Well, Crap. That Ferber Guy Was Onto Something.

Baby sleep training achievement unlocked!

Gained normality points and spent them with my wee family downtown. The naps were compromised, but we were rewarded with zombie messiah day purchases of a Fraggle and a Dr. Suess book for Zuul, essential oil and day of the dead socks for me, and Mexican food (or as I like to call it, "comida") for all three of us.

So here are the boring details.

I gave it a full two weeks. Towards the end of week one, I started having doubts, so I tweaked a couple of things.

For one, like many normal children, she protests her naps, even though she is clearly tired. I can't blame her. It's daylight and there's living to be done! We'll sleep when we're dead, I always used to say. However, I need to get shit done and start feeling useful again. So, down she goes, twice a day. Often, she only cries for a few seconds then falls asleep. Other times, she plays, cries for a minute, then goes to sleep. I get anywhere from 45 minutes to two hours to myself twice a day to shower, do chores and have some me time.

At night, I changed the routine to nurse her before story time. The biggest reward is we get to look in each others eyes when I sing her a lullaby and watch her smile. The last three nights in a row she doesn't even let out a peep when I put her in her crib. She just rolls over and dozes off.

The others modification I made is with night nursing. We are down to one midnight feed, if she asks for it, five hours after her bedtime feed. So, if she fusses before 1:30ish in the morning, we do the 20-25-30 minute waits before we attend to her. The longest she's complained for has been 19 minutes before she just goes back to sleep. But if it's been more than 5 hours, fuck Ferber. I just get up and feed her then pluck her back in the crib. We're often not up for more than 10 minutes. She might start stirring at 4:30 a.m., but the last three mornings, I haven't heard a peep from her until around 6:30 a.m. or later. It's been glorious.

Oh! And Subversive Dad even put her to bed once and that didn't freak her out at all!

The sad modification I had to make, however, was kicking our dog out of the bedroom at night. While we were going through the first few cry it out days, Ghost would go to her. It's no surprise, I guess, that dogs don't understand or respect Ferber's methods. As cute as it was to see my beloved canine try and console our baby, it just overstimulated Zuul, making matters worse. On the plus side, I feel like a celebrity with a bodyguard out front my door each time I get up for a pee.

Aside from sleep, the other results are overwhelming. It may or may not be coincidental, but as soon as she started getting the right amount of sleep for her age, the milestones are being hit like rapid fire. She now chases Subversive Cat and her cousins around crawling, started clapping, cruising while holding onto things, waving hello and goodbye, high fiving, and mimicking. We're not saying any first words yet, but she understands phrases like "Where's mama, daddy, grandma, grandpa?", "Come to mama." and "Can I Have a kiss?".

So, I happily eat humble pie, Dr. Ferber. Now I'm looking forward to my first real date night. If only my laziness about pumping didn't supersede that.