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Midnight Nursings
Our Journey Toward Sleeping Through the Night By Jenn Director Knudsen
So my husband and I are trying to wean her from the middle-of-the night feedings. The Ferber method of comforting Alyssa at prescribed intervals failed; each time David went into her room to pat her on the head or belly, she only escalated her crying, whipping herself into a nearly hyperventilating frenzy.
And letting her "cry it out" meant we lay awake in bed, feeling guilty as sin, while Alyssa reminded us of her presence, sometimes for two hours at a time, ceasing to wail only to inhale.
After nearly two weeks of gritting our teeth each night while listening to the baby unsuccessfully cry it out, I finally called our doctor. He looked in her ears, checked her lungs and swiped a finger along her gums to check for incoming teeth.
"She's perfectly healthy," he said. "Time for *rice cereal."
We trust our pediatrician implicitly, but I wasn't prepared to offer Alyssa solids until her 6-month birthday; I thought I could provide her with all the nutrients she needed until that date. I suppose I took it a little personally when he suggested that "real" food an outside source of sustenance might provide our daughter's tummy with a little something extra to gnaw on to help her and her parents get more sleep.
I bought the box of iron-fortified rice cereal, boiled her navy blue plastic bowl and blue-and-lime striped spoon for the requisite 10 minutes and made sure I had enough refrigerated breastmilk with which to dilute Alyssa's first foray into carbohydrates.
