Ferber method - review

After 6 days of implementing the Ferber method I have come to a sort of stand still as to what I should do next.

One the one had, R's sleeping has improved dramatically, he only really wakes up once in the night now and sleeps average from 8pm-7am with a night feeding at around 9:30. When he wakes up at other times he is able to sooth himself back to sleep within 2 minutes. This has made a dramatic improvement on my quality of sleep as well as my temperament.

On the other hand the amount of time spent listening to him cry at the initial stage of sleep has not changed much from 15 - 20 minutes. This is the part I'm most frustrated and unable to deal with. I cannot imagine having to listen to such desperate cries night after night, especially when my maternal instincts tell me I should do something about it. Its distressing for any mother to have to listen to this every night and this is the main reason I have decided to call halt on this Ferber operation.

At this point I am certain of three things, the Ferber method works, on some level; it might not be suitable for all babies; and I am not sure if this is the right choice for me and R.

I will try and adopt a more gentler method from tonight, I think the thing to keep in mind when implementing any type of sleep training, as with anything in life, is to stay flexible. No one will benefit from a stubborn decision least of all your baby.

Ferber method - Day 6

7:13 the crying is unbearable even after 6 days of this you'd think I'd be trained to get used to it but sadly I'm not and I'm starting to wonder if this is the right thing for me to do. On the one hand R's night waking have reduced drastically, however the time it takes for him to fall asleep as well as the process itself has not eased much at all. Tonight after 10 minutes of crying I gave up and comforted my poor baby, I gave him a lot of kisses and distracted him from the crying by letting watch his musical mobile. He was better fit 15 minutes but then started to cry again and after another 10 minutes of crying he finally fell asleep. I really don't know if it's he's learnt to fall asleep or that he's simply exhausted from crying. This is definitely not fun. Time of sleep 7:55 pm.

9:10 - 180 ml of formula with rice cereal down and back to sleep at 9:20. It's time to sleep for sleepy mummy too...

3:03 - A drowsy/hungry R woke up upset and I nursed him which I kind of regret. I think I should just reinforce the method but I'm usually too sleepy myself to reason that and just do the easy thing. I think I myself am to blame for the method not completely adopted by R, it's just hard to find a balance. When should the crying be stopped and when is it ok? No one is there to draw the line or call a foul and the books always say you will know when the cries are more serious, but at the end of the day there is only you who will have to make the hard decision.

5:14 - a short burst of crying followed by lazy yelps with silence... A total of 4 minutes, if my sleepy eyes did not trick me... Back to sleep!

6:13 - I think R woke up there's a lot of commotion in his cot but no sounds I decided to close my eyes for a few more moments before he actually complained.

6:34 - ok it's official, R's awake! And thus begins another day :)