Into the Crib- Ferber style

I hesitate to write this post, hoping I don't jinx anything....

Well, I finally put up the pack and play that had been set up in our bedroom since we brought Charlotte home.  Charlotte had only been sleeping in the car seat... or our bed- oops.   So the P and P was just taking up space. We didn't have an extremely difficult time getting Trevor used to his crib, but we did wait until about 6 months to put him in there... and after that he made sure to ask for a couple of late night meals for several months afterwards.  I am determined to not go through that many nights of interrupted sleep this time around.  From a good friend, I heard that the Ferber method was a good one to get babies oriented with their beds and soothing themselves to sleep when they wake up during the night.  The method, also nicknamed as the "cry it out" method is generally recommended for 3-5 month old babies, so we are kind of using our own modified version of it.  After her bath and last feeding around 7:30-8, we swaddle her up and put her in the crib with a loud noise maker (a must for us in both nurseries at all times).  Then we let her cry for one minute, then come back to shhhh her back to sleep until she stops crying.  If, she starts to cry again, we push our reaction time back to 3-5 minutes where we would Shhhh her back to sleep again.  After leaving that time, if she woke and cried again, we would wait 10 minutes before returning to her room and the times just keep getting spaced out further after each cry.   Eventually she is supposed to realize that it's not really worth her crying if all she is going to recieve is a "shhhh" and she should hopefully stop crying and return to sleep on her own while also reminded that we are there for her the first times she cries.

We've been lucky, we have only made it to the 2nd 5 minute cry out.  Then she has fallen asleep for good after that so far.  It's been about 1.5 weeks.  We've modified it by not really ignoring her cries after she has been asleep for more than 5 or so hours.  IF she wakes up then, I do feed her because I never know how much food she really needs (those random growth spurts).  But essentially, the method helps her stay in the crib and makes me feel better about leaving her there if I know that she has been fed and "should" be ready for bed.  SO, baby girl is finally spending time in her pretty nursery.  And, while it is still a little inconsistent, she slept from 7:45pm- 6:00am without a peep last night.  After feeding her at 6, she went back down until 9am.  I'm beyond thrilled with that sleep pattern.  It seems that Charlotte is more interested in sleeping than eating, while Trevor made sure he never skipped out on a free meal.  (could explain her 15%+/- versus his 75% in weight) :)

Way to go Charlotte, you've definitely won the sleeping better earlier contest in this family!  Oh and now our second camera is actually being put to use.  It sure is nice (knock on wood) having both kids in bed by 8:00 for some peace and quiet.