Thank you, Dr. Weissbluth!

Maybe crediting this doctor for our extreme good fortune last night is a bit much, but whether it was a fluke or not, I'm extremely grateful!


After Monday night's post, things did NOT improve. Doug was able to get Garrett to bed, but he woke up at about 1:30am crying. Doug went in there and tried to put him back to sleep. As soon as he left the room, Garrett started crying again. Doug went in again. At this point (since Doug was STILL trying to study) I tried to intervene. I took Garrett, put him to bed and left the room. He cried again, but this time I was waiting outside his door. I tried to wait it out by letting let him cry, but he started coughing and just about threw up. So I poked my head in and told him it was time for night-night, to lay down and go to sleep. He did go back to his bed, but continued to cry for the next 15-20 minutes. I was content to let him cry it out since it was already 2 am.

During this time, since I was wide awake, I searched for my 2nd bible, a book by Dr. Marc Weissbluth called Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child. I used this quite frequently when we decided to start sleep training with Garrett so that we weren't rocking him for hours at a time to get him to sleep. Well, I searched for the section about kids being able to get out of bed, and doing so frequently at bedtime. It's called Jack-in-the-box Syndrome. Appropriately named, don't you think? Dr Weissbluth recommends using the Silent Return method to nip this behavior in the bud.

You do your normal bedtime routine, talking, cuddling, reading, rocking, singing, etc. After the door is closed, you basically start the silent treatment.

"Silence when you take your baby back to bed is important, because if you are sweet or stern while trying to explain why everyone needs sleep, the verbal attention will reinforce your child's desire to get out of bed to get more attention. Attending to a problem will cause the problem to occur more often. Many parents do not understand that negative attention- yelling or getting angry- is still attention, and it will encourage your child to continue the behavior."

"Every time you determine that he is out of his crib or bed, or discover him in your bed, gently place him back in his bed. Maintain silence. Plan not to sleep the first night, as he may try many, many times to get back to his old style. Parents may want to alternate nights so that at least someone gets some sleep. Do not take turns on the same night, because the child might think one parent would behave differently. Children learn quickly that there's no benefit in getting out of bed, so they stay in bed and sleep through the night."


"Expect this plan to dramatically reduce or eliminate the getting-out-of-bed routine within a few days, usually three or four."

Doug and I talked about trying this, and decided that at this point we're willing to try anything since what we're doing is not working. So last night, I put Garrett to bed after reading a book together. I told him it was bedtime and that he's to stay in his bed. Once I left the room, I started putting the gate up over his door, and he was already up and opening the door. After securing the gate, I didn't look at him or talk to him, just walked him back to bed, gave him his pipe and bear, put the covers on him and left. About 5 minutes later, the door was open again. I did the same thing. After leaving, I was paranoid that he would get too sneaky and would be standing in the dining room and we wouldn't know it. I got up several times to check, but nothing. I only had to put him back twice!

He woke up at about 12:30 crying, so I went in there, laid him down, gave him his pipe and bear, covered him up, and left. No crying when I left! About an hour later, he woke again, crying, but was able to put himself back to sleep without me getting up. He got up at 6am, which has been occurring since he could climb out of the crib on his own. But we want him to go back to sleep. So at 6 am, I got up, walked him back to his bed (silently), repeated the process, and left. He slept another hour and a half!!!

Needless to say, I'm extremely happy about how last night went. Doug and I went from 5 hours of sleep the night before, to 8 &1/2 hours last night. And Garrett didn't cry once through the whole process. Although, I have nagging feeling that it may not be just the Silent Return method that is to thank, and that tonight is going to be awful! Either way, Mommy is happy now and has a whole day off of work to enjoy it.