I often hear this question. "Does sleep training really work?"
It really does work! Some of you may seem skeptical of it but here are the truths behind it all. Sleep training isn't about getting your baby to sleep long hours and making it so they won't wake up at night. It's so that they can learn to put themselves back to sleep without disturbing your sleep and their own. We all have sleep cycles and will wake up in the night. That's just natural. The most common type of sleep training is eliminating sleep props. These are things that your baby depends on to go to sleep. Rocking, nursing, swings, car rides, etc. Once these sleep props are eliminated you will not have to sleep train again as long as you are careful not to go back to the old habits of getting your baby to sleep. It is SO important that you are careful about this. It only takes about two nights to get your baby back into those habits. And then yes you will have to go through the process all over again. We know how easy it is to make a habit ourselves and how hard it is to break one so we can surely understand that. Yes your baby will have bad nights, just like we adults can have a bad night. Think of how much a baby changes in their first 3 years! A full mouth of teeth, rolling over, sitting up, crawling, walking, running, talking, growth spurts and so on. If you have a baby you've seen the huge changes they go through. It's amazing really! This is why they have bad nights every now and then. For some reason it seems as though they always want to try things at night or when it's time to sleep. Their minds have a harder time shutting off because they are so eager to learn. You may have heard of the "wonder weeks". These are weeks that your baby goes through great psychological changes and a lot of times it effects their sleep. Here's the link to their website to read up more on them. They also have an app that you can track when your baby is going through a wonder week.
Here's the best part of sleep training: When they go through these developmental changes, milestones, teething, etc they are able to cope with them better because they aren't already overtired and they know how to put themselves to sleep. So even if they are having a rough night and are up a few times you don't have to get up with them always. The times that you do have to get up it's usually just a quick hug that they need and they will put themselves back to sleep. Some of the other things that can cause a baby to have a bad night that I am able to help you with are: -Nap Transitioning -Separation Anxiety -Transitioning to a Toddler bed -Short Naps -Lack of a bedtime routine -Poor sleep environment I will finish with saying "yes, sleep training does work." And once you have done it you will be amazed at the difference it makes! The feeling of a goodnights sleep and a happy, well rested baby.
HEAR IT FROM SOMEONE ELSE:
"We were so down and out. We felt stuck in the bad sleep habits we had created for our 20 month old son. Then we had a new baby and it really went downhill. I called Lorraine and she immediately made me feel like we had options and there was hope! She helped us every step of the way- day and night- and my son was sleeping independently and through the night in 2 weeks! Thank you Lorraine, you changed our lives!"
- Mary & John and Pauli (2 years old)
Sleep Easy!
