by Kimberly Roos

Created on: May 27, 2009

When searching for ways to get my son to sleep through the night, it seemed all I could find was cry it out, the Ferber method. I did find The Baby Book by Dr Sears where Dr Sears says something along the lines of , when it is time to potty train your child are you going to put them on the potty and let them cry until they use it? Of course not! I have never agreed with a book more. For me there is no way that the Ferber method would work. I couldn't listen to my child scream, and feel that bad about trying to get him to sleep. I wondered how my child ever feel good about sleeping alone, and through the night ,when he felt so abandoned and alone? I believe that when I decided to bring my son into the world, I agreed that there would be hard times, but that I would always be there for him. Every child is different and for some, maybe the Ferber method is all that works, but I believe anything that makes you feel that bad, can't be good. The method that finally worked for me takes time but, it is well worth the results.

The first thing we all need to remember as parents is that our children are only little for a very short period of time. I know that for first time parents it seems like the "no sleep" stage lasts forever but, I promise it doesn't. If you continue to tell yourself this throughout the process, it makes for a much smoother transition.

My son was almost two and slept in the bed with us from the time he was born. He was breastfed and woke up for nightly feedings, and it was easier for me to just sit up in bed and feed him, than have to go down the hall and get him every time. He was older and it was even harder to find a method that worked because, he was no longer waking up for feedings, he was just waking up for comfort. He wanted to make sure we were still here. He needed to feel comfortable that if he needed us, we would always be right there.

Once everyone has decided that the best thing for the family is for your child to sleep through the night in his or her own bed , you have to start a nightly bedtime routine. As simple as this sounds, any deviation makes it much harder for your child to adjust. For us, we have dinner, take a bath, get dressed and snuggle with daddy for a few minutes, then go up to his bedroom where he sits in bed while I read two to three books to him. During bath time I would always tell him we were going to go up to his room to bed, and then I would ask him "What are you going to do if you wake up and it is still dark

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