Wordless Wednesday

Ferber: Night 3

Last update, I promise. I know some of you may be getting tired of these sleep updates :)

Last night, he laid down right away and Jarrod and I kept looking at each other in amazement, but then started standing up and screaming about 5 minutes later. When Jarrod went in at the 10 minute point, the room smelled horrible! No wonder he was screaming! Jarrod changed his diaper, and within 20 minutes, he was asleep. He woke up once, about 4 1/2 hours later, and again was asleep within 20 minutes...no nursing needed. He slept until 6:30 this morning! So, he made it all night without me feeding him. Great progress!

We'll see how things go the next couple of nights while Jarrod's out of town and not here to help!

Ferber: Night 2

We're getting there! After 47 minutes of crying last night, he finally decided to lay down and go to sleep. You should have seen him falling asleep sitting up. At one point, when Jarrod went in for a check, he started rubbing his head and Gavin actually went to sleep sitting up. He motioned for me on the monitor to come see him. It was so cute. Anyway...he woke up around 10, and I didn't feed him. We decided that the night before he'd slept for 4 hour stretches, so that was our goal for last night. It took 20 minutes for him to go back to sleep. He woke again at 1:45. This time, I went in, changed his diaper and fed him for about 5 minutes. The I put him back in bed, and again it was 20-30 minutes of crying and he was asleep by 2:30. Then...are you ready for this??? He slept until 7:30 without another peep! Slowly but surely, he's getting better. The best part is that it's been two nights in a row that I've been able to sleep in my bed the whole night without little feet poking me or a head butting me! :)

Ferber: Night 1

Here's the update you've been wanting :)

After several days of preparing for going cold turkey, I changed my mind. I bought the Ferber book, and read that if you're nursing several times throughout the night, going cold turkey would be too hard on the child. Friday night I kept track...I nursed Gavin back to sleep, even if it was just a couple minutes, 5 times. So, we decided to go a little slower on the no-nursing thing.

I wanted to start later than his normal bedtime, but he was acting tired. So, we nursed for a little while in his room, then I sat him up and we read a book. That way he was still going down awake. We kissed him, told him goodnight, and left. Of course, he screamed. Jarrod went in after three minutes, then again after five more minutes...I went in ten minutes later. All the while, Gavin's screaming. When I went in, while I was wiping his face off, he threw up on me from crying so hard. No big deal, right? I just cleaned him up and left the room again, just like Dr. Wells said. About 35 minutes into this, I watched him on the monitor "climb" the bed rails...he was leaning over the crib and I swear he was about to fall out. I freaked out, ran in and got him, and Jarrod lowered the bed. So, we were already off track.

I nursed him a little bit more, and then we relaxed together until he seemed tired. I put him down again at 9:30 and the crying started again. After about 10 minutes, Jarrod went in and laid on the floor next to his bed. Within 5 minutes, Gavin was sound asleep. It wasn't the way we were supposed to do it, but it was the first night.

Gavin slept for 4 hours. Jarrod and I decided for the first night I'd nurse him as long as he'd gone 2 hours since the last time (and slowly we'll increase that time). So, I nursed him for just about 5 minutes, laid him down and we started the progressive waiting again. About 30 minutes later, he was asleep. We watched him on the monitor, and he was so cute hugging "Dog Dog" so tight. I'm so glad he has a lovey now.

Again, he slept for 4 hours and woke up around 5:30. I nursed him just a few minutes, laid him down, he cried 3 minutes and was asleep. But, he woke back up a few minutes later and sat in his bed playing with Dog Dog, no crying, for 20 minutes. At 6, we decided he was up for the day so Jarrod brought him out and got him breakfast.

All in all, it wasn't how thought the night would go, but I think he did much better than expected. I'm hoping those four hour stretches slowly lengthen. Sorry this is so long, but I know there are so many of you that would be asking how the first night went, and instead of repeating the whole story a thousand times, I thought I'd just blog about it. :)

I'll update you on Night 2 soon :)

Gavin's bloodwork

Gavin's doctor called last night and most of his bloodwork is back. All the food allergies were negative, the thyroid, kidney, and liver portions were normal...the only thing that seemed off was that one part showed he has some inflammation somewhere in his body and the blood cells weren't reading at a 50/50 ratio...instead it was more like 70% those that fight viruses and 30% those that fight bacteria. He said that his guess would be that he has recently had a virus and asked if he had a cold or anything recently, which he did just last week while we were in Albany. So, he said that would explain those readings and that he's really not concerned. One more part of the test won't be back for another week or so and that's the portion that tests for celiac disease. I'll update you soon!

In the meantime...tonight starts the cry-it-out nighttime routine and I'm officially done nursing! He went all day Thursday and Friday with no daytime nursing, but I still nursed him through the night. As of tonight, that's done! We'll see how it goes. Jarrod and I are planning to be up all night......