We Are Going To Start Sleep Training

Starting this weekend (since it's a three day holiday weekend) we are starting sleep training on Joshua. He is physically and emotionally mature enough to start now. I am going on seven and a half months of sleep deprivation. Joshua is capable of sleeping all night long as he has done it hit or miss in the past. Lately it's been he will go to sleep easily and the minute his little bum hits the mattress he is wide awake and won't go back to sleep unless we rock him for another twenty minutes. Thursday night last week he went down at 8pm, was up at 9pm, 10pm and 11pm...before I finally brought him to our bed where he slept till 1am, woke again at 2am....and again at 2:30am where he was awake until 6am in which he slept till 8am and was up the rest of the day. He refuses to take naps which means we are guaranteed a night like that. When he's a great baby and takes a morning and afternoon nap he sleeps with only one night waking. So we are going to follow Dr. Richard Ferber's method of The Progressive-Waiting Approach. Nearly all of the parents that have used this method in the past say that their child has slept through the night after 4-7 days of the training.

I will love being able to stick him into his crib and know that he will put himself to sleep and we can then go to sleep in our bed without a little body between us and sleep soundly all night long. Let's just say that rested parents will mean a happy baby.