Haaaaaalelujah! Haaaaalelujah! Jackson slept THROUGH THE NIGHT last night for the first time in his life. Since he was born, Jackson has been waking up anywhere from 2 to 6 times per night. I belive that this is because we had created a habit of feeding him every time he woke up - this stemmed from his need to eat every few hours when he was a newborn.
I was at my wits end. DJ and I were running on very little sleep and it was becoming difficult to function at work and to be nice to each other. :) So...I decided to ask around and do some reading about ways to help babies sleep through the night. Jackson's new babysitter, Kelly, told me that she had done the same thing with her daughter - feeding her every night, each time she woke up. Kelly's pediatrician told her that she should have stopped doing so when her daughter was around 3 or 4 months of age. So, Kelly bought this book called "Solving Your Child's Sleep Problems" by Dr. Richard Ferber. She told me that within a week, her daughter was sleeping through the night. I was sold.
So I bought the book. I read it in one night. It was so interesting to read stories about other parents and babies like us. I found that I was not alone and that Jack had learned to expect food every time he woke up and it became necessary for him to eat in order to fall asleep. Dr. Ferber says that babies need to learn how to fall asleep on their own AND that they shouldn't rely on eating in order to fall asleep.
Last night I put this doctor's advice to the test. I was really nervous. I have never wanted to just let Jackson cry - for any reason. I felt like letting him cry just so that I could get some sleep was selfish. But Dr. Ferber said that it's best for both baby and parents if he or she sleeps through the night and with just a few nights of SOME crying, he could help you achieve this.
So I documented everything I did last night. My goal - to gradually decrease the amount of milk that Jackson would eat at each waking, and to teach him to fall asleep on his own.
Here' s my log:
7:30: Put Jackson to bed (after he'd eaten 2 tsp. of rice cereal and drank 6 oz. of milk)
9:20: He woke up at expecting his first meal.
9:25, 9:30, 9:45, 10, 10:15: Checked on Jack and comforted him (without picking him up)
10:30: At this point it had been 3 hours since he had eaten last. I decided that on this first night that three hours between each feeding would be my goal. I gave him three ounces. (Dr. Ferber says to increase this amount of time by 30 minutes each night.)
4:30 am: I LEAP out of bed and rushed into his room to make sure that he was breathing. Surely he couldn't have slept that long
6:30 am: He DID IT! Jack slept through the night from 10:30 pm to 6:30 a.m

I won't lie - it was really hard listening to Jack cry off and on from 9:20 until 10:30. I sat in my room and watched the clock. It was very hard not to go in, pick him up, and give him as much to eat as he wanted, but I knew if I picked him up after 30 minutes of crying then it would all have been for nothing.
I never thought I'd be able to let Jackson cry ... at all ... but I really feel like this went okay. His cries weren't terrible - just winey "come feed me or pick me up cries". I worried this morning that he felt like I had ignored him so I gave him extra hugs and kisses so he'd know how much I loved him. I hope that last night was the beginning of the end of our sleepless nights.