Third Night of Ferberizing

Since the previous two nights had not gone so well, I decided to take a new approach for getting Noah to sleep through the night. The new plan was to let him fall asleep like he normally would with us rocking him or cuddling with him instead of trying to let him fall asleep on his own. Then I would only feed him once in the middle of night instead of feeding him on demand. I would then gradually phase out the nighttime feedings altogether. Once that was done, we would try to get him to fall asleep on his own when we put him down for the night. This all sounded good in theory, right? Well, things did not go as planned.

I had my bi-weekly gossip and eating session with my friends last night, so I didn't get home until about 9:30. Noah was already asleep, and he had been for about 45 minutes. Nathan had let him fall asleep in his arms, and all was well - no crying as he fell asleep. I figured the plan was on track. Noah would probably wake up about midnight, I would feed him and then we'd start the "Ferberizing". At about 10:00 Noah wakes up and will NOT stay asleep. I tried rocking him until he fell asleep but as soon as his head touched his mattress, he was wide awake again. I tried this twice with the same results. At this point, he was so tired that he was crying and nothing was making him happy. I decided to let him cry it out. He cried until about 11:00 and then he fell asleep. At about midnight he woke up again and I decided to feed him. He was evidently so stressed out about trying not to fall asleep, that every time I tried to recline him so that I could feed him, I would just start crying. He obviously wasn't too hungry, so I put him back in his crib where he cried for another half an hour. He whimpered off and on until about 6:00, when Nathan brought him in to me to feed him. This time he was hungry and as soon as he was done eating he fell asleep for 2 hours without a peep. Of course, he was sleeping in my bed - not his own. I guess we'll eventually have to phase that out, too. Here's hoping that tonight goes a little smoother.