Credit

Where credit is due.

SO here's why I was so distraught last night. One of the things Ferber wants you to do is learn all about sleep cycles and rhythms before you try to go to the problem/solution part of the book. And one of the "duh" things I learned was that there are two deep sleep sections of the night. The first part and the 4am-ish-on. It always drove me crazy that we would be up every 10, 15 minutes or every hour depending on the severity of the problem and then finally at 4 the child would fall deep asleep as if something had finally clicked.

SO here I was at 1 thinking - oh crap, I'm going to be up til 4 for sure.

BUT nope. Jack and Finn and Abby slept the rest of the night. Glory to God. No joke. Also to Ferber, who's help I believe helped me to break the previous patterns.

I have no idea how I kept calm, I was so sure it was going to be a horrible disaster and I just didn't see any hope and after all the hope of the last two weeks it was like I emotionally could not accept going backwards. Sleep is important folks. Sometimes not as important as the emotional needs of a child, but I think I proved that too. I spent time with Jack in between walkaways.

OH funniest thing of the night. One of the things that distresses him is when he cries or his nose runs and he needs a "tissue" (which is code for me blotting his face lovingly). Well, he's obviously been trying to conjugate this and told me, as he was crying, "Oh no, I'm tissing."

And funny poor Finn. We relocated him to the playpen so he didn't have to be distressed by Jack's blood curdling screaming and I checked on him when Jack was back to sleep and Finn was just staring at the netting of the play pen, I put him back in his own crib and he also slept soundly.

Abby, sweet Abby had been rolled up in a ball in her bed with her arms to her ears because of the crying. I think she is also traumatized by how the night used to escalate in this situation. She relocated to our floor for the tantrum and decided to stay there, "I just want to stay with you, if that's okay" she says nicely at 1am.