Sunday, April 03, 2011

Re-ferberizing Lou

With both The Phi and with Lou, Joey and I used the Ferber method of sleep training. The whole cry-it-out method. We have a bed time routine, do our best to stick to it, put the baby to bed and let them cry until they fall asleep. The Phi was sleeping through the night at 4 months without any issues. Lou had been on the same path and at about 8 months was sleeping though the night. Until she got sick. A bad cold left her waking up in the night when too much mucus made it hard for her to breathe. Eventually Lou got better and went back to normal. except for her sleeping patterns.

She would consistently wake up in the middle of the night. Now with The Phi, we would have checked on her and then let her cry it out until she went back to bed. This time around with Lou we don't have that option. The girls share a bedroom and even though The Phi is a pretty heavy sleeper she needs her sleep since she has be up at 7am for school. We had been giving Lou a bottle to put her back to sleep and it worked like a charm. But it was a bad habit, especially now that she has teeth. So we had to go back to the cry-it-out method but with a twist. Now when she cries at night we go into the room and take her out of her crib into our bedroom where we put her in her Amby where she can cry it out.

We have been looking at this face a lot.

Luckily in just a few days, it already seems to be working. The last few days she has slept through the night. Last night she even went to bed with out the water works.

I have heard the pros and cons for Ferberizing kids. For us it just works. I am not the kind of Mom who can't stand to hear their babies cry. It sounds so cold-hearted but I can stand to hear Lou cry. It's never for too long and I know that in the end it's best for her. Sleep is important. And with 1/2 of Joey's DNA the kids have the risk of being awful sleepers like their Dad. I believe we are giving her life-long tools to help her get the most sleep.

Sleep methods are a hot parenting topic. So tell me how do you deal with getting your baby to sleep?

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous6:18 PM

    cry it out! That's what we did. We didn't do the Ferber method...we straight up let them cry (Liam, actually) until they fell asleep. the first night with Liam he cried for 2 hours...it scarred me for life. The sleep training was probably the hardest part of parenting for me so far.
    -Jdub

    ReplyDelete

Dirt Road Diary- Berdoo Canyon

It had been awhile but Joey recently convinced me to head out on an off-roading adventure. Mostly because the San Berdoo trail ends inside J...