Within the last month we have been working on sleep training our new baby, Steven. We use the Ferber Method for baby training. If you are unfamiliar with this terminology, it is also known as the crying it out method of sleep training. It involves letting your baby cry for a set periods of time before offering alternative comfort (i.e. mommy and daddy cuddles). We are trying to teach our baby to self soothe.
I think a large part of his ability to sleep at night is dependent on his ability to nap during the day. I have noticed that if Steven is able to nap well during the day he sleeps well at night. If it has been one of those days, where Steven has fought sleep tooth and nail, sleeping at night is made up of short little bursts of sleep and wakefulness. So sleep training is an all day activity.
This has not been easy on me. I have a very difficult time letting my kids just cry it out. My husband keeps telling me that I am doing more harm than good when I go and cuddle my little muffin (insert evil stink eye). Although I have a hard time believing this, the Ferber Method does work. It worked for our first born son and it is starting to work for our new baby as well.
Breakthrough! Steven slept through the night last night for the first time ever!!!!!! I got a full eight hours of sleep! I cannot use enough exclamation marks here!
I have not had a full eight hours of uninterrupted sleep since my first trimester of pregnancy, a little less than a year ago. With having to get up seventy million times at night to go potty while pregnant, insomnia from being so incredibly uncomfortable late in pregnancy, and newborn baby breastfeeding; sleep has been very elusive. So the fact that my baby slept through the night for the first time is a HUGE deal for me.
I guess my husband was right. Maybe I should let him try and self soothe. I really enjoyed my eight hour snooze last night. I could totally get used to this.
