Night Two

Well, not much to write about for Ferber Method night two with Miss Addison. She wanted to make us look like a fool and she slept through the night. Fool away, little girl, fool away. :) I am actually very well-rested because in an effort to get to bed early (anticipating another bad night), I went to bed before 9! Ha!

You'll find me in the fetal position...

You know those times where you just want to hug your knees to your chest, while rocking back and forth and sucking your thumb?

If I could type while doing that, I would be.

Addison is super chill and such a sweet baby but stopped sleeping through the night abruptly about six weeks ago, and has been waking up several times a night. And the ONLY way we could get her back to sleep is rocking and/or feeding her. So we are very, very tired.

At our pediatrician's recommendations, we are back to the good 'ol Ferber Method of CIO. Please don't tell me I'm cruel and heartless or you will make me cry. No parent wants to sit and hear their baby cry but I also realize that, like Carter, if we don't do this soon, we will have a[nother] child that wakes up til her first birthday. It sucks, big time. But a few nights of misery for many, many nights of restful sleep for the whole family is what the doctor ordered, so it was time.

We began last night and, as we predicted, she gave us a SERIOUS run for our money. When we Ferberized Carter, the longest he cried was like 22 minutes or something.

Her? TWO. AND. A. HALF. HOURS. Persistent.

We cold-turkeyed her from the bottle, the full swaddle (well, we had her in the sleep sack swaddle, but with the swaddle part wrapped around her chest/torso with her arms out), and rocking in one night, so we anticipated it wouldn't be nice before we even got into bed. She began to fuss at 11 p.m. If you're not familiar with the Ferber Method, it is not just letting them scream and scream until they fall asleep. You go in at increasing intervals, comfort and pat them, and then leave again--without picking them up. For night one, you start with three minutes, then five, then ten, and so on.

She fell asleep briefly many, many times over the two and a half hours, but EVERY TIME, her startle reflex (when does this end?!?!?) would send her arms shooting up into the air and begin the crying again.

At the two and a half hour mark and the point in which my blood pressure/heart rate were higher than I thought imaginable, I simply walked into the room and without saying a word, tucked her arms down in her swaddle and she was out like a light til morning. Hmmm. We're at a loss if we should keep her swaddled or try every night without it in attempt to get her weaned from it. Basically, we have no idea. We'll have to see how tonight goes.

Thankfully, she woke up this morning happy as a lark--albeit a bit hoarse--and was ready for the day!

Anyway, I wanted to write this down so I can look back someday (hopefully like next week...ha!) and be thankful this season is in the past.

[Prayers appreciated.]

[Oh, and coffee.]

Bye, Bye Baby

I hated when Carter no longer used the baby swing, bouncer, exersaucer, the bottle. So I'm about to turn to a sobbing mess on the floor when I think about how my little baby boy will be spending his last night in his crib tonight. I hated even writing that sentence. :(

How is he no longer this little? Boo hoo. Our doctor suggested we make the transition a few weeks ago to begin and get through the "nighttime hell" before Addison arrives. But we just had too many plans away from home to make that work well. Seth begins his Easter break tomorrow, so it's the perfect time (well, not PERFECT because Bentley is also getting surgery tomorrow, but is there really ever going to be a perfect time?!?! Probably not).

We thought of starting tonight but she said to make it really work, the crib needs to be removed from the room {insert sob} and Seth can't do that tonight. So tomorrow while Bentley is in surgery and I'm at work, Seth will remove the crib and we'll rearrange his big boy room before bed. The doctor has forewarned me that we will likely be sleeping on the floor beside him, at least until he falls asleep, for a few days or even up to two weeks. I'm praying it doesn't take that long because that does not sound like fun while pregnant, nor do I want him getting used to us being right there. We also need to get used to a cute little towhead staring us right in the eyes from beside our bed at all hours of the night. :)

So tomorrow, as his mama tries not to have a nervous breakdown, we'll get all excited about his new bed, load him up on the stuffed animals and hit the cute little toddler bed sack.

I may even bring the mini marshmallows for bribery. ;)