About 3 weeks ago, we began the “Ferber” method. (Click HERE for more details about that.) Since then, “sleep training” seems to be going pretty good…not perfect by any means, but I must say that I recommend it for any parents having difficulty getting their little ones to go to sleep and stay asleep…in their own bed.
The biggest misconception about this method is that you let your little one “cry it out” endlessly…which is furthest from the truth.
We rock her until she is starting to fall asleep. Before she is completely asleep, we put her in her crib. That way, when and if she wakes up, she isn’t startled and wondering why she has been moved. Sometimes she goes straight to sleep. Sometimes she fusses a bit…which is when we will either pat her, rub her head, touch her cheeks, hold her hands, etc…
If she continues to fuss, we go in there every few minutes to reassure her that we haven’t forgotten about her. But we don’t pick her up.
She has never fussed more than 20 min. with this method.
Now we are all getting 10-12 hours of uninterrupted sleep at night. Well, most nights. Some nights aren’t perfect of course! Which is great because I am able to wake up in the middle of the night to pump! Sometimes she will wake up…which is when we will go in there (not picking her up) and repeat the above methods for soothing her.
If too much time goes on and she still seems wide awake, she will eventually be picked up, changed, fed again, rocked, etc…But this has only happened maybe twice.
It’s all about using consistancy, your best judgment, and common sense. The only thing we would do different is we would have probably started this about two weeks earlier than we did…when she stopped sleeping through the night and stopped wanting to sleep in her crib.
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