Mama Eats Crow

Okay, time to come clean on this one straightaway. For months, I (Ash) had been balking at going back to the Gitmo, fascist sleep training we've blogged about in the past. I truly thought letting him "cry it out" would traumatize him for life, setting him up for years of SSRIs and self-help books. But as Gabe alluded to before, things had deteriorated to the point where we had no choice but to do SOMETHING. Ezra was waking up every two hours (or less) - and could only fall back asleep after nursing. And could only fall asleep on the futon (a dangerous setup, requiring us to try to transfer him to the crib multiple times a night after he fell into a deeper sleep). Such was the hell we were living!

Well, we're still scared to come out and say we've had a breakthrough ... but shhhhh ... I think we've had a breakthrough. Four nights into "cry it out" sleep training, Ezra hardly even whimpers. He rolls over, hugs his stuffed animal and conks out for a good 6-7 hours, waking up once for a quick nursing and then sleeping another 5 hours or so. We're hopeful we'll be able to even eliminate that last feeding in the near future. Thank you, Dr. Ferber! 

In other news, the weather in Chicago is now approximating springtime. Yippee! We had a wonderful day in the park with our friends Liliana, Leigh and Chris. 

Liliana tried to show Ezra what's what when it comes to eating food. He was too busy playing with bags and containers and bits of grass and dirt to pay much attention. 

For those of you who don't know that Ezra was born out of wedlock... well, the truth is out now. But Gabe and I are going to rectify things in a couple of weeks. We're going to Santa Fe to get hitched - and we're really excited. Lots of friends and family are traveling from far and wide - in spite of the recession and swine flu and God knows what else. We feel blessed and lucky. 

Love,

Ash, Gabe and Ez