Sleep Training

Oliver has never been able to fall asleep on his own. We always had to do some rough & tumble snuggles and sways. This was fine... I really didn't mind. But then he started waking in the night. Not hungry. Not a dirty diaper. But unable to fall asleep on his own. At midnight, 2am, 4am, 6am...etc. We thought he was hungry for a bit. But we'd feed him at 8pm and he'd wake soon after. Cannot possibly be hungry! We reached a breaking point this past Friday night. Every two hours is simply unacceptable. I cannot walk around or safely drive while being a zombie mom!

An old friend from elementary school has a daughter one month older than Oli. She told me how she sleep trained her daughter at 3 months old using the "cry it out" method. (Closely related is the Ferber method, if you're interested). It's a controversial approach, no doubt. There are forums upon forums of moms & dads yelling at each other in CAPITAL LETTERS... "Crying is bad for your baby! He'll be traumatized! You'll ruin his childhood!" It is not for everyone. Hearing a baby cry is heartbreaking. Hearing your baby boy beg for help. You have to reassure yourself that he IS strong and capable! He can do this! He just doesn't know that it is possible yet.

But really... Quite simply, it's working!

Saturday night at 7:30pm we turned down the lights, fed him, sang some lullabies, and kissed him goodnight. He fussed. He cried. He screamed. But mostly cried. I didn't see any lights on in our neighbors apartments, so I think they missed the show. But I put an apologetic sign on our door just in case. "Sorry for the noise. We are sleep training our son. Please visit our front door if you have any concerns." Anyway, Oliver was clearly upset. My friend's baby girl cried for 2 hours & 20 minutes before she fell asleep! Thank goodness Oliver lasted 90 minutes. And he was a peaceful beautiful boy fast asleep. Meanwhile, I was a slightly nervous wreck. I started the evening with nail polish on, and by the time we went to bed I had picked ALL of it off. He woke up again at 2am and cried for another 30 minutes. Then woke again at 5am for maybe 5 minutes. And finally, at 7:30am, we all woke up and I said in my cheerful morning baby voice, "Good morning sweet boy!" and a sweet baby smile looked up at me.

Tonight is night #2. Same routine. Turned down some lights, drank a bottle, sang lullabies, kiss and loves. He cried for 18 minutes. Now he is sound asleep.

Now I can see a world where David, Oliver and I get some sleep. The world is seeming brighter, more beautiful!

Alright, give me some controversy! Did you "sleep train?" (side note: did anyone just sing, "sleep train: your ticket to a better night's sleep" jingle?) How do you feel about "cry it out?"