Andy and I have put our week off to good use.
We visited the sculpture garden:
Took a walk around Lake Calhoun and had a yummy lunch at Burger Jones.
We visited Minnehaha Falls.
We planted a spring garden, removed a massive stump, bought two honeycrisp apple trees and two blueberry bushes.
And we did what I swore I would not do.
The Ferber Sleep Method.
For those of you who aren't familiar, it is also known as the "cry it out method" and that is about all there is to it. You let your baby cry it out until he falls asleep. I am was very against it. Until this happend.
I did a lot of research and we tried other methods, but things had gotten really bad. For a couple nights in a row,
Piglet got up not one,
not two,
not three,
not even four
or five times...but SIX times.
Andy and I were exhausted. Well, mostly me because it also got to the point were Piglet would only go back to sleep if he nursed.
I slept in a chair in his room, he slept with us.
We were all miserable.
Piglet has never really had trouble going to sleep, but staying asleep, so our adventure began at 2:00 am.
The first night was awful! At first we went in every five minutes, then ten, then fifteen minutes until he finally wore himself out and fell asleep. It took 90 minutes! What broke my heart the most is that little Piglet is just learning to reach up to us when he wants to be picked up. I’d go in there and he looked so sad and would hold his arms up, as if to say “hold me, mama” and oh-my-goodness did I want to!
At one point we decided to give him a couple of ounces of formula from a bottle because his voice went hoarse and his little mouth was dry.
Piglet cried, I cried, we both stressed Papa out.
At one point I even curled up in the fetal position on my bed and rocked myself. Then the crying stopped. Piglet made a few noises and he was asleep.
The next night it took 50 minutes, the next night 30. After that he woke up, but stopped crying during the initial 5 minute wait and went back to sleep. The last two nights we only had to get up once!
Nap time is better too. When he is tired we lay Piglet in his playpen, play with him for a couple of minutes, give him his favorite friend “Ellie the Elephant” and walk away. He plays quietly for a while, which usually looks something like this:
After ten to twenty minutes:
Piglet has never really had trouble going to sleep, but staying asleep, so our adventure began at 2:00 am.
The first night was awful! At first we went in every five minutes, then ten, then fifteen minutes until he finally wore himself out and fell asleep. It took 90 minutes! What broke my heart the most is that little Piglet is just learning to reach up to us when he wants to be picked up. I’d go in there and he looked so sad and would hold his arms up, as if to say “hold me, mama” and oh-my-goodness did I want to!
At one point we decided to give him a couple of ounces of formula from a bottle because his voice went hoarse and his little mouth was dry.
Piglet cried, I cried, we both stressed Papa out.
At one point I even curled up in the fetal position on my bed and rocked myself. Then the crying stopped. Piglet made a few noises and he was asleep.
The next night it took 50 minutes, the next night 30. After that he woke up, but stopped crying during the initial 5 minute wait and went back to sleep. The last two nights we only had to get up once!
Nap time is better too. When he is tired we lay Piglet in his playpen, play with him for a couple of minutes, give him his favorite friend “Ellie the Elephant” and walk away. He plays quietly for a while, which usually looks something like this:
[Ellie and Piglet with their feet in the air]
After ten to twenty minutes:
The Ferber SleepMethod:
just another example of how motherhood as turned me into a hypocrite.
We are *finally* trying to work on the sleeping thing here too...it's been 5 days and I think it's working! Wish we would have started 6 mos ago :) Good luck with it! Your little one is so adorable!!
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