This is my new boyfriend…

Yes. That’s right. Dr. Richard Ferber, I love you.

Because you see, SLEEP is something that I haven’t had very much of in the past OH, EIGHT AND A HALF MONTHS. That is until a few nights ago when Mr. Sal and I decided to go all hardcore and picked up RICHARD’S book “Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems”. Shown below in ALL CAPS so that those that are SLEEP DEPRIVED can read the title.

This man is a genius. A gem. A MIRACLE WORKER. A mere four nights after starting his process of letting Josephine cry herself to sleep, we are in a routine of SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT. Yes, that’s right. We kicked it ROOT DOWN. Just when I was getting used to letting her RULE THE UNIVERSE.

But, as I think back over the past few nights, it wasn’t easy, and this man is made of pure stone. We had to put her in her bed, leave the room and listen to her cry. Sometimes the crying went on FOR HOURS. As we followed the book’s suggestions to go in every few minutes to try and comfort her, but NOT pick her up. Mentally this was excruciating, but it also hurt me physically — my neck, my back — to listen to her cry so hard. WHY ARE THEY DOING THIS TO ME?!?!? But then, it subsided. And each night as we persevered the crying grew shorter until at LONG-almost-nine-months-last, we put her in her bed and she didn’t cry. She just fell asleep.

And, of course, those wiser and more experienced told us to do this from the beginning — and believe me, we TRIED to let her cry. But then she had Croup. And then she snuggled up all cute and cozy on the couch, sleeping peacefully, which according to Dr. Ferber was only creating BAD HABITS — so, something needed to be done. Not to mention, there’s something so much more official about having a book tell you what to do… Having it actually work, however, is a little hard to believe.  So, thank you Dr. Ferber. Thank you for being real. Direct. And for helping us cross “Get Jo to sleep in her own bed” off of our 2012 list of accomplishments. Now that we are getting some sleep, we may just be able to tackle windsurfing.

In other news, the Steve Jobs doll is off the market. That’s right. OFF. And, no. I’m not going to stop leading you off to other places on the internet where I have voiced my opinion. Get over it.