Sleep training is a scary term. It scared me, a lot! but when you look into your options, have a game plan, understand the “laws of it” it becomes less heavy on our shoulder. I chose gentle sleep parenting and along the way, learned that some things are so helpful to know! here it is:
- TIPS
Full Feedings, your baby needs to be optimally fed throughout the day to not wake up at night. Your baby needs a certain amount of Oz of milk or time on your breast to be fully fed at each feed. This way you know your baby is not waking up because they’re hungry.
The biggest challenge is having your baby eat a full feeding. When they are really little, they fall asleep very quickly and often the number one challenge moms have is their baby eating really quickly or not eating the amount of formula they should be throughout the day. Which causes a baby to wake up a lot more at night.
If your baby is young and not sleeping through the night, you can start a dream feed around 10-11pm. A dream feed is when you feed your baby while he’s asleep or as gently as possible. It’s an extra full feeding that will keep them sleeping longer and hopefully move back the middle in the night wake up and eventually remove it completely once your baby sleeps through the night. if you’re baby sleeps through the night already and you’re still doing a dream feed, you’ll have to move your dream feed 30 min earlier and so on until it disappears and becomes a full feeding throughout your day.
Patience and find all kinds of ways to soothe your baby and not feed them, considering you know they’re not hungry; which is why you make sure to give them full feedings. It’s so easy and tempting to just give them a bottle or your breast so they can knockout asleep again. if you know your baby is at a healthy weight, age and wakes up to eats because they want to be soothed, you will have to find new ways to teach him how to soothe themselves.
Communication with your partner of your expectations, tools & tactics.Finding balance between standing your ground & being understanding of your baby’s emotions. It’s ok for them to express themselves. You’re right there to guide them.
It’s ok for them to
express themselves.
You’re right there to guide them.
You do not have to hear them cry it out, it is not your only choice. I’m a believer that CIO leaves certain issues as far as abandonment & attachment. Sorry, that’s just me, we all have our opinions! Having your baby cry for 5 minutes is ok! having your baby cry while you’re trying to soothe them and communicate a new skill is ok too…they are going to voice themselves! There’s a huge difference between leaving the room for three hours…and 5 minutes.
Do it with positivity. Your baby is a sponge and can sense all of your emotions, not only are they learning their own emotions and don’t have the words for them (imagine how frustrating that could be) but they also feel if you’re frustrated! if you are not in the right mindset, people are over your house, your dinner is burning or you’re just plain exhausted and going to lose your mind if you have to rock them another minute, don’t do it. You’ll get back to it ad find the right time. Feed them or do what you know works or ask your partner to switch. Sometimes it’s not your baby who doesn’t want to sleep that is the problem; you’re the problem! – this has happened so many times where I’m about to lose it and kyle would take over and Oliver would shamelessly fall asleep in a couple minutes…
Believing that your baby can do it! this one is huge! until your baby didn’t sleep through the night, it’s really hard to also not believe that perhaps unicorns are real. Having the confidence your baby can do it, is not hungry and just needs to have you teach them how to soothe, is your biggest tool to make this successful.
Do it because it feels right & that you’re ready and baby is ready. Your baby will have to be at a healthy weight which your pediatrician can let you know. A 7 weeks old baby could potentially sleep through the night, as long as they can physically take full feedings.
- ROUTINE
Routine and keeping your baby on a “schedule” from the day they are born is SUPER important. Just think of it as a HAPPY BABY routine, It will also change BUT what you need to keep track of is OPTIMAL wake time, FEEDING TIME and NAPTIME.
Keeping track of your optimal wake time by their age means that you’ll be able to know when you should put them down for a nap. When you catch them, you’ll be able to soothe them to sleep without or much less of a fight. YOU DON’T WANT AN OVERTIRED BABY.
Keeping track of your feeding time means, feeding them as soon as 5 mins after they woke up and referring the the picture above to know how much your baby should eat during the day.
Keeping time of your nap time, means knowing how many times your baby should sleep throughout the day and for how long. Naps that are too long will disrupt the sleep at nighttime and same as naps that are too short.
- NOT ALL SIZES FITS ALL
Implementing new habits by slowly changing old habits is a gentle way to tell your baby that things are changing around here. Within a couple days or weeks, they will stop waking up as long as you soothe them in every other way than a feed when you know they’re fully fed from the day. Once you’ve taught them how to soothe themselves which can be done in their crib or co-sleeping like I did with Oliver.
all moms have different situations, some moms start sleep training very young while others on the later side, which is my case and also because I didn’t have the education about sleep that I have today.
Sleeping through the night is a fully fed baby & a baby that is taught good habits. It doesn’t mean that you feeding them at night is a bad habit but in the long run, it will not work for you anymore. If you were fed every night, at the same time. you’d wake up too! yummy!
You are more then welcome to message me if you have any questions!
xo
