You’re done. You’ve had enough. You keep thinking it’s going to get better, but it hasn’t. You’ve woken up more times in a night than you ever thought was possible. You are exhausted. You’ve said to yourself you need to do something about this. You need to get your sleep back.
You are not alone. There are many other parents in the same position as you are, and that’s why you are here. You know your baby can sleep longer than they are, you know they don’t need a feeding as much as they are waking, but how? How do you start? Where do you start? You know you need to start somewhere, or you might just NOT BE ABLE TO DO IT ANYMORE.
Sleep training. We recommend sleep training. Here at Dream Baby Sleep Consultant when you sign up for a sleep package, you receive a 20+ page personalized sleep assessment and a full week of support and encouragement. We are here for you, the entire time. But, what do you need to do first?
We believe there are some things you should do before you sleep train:
- Clear your calendar. Or, pick a week where you have NOTHING going on. You will want life to remain as usual as possible for your little one during the week of sleep training. Ideally, it would be great to take a couple of weeks to keep things regular but, we know that real life happens and we will help walk you through that as well. Consistency is one of the most critical parts of sleep training, and it will be harder to be consistent if you are always on the run. We also believe that naps are just as important as nighttime sleep, and in order to achieve these naps, it helps to be in a place where they are able to be taken successfully. The more your little one can practice falling asleep, the faster the entire picture will come together for him/her.
- Talk to your doctor, before you start, as we want to make sure your baby is physically able to sleep well and there aren’t any other underlying medical issues that are preventing this from happening. We can help with these but we suggest you check in with your doctor to make sure there are no allergies, sleep apnea or reflux. Once you know that there isn’t a medical issue, sleep train on!
- Develop patterns. As we said before, consistency is the primary KEY. If we can create positive sleep associations that occur before bedtime, we are making sleep something to look forward to. Patterns or bedtime routines, help with consistency and let your child know what’s coming next. An example of this could be; diaper change, baby massage, reading books, etc.
- Mentally Prepare. You might have heard that sleep training, “gets harder before it gets easier.” This is somewhat true. Although this usually only lasts for a couple of days but mentally prepare yourself. This may mean planning on starting on the weekend, getting an extra couple hour of sleep the day before, planning for a nap, etc.
Now that you have taken these small steps towards sleep training, we are so excited to empower you to succeed in all your sleep goals.
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