Fingers, toes and ties crossed....

Dare I even whisper it...but I think that our new sleep strategy is working.

This weekend I heard back from the sleep specialist via email and I have to say I was more than a little disappointed by her response. I guess I shouldn't expect so much for a $35 email from an sleep expert residing on the 'gold coast' of CT. She hinted around a plan in her email response but gave me no concrete answers. Instead she wanted to hold a phone consultation with me for $250 to solve everything- whatever. Her abbreviated email response the next day sounded an awful lot like Ferberizing....

Friday night I had an epiphany of sorts. Charlie was having an awful day with his reflux flaring up and causing him a lot of pain. As I was holding him in my arms trying to comfort him to sleep, time dragged on and Charlie was beside himself. After the 40 minute mark, I realized that my 'being there' was doing nothing for him (a bit dense, aye?! You would be too if you hadn't gotten decent sleep in six months). So I did something I had never done before out of frustration, exhaustion. I put him down in his crib awake with his lovey, kissed him goodnight and left the room.

This weekend we started cry it out/Ferber because I was at my wits end with all of this. It was affecting the emotional and physical health of our whole family. Joe and I had been barking at each other too easily...our nerves felt like frayed wires, pulsing with uncontrollable outbursts...

And again I am afraid to admit that things are going remarkably well.

The night before last Charlie slept.through.the.night. As in 8:00pm to 8:00 am. Are you seriously kidding me? Is this what it feels like to be a human being again? I won't say he didn't make a few peeps, but there was zero crying and he was able to fall back asleep within seconds of stirring.

And then it happened again last night!?!

Joe and I looked at each other this morning dumbfounded. Could this all be coincidence? Could it be Charlie is just eating enough during the day now to make it through. Could this be a cruel joke and we will fall back into the cycle of endless night waking and look back on these two nights as an island paradise, an Atlantis, that we can't navigate our way back to?? To be continued...