment we saw that he had dropped a bit on the percentile chart — no need to worry yet, but something to watch.) His favourite thing these days is blowing raspberries. He's a raspberry fool! It's pretty darn cute. My only complaint of the moment is his crappy sleep habits. Lately he wakes up MANY times a night, and sometimes he doesn't want to go back to sleep for a couple of hours. I'm exhausted.
Baby's first Christmas was great! He was so happy all day and he charmed everyone who saw him. Unfortunately he was a wreck that night and the next day, but it was worth it for the good memories of a wonderful day.
I'll post some pics in a few days, I promise!
We didn't do much for Halloween for the little guy. Just put him in his Tigger costume (which was part of a box full of clothes and gifts that my out of town family sent us before he was born) and took him to see his grandparents. 
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