I love Dr. Ferber!

I came to Florida with a baby who wouldn't nap in his crib and who was completely addicted to his pacifier. But I also came to Florida with Dr. Richard Ferber's book and I have been soaking up every word and following Ferber's advice in order to help Ian sleep better. Within 1-2 days of "Ferberizing" Ian to sleep on his back in his crib, Ian was sleeping nicely in his crib. Okay, so his naps are super short (30-45 minutes), but he's sleeping in his crib. So I consider that a success. But he is still so addicted to his pacifier. When Ian wakes up in the middle of the night (which Ferber assures me is a completely normal part of a sleep cycle) , he can't soothe himself back to sleep because sometime between falling asleep and waking up, he has lost his pacifier. And then either my husband or I have to get out of bed, search around in the dark for the pacifier, and plug the hole that is my screaming child's mouth. And Ian will instantaneously shut off and go back to sleep. But I don't shut off so easily and I seriously worry about sleep deprivation when I have to go back to work in mid-September. Ferber tells me that Ian won't be able to soothe himself back to sleep in the middle of the night until his environment then is the same as the one in which he fell asleep. Thus, it's time to get rid of the pacifier.

I used this morning's nap as my first experiment. After seeing that Ian was starting to get crabby and after seeing him rub his eyes multiple times, I swaddled him and put him in his crib without his pacifier. He screamed for 7 minutes at which point I went in and patted him and sang him a song. He calmed down pretty quickly (which means he can, in fact, calm down without the pacifier). But when I left, he started screaming again. But this time, he screamed for only 6 minutes and fell asleep! HE IS ASLEEP WITHOUT HIS PACIFIER! I'm so damn excited. And I'm really proud of myself for sticking to my guns (and Ferber's advice) even though my mom was hinting very strongly that I was being cruel to my child by letting him cry.

As an aside, I'm quite proud of myself for handling the baby all by myself for the last 4 nights.