Wednesday, February 27, 2008

"If you wake him, you keep him"


Notice the title of the blog. I saw that on a nursery plaque once and thought it was hilarious. That and "Party at 3 AM. Place: My crib. B.Y.O.B (bottle)." So cute.

Anyway, Adam has slept through the night since he's been 3 months old. However, he has only *consistently* slept through the night for the past two months. The reason being: I refused to succomb to the "Cry It Out/Ferber" method. Since Adam doesn't cry that often, whenever he would cry at night, I would rush right in, pick him up, and feed and/or rock him back to sleep. He would also fall asleep every night by eating/being rocked to sleep. Adam's Zayde (my father-in-law) was very wise when he "wished me luck" when I told him that I would never let Adam CIO. I knew Zayde was on to something when he told me that Steven had to CIO and look at him now -- he's the best sleeper ever. It's true. In almost five years of marriage, I think he's woken up *maybe* five times in the middle of the night! No Ambien needed, either! :)

Well, it got to the point where Adam didn't want to sleep anywhere except in my arms. Like my mom said "Who could blame him? Warm body vs. mattress? What do you think"? After two completely sleepless nights, we (I) tearfully decided that it was time for Adam to "CRY IT OUT". And cry that baby did!!! He shed more tears in those two weeks than he had in the first eight months of his life!

The beautiful news... after two weeks, he started to LOVE going to bed (so he could play and talk to Doggy and Ducky, of course). Those experts who recommend "loveys (security items)" are onto something, let me tell you! Advocates of a consistent nighttime routine (bottle, books, singing), kudos to you, too! Now Adam JUMPS from my arms into his crib every night. It's amazing. Lesson learned: ALWAYS listen to Bubbe/Zayde and Grandma... they KNOW what they're talking about!!! :)

On a sidenote... Adam has a beautiful, large crib. However, he ALWAYS chooses to sleep in the corners, against the bumbers. Usually biting Doggy and holding Ducky (or sleeping on top of Ducky -- see above photo). Question for moms reading this blog: What is your opinion on bumpers? Safe or not safe?

1 comment:

Casey's trio said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog and taking the time to comment! I am in my own version of CIO torture..it so isn't fun, but I am hoping it pays off soon. We did have bumpers in our girls cribs and felt okay about it because they were old enough to really move around (e.g. scooting, rolling,crawling) so we didn't feel like they would get trapped by the bumper. We had to take them out once they were standing on them and using them like stepstools:)