Sleep Problems



Belief That Things Will Change on Their Own

You may hope, pray, and wish that one fine night, your baby will magically begin to sleep through the night. Maybe you’re crossing your fingers that he’ll just “outgrow” this stage, and you won’t have to do anything different at all. It’s a very rare night-waking baby who suddenly decides to sleep through the night all on his own. Granted, this may happen to you — but your baby may be two, three or four years old when it does! Decide now whether you have the patience to wait that long, or if you are ready to gently move the process along.

Too Fatigued to Work Toward Change

Change requires effort, and effort requires energy. In an exhausted state, we may find it easier just to keep things as they are than try something different. In other words, when Baby wakes for the fifth time that night, and I’m desperate for sleep, it’s so much easier just to resort to the easiest way to get him back to sleep (rock, nurse, or replace the pacifier) than it is to try something different.

Only a parent who is truly sleep deprived can understand what I’m saying here. Others may calmly advise, “Well if things aren’t working for you, just change what you’re doing. However, every night waking puts you in that foggy state where the only thing you crave is going back to sleep — plans and ideas seem like too much effort.

If you are to help your baby sleep all night, you will have to force yourself to make some changes and follow your plan, even in the middle of the night, even if it’s the tenth time your baby has called out for you.

So, after reading this section and you’re sure you and your baby are ready, it’s time for you to make a commitment to change. That is the first important step to helping your baby sleep through the night.

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  • Clara Edwards: Our daughter had been an erratic sleeper (much of it our fault, in retrospect) and frequently ended up...
  • Emilio Gonzalez: Ferber does a good job of describing what happens when you sleep. Apparently everyone wakes up in...
  • Roberta Reid: I guess my main problem with Ferber was the way that it’s an exact, rigid theory or philosophy....
  • Amber Laws: We were careful to put him in bed before he was completely asleep so he could adjust to the idea of being...
  • Debbie Hubbard: Good luck.posted by dragonsi55 at 7:07 AM on September 29, 2006
  • Douglas Witherell: This idea that you can have a child sleeping quietly in three days is more to appease the parents,...
  • Robert Spangler: The “Cry it out” method didn’t work on him — what did work was something...
  • William Aguilar: The thing is, children are not interchangable. For varying reasons, some kids sleep well righr away...
  • Robin Kelly: We got a baby massage book and started “bedtime” about 30 minutes before we put him down for...
  • Jessica Miller: That being said, rdurbin already wrote down everything I wanted to say–especially the part...
  • Justin Schultz: An idea? To appease us? We spent many months with various techniques that didn’t work, Ferber...
  • Linda Allmon: The second one was a preemie (about 7 weeks) and it literally took years for him to settle into a good...
  • Tara Mccandless: But they do, frequently, until their child is asleep. Have you read any other part of it than the...
  • Darrell Jones: I agree with the being present and patting on the back and telling him it is night night time while...
  • Todd Mcclelland: I think even if you don’t use his process, he’s got a lot of interesting things to say...