Baby Blase

5 1/2 months was long enough to go on coddling our little angel – time to buck-up and become a man. Time to sleep on your own, without the help of your mommy! Much to the dismay of both grandmas – we decided it was time. So, I sent Marc out to get a book, because (I couldn’t even wait a day for Amazon to deliver – I needed it now!) when I set my mind to do something there is no waiting. The torture-technique book we decided to go with was The Sleepeasy Solution because 1,000 celebrities can’t be wrong. And really, I’m just a sucker for anything that Jack Black and Ben Stiller would endorse.

That night I read at least half the book. Essentially, it is a version of the cry-it-out technique. For bedtime and naps you create your own schedule and routine and must stick to it. Then set the little one in his crib – drowsy – and walk away.You check in at 5 minutes, 10 minutes and 15 minutes or longer, if necessary (but, no touching – just use your voice for 30 seconds to reassure the kid that it’s OK).

It felt as though I was sending my baby off to war – just a poor little, helpless infant packed up and shipped off to a hostile country to do battle for a cause that he didn’t understand and didn’t believe in.

Here’s our schedule:

7pm: rice cereal

7:15: bath

7:35: read books in rocking chair with mom and dad in his room, then check/change diaper

7:45: nurse him (about 4oz) getting drowsy – but, talked to him to keep him awake

8:00: keep rocking him and sing a little, but, keep him awake

8:10: lay him in crib, stroke his head, give him his blankie, talk to him tell him that we love him and that he CAN do it (silently, think that there is a snowball’s chance that it will work)

8:15: close the door and listen to the baby explosion

Grab glass of wine and turn on the movie No Country For Old Men. Turn up the volume.

1st check-in: 8:20

Finish wine. Concentrate on movie – noting that pretty much every character in the film has it worse off than my kid. Take a little bit of comfort in that.

Crying intensifies and then starts to calm (we decide not to do another check-in) and then, just like that – the crying stops at 8:40. The baby sleeps. He slept 10 hours – which is normal for him. The book says to try to stretch your kid to 11 hours. We chose to let him wake up at 6:30, eat and then go back to sleep – which he did for 1.5 more hours.

Summary:
crying: 25 minutes
check-ins: 1 at 5 minutes
total sleep: 10 hours

He did it – I’m still flabbergasted!

Next up, long-division and driving a stick-shift.

Listening: Johnny Cash (A Boy Named Sue)