After months and months of David getting up twice a night, we've started the sleep train back up. Well, first we tried a chart. Hey, David if you sleep through the night you get a sticker and a present and our undying gratitude. The chart has stayed decidedly blank.

Tuesday I explained the new regime. You are going to fall asleep in the crib not my arms. If you wake in the middle of the night, there will be no snuggling, songs, stories, sleeping by the side of your bed, or retiring to mommy/daddy bed. You will sleep until at least 6:00 a.m.

I blamed it on an outside authority. The doctor told us to do this to help your body learn to sleep better. (Dr. Ferber that is). And I kept the carrot firmly in place—the sticker, the present, our undying gratitude.

Night one wasn't a worst case scenario. He cried for half an hour at bedtime. He woke at 12:30 and John got him back down with a couple pat pats and not getting him out of the crib. He woke at 5:00 and cried until 5:50 which I declared morning. (When I say he cried for an hour, I mean we are doing the Ferber technique of periodically going in and reassuring him and ourselves.)

The good news is once I let him get up, he was perfectly cheerful and lovely and didn't seem to hold it against me. We spent the morning snuggling on the couch and reading stories.

The bad news is Rose fell out of bed at 4:00 a.m. and I was so nervous about David that I couldn't get back to sleep.

Tonight has not started out well. He cried for almost 2 hours at bedtime.

Let's hope the train chugs smoothly along the rest of the night.