Listening to baby's cries

This week our baby learned to turn from his back to his stomach when lying down.  We were concerned that we weren't giving him enough "tummy time," but now he's giving it to himself.  Most of our current problems stem from the fact that he can't flip himself back.  The bad thing is, he keeps doing it in the crib and at times when he should be sleeping.  Two nights ago I was up for more than an hour, constantly flipping him onto his back after he turned himself around.

He enjoys it on his stomach at first, but when he starts getting tired it's very alarming for him to be in that position.  He lets out some intense screams, but the sympathy we have for it is running low.  We don't want to discourage his development of this new skill, flipping over, but does he have to do it in the middle of the flipping' night?  This morning, for the first time, we're trying something that resembles the Ferber method.  I say resembles because I haven't actually done any formal research on the Ferber method and we're just making it up ourselves.

I think my wife's read about it, and I've certainly heard people describing it, but I don't know exactly what the Ferber method is.  I know if involves allowing a child to scream and cry and timing how long you wait until you comfort the child.  Each time you wait longer and longer to comfort the child; first you wait 5 minutes before rocking the baby to sleep.  Once they've calmed down, you tell the baby you love them and that it's time for bed and put them down.  If the baby starts crying again, you wait 10 minutes before going back.  You keep extending the amount of time between check-ins and eventually the babies should learn to soothe themselves back to sleep.

The Ferber method doesn't address how miserable it is to listen to the anguished cries of a baby over the monitor for ever increasing increments of time.  For one thing, it's the middle of the night and we want to sleep ourselves.  For another, it's painful to hear a baby crying and allow it to continue ON PURPOSE.  Last night he slept for about 3 hour blocks, but when it started to be around 5am and the sunlight began to penetrate the baby's room around the edges of the curtains he wanted to practice turning over rather than sleeping.  We gave him 5 minute increments and didn't make them longer each time.

The first 5 minute stretch I stood watching the clock while my wife lay in bed, also watching the clock. There was no sleeping to be had.  After 5 we rushed in, found him on his stomach, and I picked him up to cradle, rock, and comfort him.  We told him we loved him, that it was time to sleep, and put him down in the crib.  I make the ASL (American Sign Language) signs for "I love you," "please," and "bed," and we left the room again.  Before we were in our bedroom again he was screaming again having turned himself immediately onto his stomach.  This was the toughest 5 minutes; it seemed like his screams were even more intense than last time.  My wife held him this time, and we both comforted him again.  He was making more little sounds that usually mean he's going to sleep, but without one of us holding him he went right back to screaming.  The last 5 minute stretch was the last, after that we went to sleep.  He made a little noise in the first couple of minutes, but after that he was out again.  I was nervous at first that he had flipped over and was being smothered by the weight of his own head, but that's a fear that's always lingering in the back of your head, at least for the first 4 1/2 months.

We're breaking the 7am wake up time we had set for him a week ago, but I know my wife is very tired today and could use a little extra sleep.  I'm sure baby won't allow her to sleep much longer anyway, but every little bit counts.  I will eventually find out exactly what the Ferber method entails, but if this works we might stick with it.  It was painful enough to listen to 5 minutes of screaming, I don't want to have to do 10 minutes at a time.