Last night we started "teaching" Zeke how to fall asleep on his own, in his crib, without being rocked to sleep with a bottle or pacifier in his mouth and then transferred to the crib after he had fallen asleep. The training involves putting him in his crib when he's drowsy but still awake, so that he learns to associate being in the crib with falling asleep by himself. Otherwise, he falls asleep all cozy in my arms, but then wakes up in the crib, having no memory of being moved. So suddenly, instead of rocking in his mommy's arms, he's alone, in a different place, with no rocking and no mommy, and he doesn't know what to do. This way, he learns to fall asleep in the crib, and when he wakes up during the night, he looks around, sees that nothing has changed, and goes back to sleep without incident.
The first night was, to say the least, a bit rough. We went in to check on him at increasing intervals -- first after 3 minutes, then after 5 minutes, then after 7 minutes, and then after 10 minutes. He cried as if he were being tortured. At one point, Jason went in to pat his belly and see that he was OK (i.e., extremely pissed off, but otherwise fine), and Zeke grabbed Jason's finger in a death grip and held it to his chest as if it were a lifeline. So pitiful. We felt evil and were sure that our child would regard us coldly and with disdain from that point on. After 25 minutes, right before the end of the first 10 minute interval, he stopped crying and went to sleep, and slept well after that, only waking up once during the night to eat. When I went in this morning to get him up for the day, he was awake and gurgling to himself, and when he saw me, he gave me a big grin. Obviously, this kid doesn't hold grudges.
Tonight was remarkable. I gave him his pre-bed bottle and rocked him a little bit, and as soon as his eyes started to droop I kissed him goodnight and put him in his crib. He looked a little confused, and a few minutes later started whimpering, but it was a lackluster whimper, as if he felt like he needed to put up a little bit of a fight even though he didn't really want to. Jason and I went in and checked on him after 5 minutes, and he was crying, but without much enthusiasm. Three minutes later he was asleep. Is this kid awesome or what?