High Maintenance Mom

I was lucky enough to attend a lecture by Dr Richard Ferber, Director of the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders at Children's Hospital in Boston and author of Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems, recently and brushed up on my knowledge (via Dr Ferber and other's books) on sleep and how to achieve it in babies and toddlers. I have been blessed with two good sleepers but that doesnt mean we havent had our late nights and frustrating moments. In our family sleep and nutrition rank highest on the "must get right" scale. While Dr Ferber is clearly a well respected doctor and author, he is not an excellent public speaker. If you had not read his book, the lecture would have been too broad and short for you to gain much insight. Having said that, I am glad I went because just by the amount of parents who brought their kids to the 7:30pm lecture, I could tell we had it good!

Dr Ferber stressed routine for naps and bedtime from about 3 months onward. He also reminded us that some of the issues are not hard to end. My son is demanding 2 feedings a night at 5 months old and while he is a big baby, I know he doesn't need these feedings. Dr Ferber's technique has my husband do whatever it takes to get him back to sleep short of feeding him. While we have made a few futile attempts at it, we have committed 100% because of colds and teething. My daughter was "sleep trained" at 6 months and did very well. She is now an amazing sleeper. Whenever things got rough for me, I would just think of the big picture and know what I was doing now, would help my daughter/son in the future and help us too! I recommend the book and Dr Ferber's techniques but remind people that you know your baby best and when they are ready to be trained. Read several books, talk to friends and search the internet for chat sites. Eventually, you and your baby will sleep! I promise.