Catching zzzzz's

After a week of struggling to get our monkey to sleep in her bed, by herself, we are finally catching some z's. Ahhh...

It was quite a struggle getting her comfortable and confident. Our secret was the Ferber method. When she woke in the middle of the night, she would go to the gate at her door and yell for us. I would calmly walk her back to bed, cover her and say goodnight sweetie - see you in the morning. She would instantly cry and chase me to the door. (This was extremely hard) Then after 5 minutes, I'd go back and repeat, then 10 minutes, 15 minutes and finally after 20 minutes (the first night) she crawled back into bed and slept until morning. The next night it took 10-15 minutes. Now for 2 nights, she has slept through the night, and waits patiently (awake) in bed until we come and get her in the morning.

What methods have you used to help your baby sleep?

More about Ferberizing
http://www.babycenter.com/refcap/7755.html

This isn't for everyone, but we found that it works well with our daughter. Within a few days, after an illness or a change in routine (a new bed), our daughter is getting her rest, but most importantly we are too!

My little Monkey

My little monkey loves the story, "5 Little Monkeys." I think she knew it by heart by 15 months. She thinks it is funny to climb onto a bed, any bed and yell "Monkey jump on bed!" My husband and I always say, "Remember what happened to the poor little monkeys!" And we make her sit down or get down, like any reasonable parent would.

Now, my story isn't quite about a monkey jumping on a bed, however, it is about a little monkey. A couple of weekends ago, my daughter (aka the monkey) decided that if my husband and I didn't come in and get her when she was ready, she was going to start climbing out of her crib. Ahh, a parents (ok, maybe first-time parents) nightmare. Of course we have the savvy video monitor set-up to catch her in these dare-devil acts and we instantly tried to nip-it-in-the-bud. No such luck. After losing much sleep, we decided it was time for a "big-girl" bed. I went online and purchased the largest bed-rail from OneStep Ahead (I love that store!) and anxiously awaited its arrival.

We had the bed set-up, sheets and all. Finally, on Thursday the bed-rail arrived and we chose to wait until the weekend to set it up. Big mistake.

I put my little monkey down that night and no sooner did I walk out of her room, she climbed right out and I heard a loud crash and scream. I ran into her room, with my bionic woman powers, ripped-off the gate at the door and ran to my child lying on the floor next to her bed. I picked her up, held her, shushing her, and saying "it's ok, mommy's here." That is when she pulled away from me and vomited. I started screaming for my husband.

After consulting with the doctor's office and watching our little monkey for 72 hours - she is doing well...and as for the parents...we are still not sleeping. They never said the monkey would stay in the bed! But, she can now climb out safely.