Ferber Update: Fake-out Edition

Ferber is still going pretty well. Ethan has discovered the fake-out, however, whether intentional or not. Both nights, as soon as I put him down in his crib, he gets into his sleeping position and lays his head down. He stays that way for a few seconds, raising my hopes that he'll just go to sleep immediately, then he lifts his head and grins at me! Adorable, but not what I was hoping for, son. The good news is that he's not crying when I leave the room. The bad news is that he then starts crying a few minutes later. Let's break it down by night:

On night four of Ferber, I put him down in his crib at 8:11 PM and didn't hear a peep from him except for sporadic babbles for the first ten minutes. Then at 8:21, the crying began. It was fairly constant and more crying than fussing. I went in to check on him once, and thankfully he put himself to sleep at 8:31. So only 10 minutes of crying, but 20 minutes total. Not what I was hoping for on night four. He did sleep through the night, though, except for a random cry around 5:30 AM and woke up around 6:30 AM, I believe.

On night five, I put him down in his crib at 8:09 PM. Again, he did his initial fake-out, and then I didn't hear anything at all from him for a few minutes so I thought maybe he'd actually gone to sleep after all. Then the crying began around 8:15. I went in to check on him after a few minutes and noticed that he had a wet spot near his diaper. Could this be why he was crying the night before, too? After debating whether or not I should change him, I decided to go ahead, and boy was he thrilled to be cuddling with his mommy again. He grinned and grinned at me, and this time, he started crying immediately when I put him in his crib. However, within a minute, he'd stopped and put himself to sleep at 8:28 PM. 19 minutes total, including several minutes of crying, but also including a diaper change. He didn't sleep quite as well, waking at 3:30 and going back to sleep and waking again at 5:30 and needing a diaper change before waking for good at 6:30, but that also could have been due to some strong thunderstorms.

I'm not sure where this leaves us as far as Ferber. According to the method, he should be done with crying by now. However, he's been crying later instead of at the beginning, perhaps in response to a wet diaper, so does that count? Also, how do we avoid having the diaper become an issue every night? We wait a long time after he eats to change him, already, so how much longer can we wait? I guess we'll just have to keep trying and see how it goes.