The Sleep Chronicles - Thank You, Mr. Ferber

Is my week up? Can I resume baby sleep talk? This will be my last one for awhile.

Last week my hold on Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems by Richard Ferber came in. I read/skimmed through it all week. I've had good results so far. She's back to sleeping through the night (at least 5 hours). I've had 2 nights where she slept 8 hours before needing a feeding. Thank you, Mr. Ferber! I've also been using the method for naps as suggested and she's managed a few hour long nap. Not always. It's still sporadic. I now feel confident that she is getting enough sleep.

My only concern is that she isn't getting it. She is going to sleep on her own. Sometimes with tears and sometimes without. For the naps, I have to time it just right. I still bounce her around a bit to make sure she's drowsy and then lay her down and walk away. Most of the time she will go right to sleep. If she cries, it's never more than 15 minutes and seems to be less and less as the days go on.

Her night sleep is where I'm seeing the biggest improvements. Tonight, she cried about 30 seconds before falling asleep. She's been waking up around 3 am to eat and she's up around 5 or 6 am. That is way early for me but her bedtime is between 7 and 7:30 pm so I can't expect her to always sleep in.

I haven't been sticking to the book completely. Sometimes I linger in her room for more than 2 minutes. Sometimes I pat her chest. Sometimes I turn on her seahorse. I still keep her sound machine on. I do leave the room before she falls asleep though which I think is really the key.

I'm going to continue with this method for a few more nights but I may have to abort if the crying keeps up. I assumed there would be no more tears at all by this time.