Sleep training causes a lot of controversy among moms. Some think doing it is great, and others feel that co-sleeping is the best way to go. I’ve heard great arguments for both why you should and why you shouldn’t sleep train. A good case can be made either way for sleep training. However, after doing my research, I decided to sleep train my kids the day I brought them home from the hospital.
For me, It was the best decision I could make. I’m not a person that functions well on a little bit of sleep. Also, I work from home. Because of this, I couldn’t have kids that needed to be held to sleep since I use their nap times to work. Finally, for me to be a happy mom, I need to be rested. For these reasons, I chose to not delay sleep training.
What Sleep Training Isn’t.
(Before I get tons of mean comments and hate mail)
- Letting my baby cry for hours on end.
- Letting my kids go hungry.
- Ignoring Genuine Needs My Kids Had (clean diaper, food, teething)
What Sleep Training Was Like For Me
- My kids slept in their own room starting the day they came home from the hospital
- I tried the best I could to put them to bed awake (sometimes hard as a newborn)
- I used white noise to set the stage for sleep
- I relied on swaddles and sleep sacks to set the stage for good sleep (my one-year-old yawns and rubs her eyes when she sees her sleep sack)
- I changed diapers when they were dirty
- I fed when the child was hungry
- My kids slept most naps at home not in arms or in a car seat, swing, or bouncer.
Why did I do this?
The first and most important reason is that I think it’s not fair to kids to start things one way and then several months or a year later change the expectations on them. For example, if you train your newborn that sleep happens in moms arms but at 8 months you start putting them down to sleep in a bed you’re going to have a mad baby. I think that you should be consistent with whatever sleep method you choose from day one.
In my experience, I’ve found it helpful to create good sleep habits from birth. That way the kids go down easier when they get older and most days I have plenty of time to work. That’s why I fight for my kid’s sleep.
I do believe that however you sleep train is up to you and what works for your family. If you have one child or love to hold a baby, co-sleeping or holding baby to sleep may work great for you. I can certainly understand wanting to get in lots of baby snuggles. You’ve got to do what works great for you and what you’re comfortable with. And in my experience sleep training early worked great for my kids.
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