Deciding If Sleep Training Is Right For Your Family

Once you’re immersed into the world of parenting, you’ll notice just how many opinions are out there about everything. And, how many people will share their unwanted opinions with you! Vaccines, circumcision, c-section, bottle-feeding, extended breastfeeding, co-sleeping, sleep training, the list goes on…

The weird thing is, maybe you even had opinions about some of those topics before even having your own kids. I know I sure did. What I didn’t really realize before having children of my own, was that parents didn’t always make decisions because they “wanted to.” They made decisions out of love for their child.

Sleep training is unfortunately one of those controversial topics amongst parents online. There are parents out there stating it is “torture” and “how could anyone do that to a baby.” But then there are medical professionals who are the ones actually conducting sleep training research, saying that sleep training is safe, effective, and healthy. Still, it’s hard to know what to do with your own baby.

I am the oldest of 5 children, and growing up, I recognized the nightly struggles my mom had trying to get my younger siblings to sleep. I specifically remember her sleeping in my 4-year old sister’s single bed with her, while 9 months pregnant. My mom was overdue with my youngest sibling, and still managed to sleep in a tiny bed all night long with that sister. When my youngest sister was born, a new sleep struggle blossomed.

I always knew that I wanted kids, and I sort of thought that this nighttime struggle of putting kids to bed was normal. That was until I babysat for a family who changed my outlook on child sleep forever. This specific family had 3 young kids and every time I babysat for them, it was around bedtime. Their mom walked me through a bedtime routine (this was new verbiage for me at the time) and told me when the routine was done, I just simply tucked each child into their own bed, turned out the lights, and went downstairs. Truthfully, I didn’t even think much about it until I finished & went downstairs, and all I heard was silence…

I had a baby monitor for each child, and I could see that they’d have their eyes open for a few minutes and they’d roll around their beds, and then eventually close their eyes and just fall asleep. Not a single peep was heard from upstairs. The amazing part was, this wasn’t just a one-off either. Every single time I put these kids to bed, it was easy. There wasn’t any bedtime stalling, no one came out of their bed after being tucked in, and it gave me a chance to tidy up the books and toys we had played with together earlier.

One night after babysitting, I finally asked their mom about bedtime…how did they just go to sleep so easily? She said she was a sleep consultant and taught families how to get their children to sleep through the night. This left such an impact on me.

When I got married and eventually had my own children, sleep training was always in the back of my mind. I didn’t really know how to sleep train, but I knew I would do it. For me, seeing the nightly struggles my own mom went through trying to get my younger siblings to sleep was not preferable to me over sleep training.

Deciding whether or not sleep training is the right decision for your family is personal. It’s also a decision that shouldn’t be made out of fear or pressure from others. My very best friend decided not to sleep train her children since she really loved to co-sleep with her babies. Making an informed decision for your little family is the best thing you can do.

While deciding that sleep training was the path I was going to take, there were a few factors that helped me make my decision:

• Quick, efficient bedtime

• Overnight predictability

• My children were comfortable sleeping in their own sleep space

• I could have a babysitter or family put my children to bed with no hiccups

• Sleep became consistent for them and for me

• Sleep skills that last

I knew that sleep was a priority for me from the beginning, so I took the appropriate steps to ensure that my children all became great sleepers from an early age. Out of my 3 kids, only one of them was a natural sleeper…my other 2 needed some help through sleep training to learn their self-soothing skills.

If sleep feels hard right now and it’s also something you want to prioritize in your home, I’d love to help you. I virtually work 1-on-1 with clients and I also have an affordable sleep course to help your 6-18 month old to sleep through the night.

Let’s chat about some solutions to help you.