Ferberizing...again.

We had one blissful night last Friday night when Cooper managed to eek out a 7 hour stretch in his crib. I was so hopeful and excited that our troubles in the sleep department were over. Not quite. Ever since, he's been up every 1-3 hours (mostly every hour or two) all night every night. Keeping me from getting sleep that I need now more than ever before. Finally, this morning I called the pediatrician, hoping they'd offer me some magical supplement or cure for this issue. I knew better though - I knew as soon as I started describing what we'd been doing (inconsistent like crazy b/c we have 3 adults doing it differently all the time out of desperation), I knew what he was going to say. We need to be consistent with the method until it kicks in.

So, I handed my mom the book with the pages of rules marked so she could get right to it, and we talked about how it will work and we decided to start with 10 minute intervals since we already exhausted the 5 minute mark and it wasn't effective anymore. We decided to put him to bed an hour or more later than usual to ensure he was tired, and we took him out in his wagon for a ride up and down the street after dinner. He got lots of attention from the neighbors and we got some much needed fresh air. Then we put him in the car and ran a couple errands. We didn't want him to fall asleep but he did. So when we got home we got him out of the seat and started the bedtime routine (diaper, PJs, brush teeth, read book, bottle, then bed).

Mom placed him in the crib awake but very tired and he started screaming immediately. I patted and rubbed his back and told him "night night" and we left the room and started the clock. At 10 minutes, I walked in, rubbed his back, said "night night" a few times and then walked out. Within 5 minutes of that he was asleep! Since then, he has woken 2 more times but has fallen back asleep on his own in less than 10 minutes so we haven't had to go in there to console him. We've stuck to the 10 minutes since we haven't had to go in more than once but if we did have to we'd go up to 12 and then 15. Tomorrow, if we're still at 10 min tonight, we'll start with 12 minutes and go from there.

We all need a lot more sleep around here - including Cooper. Right now, I especially need it - I need to nurture my body and my mind for improved immunity and health. There just isn't a choice anymore due to our circumstances. I hope it works quickly but it will probably take some time. We'll see. Wish us luck! :)