Wednesday, February 09, 2011

She knows my name.

I think Lillian just said my name. It was totally heartbreaking. We are trying to use Dr. Ferber's method of progressive waiting to help her learn to fall asleep on her own. Basically it's a way to let them fall asleep in the same exact environment they will be spending the whole night in so that if they wake up a little, they won't be confused by their surroundings, and so won't be roused into full wakefulness by that confusion, and so will sleep through the night. But it does involve some letting your child cry, if that's what she chooses to do for a certain period of time. Long enough that the child learns that you aren't going to come rescue her from bedtime, but not so long that the child is scared, because you suddenly disappeared, and you're generally so attentive. Angry or sad, perhaps, but not scared. Anyway, we were waiting the allotted time period (changes each time, that's what makes it progressive)and we hear waaaAAAHHHH!! WAAAAAHHHH! MAA MAAAAA!!!! WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!

It figures, doesn't it? The first time I hear her call me by my name, it's because I'm disappointing her. She wants her Mama, and her Mama won't come. By the way, if she really did mean me, that was totally her first word.

1 Comments:

At 5:04 PM, Blogger Of One Heart said...

This post is heart-breaking. I sometimes need my Mum to put me to sleep even when I'm older now- Mothers are just so comforting!

 

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