Ava "crawling"

Ava can finally get where she's wanting to go! Here's a video of how!

Ferber continued

Well I told you I wouldn't post everyday, and I stuck to my word! I didn't put anything yesterday, but let me just say that the last two nights have been blissful for Ava! She has slept beautifully! And my friend Sara told me that they started the Ferber method with her son Tad, and he is also sleeping well! Yay Tad!

Now if we could just get the older two sleeping, we'd be all set! Ainslee's paci is about to get thrown out of the window! The last few nights she's woken up a couple of times crying because it's fallen out of her mouth, and she can't find it! She used to be such a good sleeper! What's happened!?! Maybe she's teething. I use that excuse for everything!

Layton still comes in our room around 2:30 or so, and he sleeps on a pallet. I guess that could be worse! Well I know it could be because he used to sleep in our bed! Our next mission is to get them to sleep in their beds all night. I have no idea how to accomplish that! Suggestions welcome!

Night 3

I promise I won't post every day about how Ava slept the night before; maybe just a few more nights until she's good and acclamated to going to sleep by herself.

Last night started out much like night 2. She went to sleep fine; woke up about 8:15; played for a little while; went back to bed fine. Then she started crying at about 10:15. We didn't really know what to do because we didn't know how long to let her cry before going in to console her. We only waited five minutes because I thought she might need a diaper change. She didn't, so we went in again after 10 minutes. When nearly 15 more minutes had passed, I started to cave. I actually sent Trey in to get her to rock her. Luckily, she fell asleep before he got to her door! I know it's good for her to be able to get herself to sleep, but it's just so hard to listen to her cry!

Night 2

I am so proud of Ava. She is such a fast-learner! At about 6:30 she started showing signs of being tired so we gave her a bath, fed her, etc and put her down at about 6:50. She went right to sleep! No crying whatsoever! She woke up, though, at about 8:15. We didn't really know what to do, but we thought since she went to bed so early, it would probably be okay to let her play for a little bit. She played until about 8:45 and started acting tired again. At that point we decided to redo the entire bedtime routine minus the bath. I offered her another bottle (which she refused), read her another book, sang another song, and said another prayer. I laid her down again, and wal-lah no crying! She's sound asleep right now! I can't believe it! I'm keeping my fingers crossd that she sleeps all night again!

Day after night 1 of Ferber method

After many, many nights of fighting Ava to sleep (rocking her, putting her down, her waking up, rerocking her, putting her down, her waking up...), we have decided that it's time to enlist the Ferber method. We used this method on both of our other kids (although with Layton we used our own version because we were not educated in the ways of Ferber), and it worked for them. It's very difficult, and I look at it as a last resort. Using it does mean that you'll have to listen to your child cry, for often lengthy periods of time at first.

We decided that our night time routine, which is KEY with Ferber, would be modeled after the routines that we used for the other two kids. At the first sign of sleepiness, we jump into full bedtime routine mode. She gets a bath, a nice rub down with lotion, a bottle, a book, a song, a prayer, and then we lay her down. The whole account takes about 30 minutes.

Then she cries. And cries. And cries. She cried for about an hour and 15 minutes last night. We laid her down at 7:00. After 5 minutes, I went in to comfort her, careful not to touch or pick her up, even though I so badly wanted to. Then after 10 minutes, Trey went in. Then 15 minutes, and I went in. And so on. Finally at about 8:05, we only heard a small wimper, and by 8:15 she was asleep. She slept until about 6:45 this morning.

That hour and 15 minutes was brutal. However it was nice to have the next two hours. Usually we're rocking her until about 10:30 or 11:00, which means that the rest of the house has to be absolutely quiet: no dishes can be done, no laundry, etc. for fear that she'll wake up.

Tonight will be night number two. The first cry period will last 10 minutes, and the second 15. Wish us luck!

Our nighttime woes...

My sister and I have similar woes; our boys won't sleep in their own beds. She came up with the idea that if Tyler slept in his own bed all night, she would buy him a new transformer. He made it and got his transformer. When Layton found out, he asked if I would buy him a transformer if he slept in his bed all night. Of course, I said YES!!! So that was our mission last night. We were pumped that he would make it all night, and today we would go buy his brand new transformer. However, at about 1:30 AM, I opened my eyes to see Layton standing right there, and he whispered, "Mama, I don't want a transformer." So he slept on his pallet on our floor.

Looking forward to my birthday

I never really ask for anything for my birthday, not from Trey anyway. This year, though, I have a very specific request. I want a corner. I want a corner of the living room to be set up for me to scrapbook whenever I want without having to drag all of my stuff out! I asked for a table and chair, and he added that I might need a lamp! He has a whole month to get all this together! I am really hoping to get up-to-date!!!!