Night One

So here was the plan to get our punk baby to go to sleep. We'd follow the Ferber method, a controlled bit of crying it out we'd been thus far avoiding.

• Have a soothing bedtime routine - bottle, book, bed.


• Put him down drowsy, but awake.


• When he wakes up, wait 5 minutes, then come into the room.


• While there, soothe him, talk to him, offer him a binky, put him down, but do not pick him up.


• For the first night, use these intervals: 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes. Night two will be 10-15-20. Any night thereafter goes to 15-20-25.


• Eventually, Jack will learn to soothe himself to sleep.

Last night was the first night, and we were really expecting the worst. Jack's first instinct upon waking is to use his crib to drag himself to standing, hold onto the crib rail, scream for us, and bounce up and down. We were fully prepared to be up all night. We even had a bunch of stuff saved on Tivo so we could at least be entertained.

Putting him down went just fine. Victory #1.

Jack woke up at 12:00. At 12:05, I went in, gave him a binky, and calmed him down. I left, and he kept crying. Steve came in 10 minutes later, soothed Jack, and actually got him to go to sleep - without picking him up, rocking him, or forcing a Tylenol PM down his throat. Amazing.

Even more amazingly, Jack squalked a bit at 3:00 and went to sleep on his own. That was the last we heard from him until he woke up at 7:00.

I really thought it would be a lot harder. Maybe tonight will be rough, but I know that I should savor a victory while I can. Hooray!