Though the Monster's sleep pattern could be much worse, we (Nick, myself and our pediatrician) feel that the Monster is ready to start self-soothing. I've researched, read and than re-read the various methods of getting the babeh to sleep through the night and it came down to The Ferber Method and the Sleep Lady Shuffle. Why were we tied between two almost extremes, you ask? The newer version of the Ferber method is actually a lot gentler than before and, if we stick to it, Monster should be able to self-soothe and sleep better through the night. The "shuffle" is a sort of supervised crying (if it even comes down to crying) rather than crying-it-out, but it takes longer.
You may ask why we even had to think about it, but it really isn't a decision that should be taken lightly. We want it to work and in order to do so, we have to be able to stick with it.
We started the Shuffle last night. Or a variation of the shuffle at least.
Monster still enjoys his pacifier, so rather than quit it cold turkey we're going to ease him off. I'm not entirely sure how, but for now when he cries at night, he gets the pacifier and one of us stays with him until he falls asleep (but no picking him up). Eventually we will go without it, but I want to talk to the pediatrician first on a good way to do it.
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On another note, I start school tomorrow. Boo. I'm going to miss my little Monster, but I survived a night without him (albeit with a lot of tears) so I think I'll be ok tomorrow. I will update on our sleep progress as the weeks progress.
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