Sleep training...

The time has come for us to start a little sleep training with Morgan. Lately, she has been waking up every hour and that isn't good for either one of us. We're using the Ferber method, or some variation of it. Before I thought I'd never want to let her cry, and I still don't, but the method does not involve leaving your child to cry all night until they lose faith in the world, or anything like that. I don't consider this method "crying it out", because to me that means you just let them cry forever. You do leave the child to fuss for 5 minutes, though. Then it increases to 10 minutes if they are still fussing, etc. Each time you visit them and tell them that you love them and reassure them that they have not been abandoned and pat them, if needed. You just don't take them out of the crib. I want Morgan to have the proper sleep associations and to get decent rest at night. She grows so much more and is in such a better mood after she gets good sleep. The book says it shouldn't take more than a week, but we'll see how it goes. It is certainly hard to listen to those first few minutes of cries. I have to remind myself that she's definitely not starving and that she's OK. She is just confused and used to being fed every 5 minutes. Soon, she'll understand that nighttime is for sleeping and daytime is for eating. I don't mind feeding her once or twice during the night, but 3-4 times is a bit ridiculous at this point. She's 3 months old and weighs about 16 pounds - this girl is NOT starving! :)

This is only Night 1, but I think she's doing pretty well. She cried quite a bit the first round (for an unbearable 5 minutes) and I took her out of the crib to feed her, since I was worried that she was feeling really hungry. She only drank about an ounce or 2 and was falling asleep. She just associates the bottle with sleeping and isn't starving like she acts. This makes me feel a little better and soon she will not have this association and won't cry about it. The other times she fussed, I took her out to feed her, because the book says to wait 2 hours in between feedings on the first night, then 2.5 hours the next night, etc. I fed her and put her back to bed awake, instead of asleep, like I usually do. She'd wiggle and fuss for a minute, but she wouldn't cry and would go to sleep pretty quickly, so I'm hoping this process will be completed with minimal crying. I think there will mostly be fussing and grunting. :P Well, I am done pumping, so I better get back to sleep.