Friday, May 30, 2008

OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!!

You will never believe this... Taiter slept through the night last night! EIGHT HOURS straight!!! It's a miracle! I'm a whole new woman, and so is she! Lol.
I have to say... a lot of people frown upon the ferber method. I was skeptical of it, but let me tell you our story. Adalynn would cry, for HOURS. I'm talking seven hours straight one night, from 2am - 9am. Then the colic started to get better, but she got used to be picking her up when she'd scream. Now, of course I'm going to pick her up when she's screaming out of pain, like I did with the colic. But the colic went away and then it would just be whimpering fussy crying and I could tell a huge difference between the two. At first, no matter what I did I couldn't make it better. I'd attempt to breast feed her, then try burping her, changing her, nothing worked. Well its because she was EXHAUSTED and just needed sleep, but I kept rushing in there to pick her up at every little peep. Then she started smiling and wanting to play when I'd come pick her up. It became a game. So one night when I was out of ideas and really starting to lose my mind from sleep deprivation, I looked up the ferber method. It has such a bad rep but its been very misunderstood (that is word for word what I read). The point of it is that the baby is used to you putting her to sleep as you did in the womb by walking her around all the time. Babies don't know how to fall asleep by themselves, you have to teach them. It tells you the first night, to let the baby cry for five minutes then go in and tell her she's okay and that you love her and rub her chest, tummy, back, whatever... but DON'T pick her up. Then the next time she cries wait 10 min then go in and do the same, then the next time wait 15 minutes and then let 15 minutes be how long you wait the remainder of the night before going in. Well I decided I could only handle 5 minutes. So, the first night we tried this, she cried 5 minutes, I went in after 5 and did what it said, she stopped crying, listened to me, took her binky and was comforted by my words and touch. I left (you're only supposed to stay and comfort 2 minutes). About 15 min later she started crying again, I let her cry for 5 min again, then went in and consoled her. I did this one more time and then she finally was able to put herself to sleep. That night she slept 4 hours and went 5 hours btwn feeds. This was big progress for us.
The second night (the very next night) we tried this, and it was MUCH harder. She cried lots and much harder. I made sure she she didn't need to burp and was dry and clean and all that. She was just very tired. So I waited 5 min and did the same thing as I did the night before. I had to go in probably 5 or 6 times that night, it was very hard for us both to hear her cry. Then she finally went to sleep. This night she slept 6 hours and went 5 hours btwn feeds. We kept seeing more and more progress.
So the next night (last night) we put her down and she didn't make a peep! Within 5 min she was asleep and she slept EIGHT HOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Going nine hours between feeds.
I finally felt like I had control again. I felt like the mom and that I was in charge, not her. So I highly recommend this. We are both so much happier, as you can see in her pictures shes smiling so much and seems like a completely different baby. It's like she has come alive now.
Here are a few pictures we've taken in the last couple of days:

Addie hangin out in Dad's guitar case!




Lookin at Gracie



To infinity and beyonnnnnnnnnnnnd







What a happy baby!!! Not a screaming baby anymore lol. I'm so glad she isn't sad anymore.

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