The Man, the Myth, the God
I know, I know, "Thou shalt not have any other gods before me," blah blah blah. And that's all fine and dandy, but right now at the Sweetie Pie-Doodles household, we are busy erecting an altar to our new holy leader, the great and omnipotent all-powerful Dr. Ferber.
Oh how the mighty weep at the feet of this good doctor. And by mighty, I mean of course, Sweetie Pie.
Those of you with kids know the drill. "Sleep begets sleep," almost all of the books say. As it states in Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, "...if your child becomes better rested, she will be better able to fall asleep and stay asleep." If your child won't sleep, put her to bed earlier. Right? Of course right!
So we had our appointment at the Pediatric Sleep Clinic with a lovely young doctor who spent an hour asking us questions and listening to my woes of sleepiness. He gave a quick examination to Sweetie to make sure nothing physical was interfering and then he left to work out a plan for us. We entertained ourselves and shortly after the good doctor returned... with Dr. Ferber right behind him. (I said later to Adam, "Didn't you feel like you were meeting a rock star!" to which he looked at me oddly and said, "Um, no.") Dr. Ferber introduced himself ("Hi, I'm Dick Ferber") and dove right in. I'd actually heard told that he didn't have much of a bedside manner, and I think that, with that in mind, I found him to be a remarkably pleasant, nice person. He explained that Sweetie Pie has been trained to expect a middle of the night meal (or two or three) and that the reason she's waking up so often is... she's getting too much sleep. Yes, that's right, the child who doesn't sleep is getting too much sleep. He laid out a plan for us (I have it! In his own handwriting! Our sleep plan for Sweetie Pie! Totally going into the baby book) that involves putting her to sleep at 8:30 at night, waking her up at 5:30 a.m. (note he gave us the option of putting her down later and waking her up later, but this is what fit best into our own schedule), giving her a one-hour nap at 8:30 a.m. and a one-hour nap at 12:30 p.m. (and she's to be woken from each if she doesn't wake on her own after an hour). We are to stop bringing her into our bed, as that's confusing to her (from what I understood, he is not against cosleeping, just against sleeping in multiple places; basically, she can sleep with us, but only sleep with us; he said for her to fall asleep in the crib, wake up in our bed, wake up again in her crib, has her all turned around).
Radical, huh? Of course, the proof of the pudding is in the eating (and, yes, that's the proper form of that proverb). So? So? Are you all in suspense? What happened?
Well, out of the past seven nights, on five of those nights... Sweetie Pie has slept from 8:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. without any nighttime wakings. No feedings. No screamings. No nutin'. Just sleep, blissful sleep. We may have to change her name to Sleepy Pie.
Of course, the downside to this is we've had some very rough evenings where she's so incredibly tired but we won't put her down until 8:30. Waking her up can be quite the challenge. We're starting to put her down a little earlier. Dr. Ferber said once her sleep settles in, we add more sleep to either her bedtime or her wake up, in 15-minute increments, until we find just the right amount of sleep for our Pie Pie.
So, let's recap. Our daughter is sleeping. Our son is practically eating. We have a new god.
I think we're about ready for baby number three, don't you? (Adam. Adam! Hey, Adam, come back! I was just kidding!)
Oh how the mighty weep at the feet of this good doctor. And by mighty, I mean of course, Sweetie Pie.
Those of you with kids know the drill. "Sleep begets sleep," almost all of the books say. As it states in Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, "...if your child becomes better rested, she will be better able to fall asleep and stay asleep." If your child won't sleep, put her to bed earlier. Right? Of course right!
So we had our appointment at the Pediatric Sleep Clinic with a lovely young doctor who spent an hour asking us questions and listening to my woes of sleepiness. He gave a quick examination to Sweetie to make sure nothing physical was interfering and then he left to work out a plan for us. We entertained ourselves and shortly after the good doctor returned... with Dr. Ferber right behind him. (I said later to Adam, "Didn't you feel like you were meeting a rock star!" to which he looked at me oddly and said, "Um, no.") Dr. Ferber introduced himself ("Hi, I'm Dick Ferber") and dove right in. I'd actually heard told that he didn't have much of a bedside manner, and I think that, with that in mind, I found him to be a remarkably pleasant, nice person. He explained that Sweetie Pie has been trained to expect a middle of the night meal (or two or three) and that the reason she's waking up so often is... she's getting too much sleep. Yes, that's right, the child who doesn't sleep is getting too much sleep. He laid out a plan for us (I have it! In his own handwriting! Our sleep plan for Sweetie Pie! Totally going into the baby book) that involves putting her to sleep at 8:30 at night, waking her up at 5:30 a.m. (note he gave us the option of putting her down later and waking her up later, but this is what fit best into our own schedule), giving her a one-hour nap at 8:30 a.m. and a one-hour nap at 12:30 p.m. (and she's to be woken from each if she doesn't wake on her own after an hour). We are to stop bringing her into our bed, as that's confusing to her (from what I understood, he is not against cosleeping, just against sleeping in multiple places; basically, she can sleep with us, but only sleep with us; he said for her to fall asleep in the crib, wake up in our bed, wake up again in her crib, has her all turned around).
Radical, huh? Of course, the proof of the pudding is in the eating (and, yes, that's the proper form of that proverb). So? So? Are you all in suspense? What happened?
Well, out of the past seven nights, on five of those nights... Sweetie Pie has slept from 8:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. without any nighttime wakings. No feedings. No screamings. No nutin'. Just sleep, blissful sleep. We may have to change her name to Sleepy Pie.
Of course, the downside to this is we've had some very rough evenings where she's so incredibly tired but we won't put her down until 8:30. Waking her up can be quite the challenge. We're starting to put her down a little earlier. Dr. Ferber said once her sleep settles in, we add more sleep to either her bedtime or her wake up, in 15-minute increments, until we find just the right amount of sleep for our Pie Pie.
So, let's recap. Our daughter is sleeping. Our son is practically eating. We have a new god.
I think we're about ready for baby number three, don't you? (Adam. Adam! Hey, Adam, come back! I was just kidding!)
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home