A Quick Learner

Parents with infants all around the world walk through the day with eyes half open. They are tired, frustrated and don't know where to turn. They have an baby who refuses to sleep. Some allow the baby to co-sleep in the grown up or "family bed." This is not an option for us. Our kids, given an inch, will always take a mile. No kids in our bed. That is except for Eamon for an hour in the early morning. Otherwise, he sleeps in his crib

He decided recently that he did not want to be rocked to sleep anymore. When we would attempt to do so, he would wriggle and move around, rubbing his face all over the place in desperate attempts to stay awake for the excitement that is the DeWitt home. We decided to "Ferberize" Eamon. The Ferber method is the classic sleep training method where a parent lays the child in his or her crib and lets the baby cry for increasingly longer periods of time before entering the room to provide comfort. A parent is never to pick up the child. Only provide comfort in the form of pats or rubs. This process, in a baby who is old enough (Eamon is barely old enough) should work in 3-7 days according to Richard Ferber. Often, parents can't take the screaming and give in to the child.

For Eamon, this process worked the first night. It has now worked for another night and for naptime today. The kid came out of a textbook. Our other two did not. It is amazing to feel like an effective parent. If Eamon would have been our first child, we would have thought that we were superheroes in the parenting department. Thank you, Eamon. The third time really was the charm.