Ferberization: Night 1 and Day 1

I often use this blog as my diary so that I can look back later and remember what really happened. This is that kind of post.

As I said in my last post, Olivia went to sleep on her own after four minutes of whimpering on the first night of Ferberization. That was at 7 PM. She woke up at 10:58 whimpering, which led to crying. We let her alone for five minutes. I went in and laid her back down (she was sitting up), gave her her pacifier, gave her her burp cloth (that she likes to sleep with), reassured her and rubbed her back. It took about 45 seconds. She closed her eyes as I was leaving the room, but then opened them and started crying when I got out the door. We left her for ten minutes, during which time the crying got pretty intense. It would crescendo and then fall, but mostly she cried the whole time. I told Nicholas that I didn't know if I could do it and plied him with lots of reasons we shouldn't be doing this. He held strong. I went in again. This time she was standing, and I did a repeat of the first entrance. I walked out and we left her alone for 15 minutes. This time the crying was much less intense and less frequent. She would cry for a few seconds and then be quiet for a minute or more. Near the end of the 15 minutes, we thought she was asleep, but then she started crying again right at 15 minutes. I went in and did a repeat, and she whimpered for a few seconds at a time for the next 15 minutes. I finally went back to sleep at 12:20.

Olivia woke again at 4 AM, and this time I made a bottle and took it to her after five minutes. Dr. Petit said this was fine since Olivia is used to eating at night. He said after eight hours in bed, she can have a bottle since she will probably be legitimately hungry. I gave her the bottle in her crib--I did not change her diaper or take her out at all. She fell asleep after five ounces. She didn't wake again until 6 AM. She woke up happy and started playing in her crib as she does in the morning. I went in after a couple of minutes. I was relieved that she didn't hate me, but I felt horrible for doing that to her during the night. (I just want to record how I felt so that if I have to do it again with Kraft baby #2, I'll know.)

Today, Olivia went to Mom's Morning Out and took a 45 minute nap at 9:30. This afternoon she was in a great mood and took a nap for 65 minutes at 2 o'clock. I decided to put her down at 6:30 PM tonight because she was rubbing her eyes at 5:45 and I knew she wouldn't make it to 7 o'clock. I put her in bed drowsy, but awake and she didn't cry at all. Here's hoping tonight goes okay. I'm prepared for the worst.