Fresno - I've been super duper MIA (i was sick for awhile but am feeling a little better) so haven't been on-line much at all. Chuperman has been in Fresno for the last 3.5 weeks and was only home for 2 days during Thxgiving. Over the weekend I drove up to see him for 3 days, without Chuperbaby hehe. Even tho Chuperman wanted to see Jacob, I just didn't think i could handle him on my own in a 4 hr long car-ride by myself. I'm sure if I brought him, it would have easily turned into a 6 hr car-ride with ear muffs and ear plugs taped to my ears to drown out any crying:P
I wouldn't consider Fresno to be a sexy destination by any means, but contrary to my prejudice against "small towns", Fresno really isn't a small town, just totally in BFE. Surprisingly Fresno has great food! We had the tastiest Italian sandwiches at Sam's Italian Deli. I had the Italian sub and Chuperman got the NY pastrami - SCRUMPTIOUS. Fresno also has Cheesecake Factory and FLEMING'S!
Chuperman also gave me a tour of the hospital he was rounding at: UCSF-Fresno. I was totally impressed with the sprawling layout of the state-of-the-art facilities, plush doctor lounges, and swanky library. Being at such a great hospital made me think twice about Fountain Valley Regional Hospital haha. Ok, so FV is no Hoag but I just loved my OB - Dr. Wan. He has great bed-side manner, he's frickin' hilarious, his wife who is the office mgr is also hilarious - what can I say, Dr. Wan is a great doctor! He even delivers babies for wives of fellow doctors.
Okay, tangent! haha.
So as the title suggests, I Ferberized Jacob. I know what you're thinking - what the heck is ferber? Well, Jacob was a solid sleeper until we moved him into his own room around 6 mos. Since then for 5 straight months, he'd have a hard time getting to sleep on his own and would wake-up in the middle of the night. Sometimes not at all if we got lucky (like that one time he slept for 14 hrs straight haha), but most of the time during this 5 month period he'd wake-up in the middle of the night crying and wanting to be held or fed. Disrupting our sleep at least once or twice a night and wouldn't go back to bed immediately. Sometimes he'd just be up for like 2 hours in the middle of the night! During Thxgiving break, I finally got sick of waking up in the middle of the night that I resorted to the Ferber Sleep Method.
Dr. Ferber is a pediatrician who invented this wonderful technique to help babies fall asleep on their own. *Warning: this method may sound heartless and barbaric but it really works.
This is how I ferberized my lil one:
Night 1:
Feed him WITHOUT having him fall asleep on the bottle (this way baby will learn to fall asleep without the aid of a bottle or boob)
After feeding, I read a story to him with him scurrying around in the crib.
Then I kiss him good-night and turn off the lights.
Then I leave the room and close the door.
Naturally he starts crying.
I wait 3 minutes into crying to pat his back briefly (you CANNOT pick baby up otherwise it'll mess everything up) and verbally assure him "it's okay, mommy loves you. i'm just trying to help you sleep better and on your own. this isn't easy for me either"
Then wait another 5 minutes to pat him down and to verbally assure him.
Then another 10 minutes after... then 10 more minutes.. etc until baby falls asleep on his own.
He cried for a total of 35 minutes straight that first night. It was really really hard for me to just leave him crying. He'd get so pissed when I'd go in at the various intervals and not pick him up.
Night 2:
Same bed time routine of feeding and reading bed-time story. Turn off the lights.
This time, instead of waiting 3 mins, I waited 5 mins into crying, then 10 mins, then 10 mins, etc.. He only cried for 15 minutes before he gave up and fell asleep!
Night 3:
Same bed time routine of feeding and reading story. Lights go out. But this time it was different. The nanny had just gotten back and she was too quick to pick him up before I could get a chance to tell her that I was sleep-training Jacob. Her picking and holding jacob threw things off and he proceeded to cry for 70 minutes. I had to go in at 10 minute intervals for over an hour, all while listening to him scream and cry. This was the most gut-wrenching night of all hearing my baby cry like that. It was my fault for being too slow to tell the nanny.... but it's all good, cuz jacob totally learned to sleep on his own from that night on!
Night 4, 5, 6, 7, 8,... etc! JAcob has been sleeping like a baby again - YES!!!!!!! Mission accomplished. Now putting him to bed is rather pleasant and not like the torture it's been for me. I feed him and then read him a story, then the lights go out, he only cries for like 3 seconds before he gives up haha.. Then he'll like "talk" or coo himself to sleep and will be out for 12 hours straight! Sometimes he'll cry for like 10 secs but won't wake up in the middle of the night. Amazing huh!
And today, he got almost 13 hrs of straight sleep! And he's been a more solid napper. He'll sleep for about 2-2.5 hrs. Before he got ferberized, his naps were all over the place and shorter.
I am so happy that Jacob finally has a routine now! For now, we can pretty much count on him sleeping from 8pm to 8am of uninterrupted and solid sleep, then a nap from noon-2pm. This makes it a lil easier for me to schedule things!
JAcob at 11mos old. He still looks like an infant hehe.. I don't mind, I don't want him to grow up too fast!
