Routine and Sleep Training Work for Us

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Something that has been on my mind, well, more on my face lately, is the phrase “sleep training.”

I know this is SO taboo to so many people. And I think many people have done this throughout the years, but with social media being such a large part of our lives, sleep training has really been in all of our faces. And that comes with loads of controversy.

With motherhood I have learned that what works for one baby and family may not work for another. This is great, and with that, no-one needs to condemn another one’s choices in how they want to raise their kids. I really wish it could end there, but we all know it doesn’t.

I wanted to share MY OPINION, yes mine alone and not the opinion of the blog but I wanted to share why this worked for our family.

I have always been a  planner. I need to know what we are doing weeks in advance. I can even tell you what we are eating for dinner next Thursday. So a scheduled day really stuck out to me as something that would work when we decided to start a family.

Like any other human we also all need our sleep. Of course a full nights sleep was important to me, but that wasn’t my driving force behind sleep training.” My driving force, behind a routine and schedule, was my sanity. I could know when to work out, clean, enjoy some quiet time, work from home and when we could go to lunch or out with friends. I NEEDED that.

So many people have an idea in their head that when they hear the phrase “sleep training” it  automatically means crying it out. Yes, of course babies are going to cry, but I would have to say that no mother in their right mind is just going to leave their baby there screaming and screaming for an unlimited amount of time. That is definitely not okay with me and not what we did.

It really gets under my skin when I say that I choose to sleep train and automatically people think that my daughter just had to cry herself to sleep every day and night, that is just simply not the case.

My version of sleep training is an eat, wake, sleep routine on a set schedule, that starts at the same time everyday.  So, in the beginning it is usually around every 3 hours through the day and night. YES you wake a sleeping baby {insert gasp here.} Feeding consistently and focusing on full feeds {upwards of an hour if breastfeeding} sets a baby’s metabolic rhythm and ensures enough caloric intake. If the baby is clearly hungry, sick, or going through a growth spurt, I would throw the schedule out the window and  do whatever the baby needs, but besides that, we were pretty strict.

Sleep training also helps me know when baby eats so we can easily tell people when we could be somewhere or when they could come over. I loved having that freedom and not playing a guessing game everyday with our plans.

As the baby gets older the schedule shifts to longer periods between feeds with more wake time. At the same time, feeds start to merge and naps drop. Around 4 weeks old our girl merged her two middle of the night feedings into one. She dropped that around 9 weeks old, on her own. We did not force this whatsoever. Then, she was getting 8 hours of straight sleep at night. Around 12 weeks she was sleeping 12 hours at night as I pulled back that 10pm feeding.

In the beginning I always gave us Sundays as a “free” day. If naps were funky that was okay. I was not going to stress about it so we could enjoy church and go to the beach in the afternoon, which I also need for sanity. I need to feel like a normal adult. Being as consistent as possible allows for flexibility that everyone in the family needs.

That is my summed up version of our walk through sleep training. My kid is so happy and still sleeps great! But I also recognize, again, that this is not for everyone, and I have definitely learned that, “you do you” is the best motto in parenting.

What about you? Have you used sleep training?

1 COMMENT

  1. Love this! I’ve used sleep training with all my kiddos and by 8 weeks they were all sleeping through the night with the occasional ‘bumps’ in the routine due to growth spurts or teething, it my babies have all been great sleepers (thank God, cause momma needs her sleep)! I did not like the ‘cry it out’ method. It made me more anxious and nervous, so I did the rocking method, then advanced to the ‘stay by their bedside’ thing, then moved away towards the door a little more each day until I just laid them in bed and closed the door. Every family is different and there should be no condemnation on which way a family does this.

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