Sleep Philosophy
Your baby’s sleep habits are not a reflection of your parenting skills. Let’s just get that out of the way.
If your baby doesn’t sleep well, you can join the list of millions of other parents who struggle with sleep too.
Parenting is hard enough as it is, so let’s not add unnecessary guilt on top of everything else we’re dealing with. Baby sleep is incredibly complicated, and just when you feel like you’ve figured it out, it changes!
Babies don’t hate sleep. I’ve heard many parents say this; they have a “bad sleeper”. Only 25 % of sleep variation in nighttime sleep patterns is accounted for by genetics. The remaining 75 % all comes from nurture. So basically, your child learns certain sleep habits and expectations from you!
Children can quickly learn sleep techniques that allow them to get a full night’s rest from a very early age. I walk parents through these methods as they teach their children how to develop those sleep skills.
Remember, if you choose not to teach your child independent sleep skills, that is perfectly okay too. You get to decide what’s right for your family.
THE CRYING ISSUE – When parents hear “sleep training”, their mind immediately jumps to the “cry it out” method, where babies are left alone in the dark for hours to cry themselves to sleep. This is not the method I use. Please know that I would never ask a parent to leave their child alone to cry for extended periods of time or ignore their cries. I use methods that are just as effective at teaching children independent sleep skills while allowing the parent to offer more comfort during the process.
Your baby will still protest this process. That is almost a guarantee. But then again, we would ALL protest if someone drastically altered our bedtime routines. But I have great news: the protesting is short-lived. Babies and children are amazingly adaptable, and they learn independent sleep skills very quickly. The whole process will be worth it when you have a child who is sleeping happily through the night on their own.