Ma Chauffeur thinks Dr. Ferber is a genius

In my humble opinion, Dr. Ferber is a genius! I only paid $12 for his book, Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems, and after reading it and practicing his methods, I would have gladly paid a lot more. I could literally write a book myself about solving my 5-month old son’s sleep problems using Ferber’s methods, but I would need to find a publisher and like I have time to do that.  

Since transitioning from sleeping on our chest, B co-slept between my husband and I in our bed.  Typically B would wake up every two hours, we would change his diaper, I would breast feed him, and he would go back to sleep. This routine would happen from 8PM to 5AM every night.

For some reason (I now call it a blessing), three days before Christmas, B wouldn’t fall back to sleep after I fed him. For three nights my husband and I walked with him, desperately trying to catch some z’s. I’m pretty sure this is how sleep walking starts with adults.  Maybe I should check to see if Ferber has also written Solve Your Adult Sleep Problems. 

Anyway, we paced so much around our bedroom until he fell asleep until his next feeding that we may need new carpet.  But ultimately the tipping point these nights is when we laid him back down to sleep in our bed, he woke right up and demanded to be walked again.

Then a light switch went off, literally.  On the third night at 2 A.M., I turned on our bedroom light and told my husband I had had it and we were starting “sleep training” that night, or rather that wee early morning. Before that night, we didn’t agree on when we would start sleep training, but we agreed that B would still sleep in our bedroom in his port-a-crib.  But on that third night, I was so sleep deprived that I said he’s going into his big boy crib in his own room.  

In order to save B from the impending fate on a big boy crib, my husband rushed to assemble B’s port-a-crib while I flipped through the table of contents in Dr. Ferber’s book to see what chapter addressed the sleepless child and how to solve it.  It was almost like a race to see who could finish first.

To keep this blog entry from becoming a book, I’ll spare you the how we went about solving B’s problems. If you wish to know the how, pay the $12.

HHHhhggggggdgijsdgjHere are my highlights:

#1. First, we decreased the number of feedings from 5-6 per night to one, giving my ta-tas a break for a few hours. 

#2.  Did sleep training involve crying?  Yes and a lot of it.  But we managed B’s crying to a point that we were comfortable with. Did I give up?  Almost, but my mommy instinct told me to stick it out.  Our decision to sleep train B at 5-months was the single BEST decision we have made since B has been born.

#3.  B can sleep anywhere from 7 to 11 hours at night.  Even though I cherished going to bed with him cuddled next to me, I now put him in his crib and I have the freedom to do whatever I wish, whenever I wish and not to mention our entire family gets real quality sleep.

#4. Thanks to a very nice digital video monitor (an awesome baby shower gift), I can pan, zoom, tilt, talk back, all at the touch of my fingers anywhere in our house.  It’s so comforting to know that B snores, farts, and sleeps with his butt up in the air.

#5.  Last, but perhaps the most important, the confidence that this training has given B is priceless.  He loves to sleep in his crib and seems to look for it when he’s tired.  He is such a happier baby when he wakes up in the morning and after his naps.  My husband and I feel and see his sense of pride when we tell him he did such a great job sleeping.  And the little boy who wailed when we put him in a car seat, now soothes himself in it and they are practically best friends.

I’m sure B will endure other sleep problems, but for now, because we were so successful in reducing and eliminating a number of B’s sleep problems so quickly, Dr. Ferber has made me feel like a genius.