Feeling Stuck or Hopeless About Your Baby’s Sleep?
Recently we did a sleep consult with parents of a 1-year-old who seemed to be in a downward sleep spiral. He’d been waking at 5:00am for weeks, only to start waking at midnight, and then finally refusing naps altogether unless someone was holding him. The parents were, understandably, so frustrated and exhausted. The mom said she felt as if it would never, ever, get better.
When you’re in the thick of it, all you see around you is more sleeplessness. Resources are depleted and nerves are frayed. It feels like, my baby must be an especially bad sleeper and this is just our life!
But here is the truly hopeful fact: we have never met a baby or child who did not have the ability to sleep well. Given the right plan, their bodies and brains jump at the chance to start sleeping longer and better. Little ones are primed to sleep a lot, because they have so much growing to do. Babies who are at least 5 months old and kids want to sleep through the night.
The bottom line is that sleep is not nearly as elusive and complicated as you might understandably think it is.
What if my toddler is still feeding in the night and just WILL NEVER go back to sleep without a bottle and WILL NOT eat more during the day. Or what if my baby INSISTS on being rocked to sleep no matter how many times I put her down drowsy but awake. And what about if my child just stands and yells at the door through the ENTIRE nap and will ONLY sleep if I lie down with her. We’ve tried EVERYTHING.
Believe it or not, even these challenging cases turn around quickly and parents constantly tell us they wish they had come to us earlier. “Trying everything” backfires because babies get confused, test more, feel activated and upset, and instead of improving, sleep regresses. The key to righting the ship is creating a consistent pattern of response over time. Following a thoughtful, logical, developmentally-based plan (the Sleep Wave) to a T. creates this consistency and unleashes the baby or child’s natural ability and drive to sleep.
It feels like a miracle. After a few days of following her new plan meticulously, the mom of the 1-year-old whose sleep had unraveled wrote to say her toddler had slept all the way until 6:30am. She couldn’t believe it.
But we could, because we see the seemingly-miraculous sleep turn-arounds all the time!
Want individualized help creating a sleep plan for your baby or child? You can book a sleep consultation directly with us:
Want to learn all the methods yourself, at your own pace? Take the online class for your baby’s age: