Sleeping doesn’t have to be a thing of the past when you’ve become a mother. Getting a full night’s sleep does not have to be just for those lucky mom’s who have those quiet and natural born sleepers. All moms deserve rest, and finding a solution to having uninterrupted sleep is essential to our mental, physical, and emotional well-being.
As a stay-at-home-mom of five children, who doesn’t have any hired help, support from family and who homeschools, it is absolutely essential for me to be able to get a full night’s sleep in order to conquer my to-do-list the following day.
With my first child, I co-slept with him until he was a toddler. Although I enjoyed the benefits of sleeping with my baby because of the close-bond, secure attachment, and easiness of the bedtime routine, I didn’t want to continue this routine with my future children as I felt the need to have more independence and privacy. By the grace of God, my second child was a natural born sleeper - she slept twelve hours straight since she was one week old. When I had my third child, things were different. She was anxious and a colicky newborn. She would cry for hours throughout the night even when my husband and I would hold her. It was a total nightmare. We literally did not sleep. My husband and I had to take turns walking up and down the corridor throughout the entire night. I remember we were thinking that it was just a normal part of the newborn phase that we were now finally experiencing.
It was only when a friend who recently had twins told my husband and I that he had found the golden key to solve our problem of sleepless nights. When he told us that he sleep-trained his newborn twins, I was reluctant as all I could think of was my poor baby crying alone in her crib until she calmed herself down. I thought it was completely cruel; something I was never going to do. Fortunately we were put at ease after our friend explained the method he learnt from a book written by an infant sleep consultant. We were thrilled to try it out because at that point we were utterly exhausted and desperate.
To our disbelief, everything worked out once we sleep-trained our newborn daughter. All it took was two weeks, alleluia !
The book is called “ Sleep And Your Baby”, written by Brigitte Langevin.
Here are some key points you will discover throughout the book:
Your baby will not be crying-it-out alone. During the sleep training process, one parent will always be present.
Although your baby will cry, the sleep training process involves contact with your baby.
The earlier you start sleep training your baby, the easier it will be for your child to adjust .
Your mom heart-strings will be pulled. Especially for newborns and newly postpartum moms. Ideally, mama relaxes while papa does the sleep training.
Consistency is essential! Without it, the ability to get your baby to sleep full night’s will be impossible.
Sleep training each night will take anywhere between 30 min-1.5 hrs. It will be hard on both parents emotionally and physically, but keep the end goal in mind- you can either tough it out for a week or two, or have your child wake up throughout the night until they are much older.
After sleep training our third child, my husband and I have continued to use Brigitte’s method with our fourth and fifth child when they were newborns. Despite their contrasted personalities, we have successfully sleep-trained them all. Today, my four daughters continue to go to bed at 7 pm and wake up at 7 am. My days are extremely busy with taking care of my large family full-time - educating, nurturing, cooking, cleaning, etc. If I could not check out at 7pm and spend time for myself, go on date-nights or just relax with my husband each night, I would lose my mind. I am so thankful for this book, and my husband and I recommend it to every new parent we meet.
Be consistent, be hopeful, you will sleep again just as every parent deserves.
“ Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” - Benjamin Franklin