Baby Whisperer Day 2: Tentatively Thrilled...

To be fair to Ferber, I have read a little more and learned that this method does not wholesale advocate abandoning your child to his or her tears. But the big difference between Ferber and Tracy Hogg (the original "Baby Whisperer") is that in Hogg's method, you always pick up the crying child. You never leave him or her to cry alone. You comfort, then put down again, using your voice and a hand on the back to reassure the baby. On the other hand, Hogg does agree with Ferber's notion that the child needs to learn to put him or herself to sleep without depending always on nursing, rocking, swinging, etc. to fall asleep.

Now. I have a few more things to say about our household debates about the use of sleep props, as opposed to "wind-down" techniques. But I'll save that for tomorrow's post. Meanwhile, here is my Valerie sleep log from the past two days, with some comments/analysis after.

Key to abbreviations: WU = woke up
PU/PD = picked up, put down
BF = breastfeeding (nursing)
GG= Grandma and Grandpa's

1/24/09 (Saturday)
7:30 wake up
9:00-9:30 nap in stroller
11:00-11:30 attempted PU/PD, but she didn't fall asleep; she sat up and wanted to play, so we went back out to living room.
1:24-2:36 nap in crib: PU/PD 4x
3:30 went to play at GG's
4:30-5:00 nap in GG's crib
play, eat @ restaurant
8:30-9:00 PU/PD 59x over 30 minutes to sleep in crib

Night
9:45 stirred, didn't wake up
WU, PU/PD 4-8x over 5-10 minutes each time:
10:45
11:50
1:17 - nursed about 5 minutes
2:20
3:50 - nursed about 10 minutes
4:45
5:45 sat up and started babbling, wanted to play. Took her out but she was v. tired.
6:45 PU/PD 8x over 5-10 minutes, slept 45 min.

1/25/09 (Sunday)
7:30 WU babbling and wanting to play.
showed signs of sleepiness off and on throughout morning; not too interested in food, but nursed a lot (very awake) and drank a lot of water. Big poop.
11:00-11:30 nap, PU/PD 1x after nursing to drowsiness, very nearly asleep (probably a little too long)
lunch, then out to eat w/ D&V
1:50-2:20 nap in Vern's arms and car seat (didn't nurse to sleep, but did rock to sleep)
home, played, nursed
4:15- nap in crib, PU/PD 26x for 35 minutes prior
4:45 WU, resettled PU/PD 4-5x over 10 minutes
5:35 WU, resettled PU/PD 13x over 10 minutes
6:30 WU
play/eat (not into eating)
7:30 meltdown; started winding down for bed
(clean up toys, draw bath, undress, wait for Terry to get home to help)
while waiting for T., BF strong for 10 min at least, then she ate ALL her dinner
8:00 bath, continued bedtime ritual (put on PJs, read books, cuddle and sing lullaby)
9:02 PU/PD 17x over 25 minutes to sleep in crib

Night
1:15-ish WU, PU/PD 5x, 2x, 5x over 15 minutes
2:15 WU, PU/PD 1x!!!
3:00 WU, PU/PD about 5x? BF strong, both sides, 10 minutes
6:17 WU, PU/PD about 15x (lost count) over 25 minutes to extend night sleep
(slept another 45 minutes!) Note: v. engorged; hand-expressed about 1/2 oz.

1/26/09 (Monday)
7:30 WU babbling, ready to play
BF strong both sides, about 10 min. Offered cereal/cheerios, not into it
8:30 sleepy cues. Played another 1/2 hour until def. sleepy.
9:00-[still napping at time of post] : nap, PU/PD 14x over 15 minutes. Left room a couple times when she was babbling, standing, not crying. Returned immediately when cried.

Observations:

• Notice that the first night she woke up seven times, nearly every hour, and we got up very early. But the second night, she woke up only four times!
  
• Even better? Notice that the longest sleep period during the first night was about 90 minutes. But the second night? Nearly FOUR HOURS!!! Except for one time last week when she was just getting over her ear infection, this is the first time she or I have slept that long in MONTHS.
  
• Finally, notice that the first night it took 30 minutes and 59 times picking her up before she went to sleep on her own. But the second? Only 17 times, in 25 minutes.