You Can Be A Baby Sleep Expert, Too

Thirteen months ago, my son was born. He was born handsome, sweet, and intelligent. He was born charming, loving and affectionate. He was born happy, talkative and funny.

He was not born a sleep expert.

 Edwin, 3 months old

When Edwin reached the point when he could reasonably be expected to sleep for more than two hours at a time, but had completely missed the memo, I realized we had a problem on our hands. My husband and I are both teachers, but we’d never taught Sleeping 101. It was a lesson that was vital to the health and well-being of our entire family, but the teachers were untrained, and the student was a crying, helpless lump.

There was only one thing for a Hermione Grainger-esque girl like me to do: research. I read four books on infant sleep and three on parenting approaches with an emphasis on sleep. I read mommy blogs. I found websites. I asked family and friends for help.

And then I started sleep training.

At first, it was a lot of trial and error. I would diagnose a problem and implement a reasonable solution, only to find it wasn’t the problem in the first place. But I was determined. My son needed sleep, and so did I, dammit. Slowly, over a period of months, I found the answers. I made schedules, I created routines. I learned what my son needed and I gave it to him.

He was once a disorganized napper, a two-hours-at-a-time (or less) night sleeper, a stubborn baby staring at his frustrated mother as she rocked him for hours on end, desperate to get him to close his eyes. Now he goes to sleep at the same time every night with no fuss. He sleeps for ten plus hours with almost no night-wakings. If he does wake, he’s back to sleep within minutes. Illness and teething do not derail him. He takes two naps at the same times every day, for more than an hour each time.

I take credit for every one of these victories. In fact, after writing a recent article about my and other parents’ experiences with infant sleep problems, I now feel like something of a sleep expert.

In tomorrow’s post, I’m publishing a list of sleep issues I diagnosed and solved over the past year. I will present the problems that Edwin had and the process I went through to solve them. I will hypothesize the reasons why babies have certain sleep issues (such as wakefulness or inability to sleep without a parent) and present ideas for fixing these issues. I will give you the benefit of all my research, from books, other parents and personal experiences, over the past year.

If you are:

A. Pregnant

B. A parent of a young child

C. Friends or family of either of the above

Then stay tuned for tomorrow’s post, and be prepared to forward it to all the parents you know who are (or may soon become) parents of a child who needs Sleeping, 101.

I want to give hope to all the parents out there desperate for sleep. If I can find a way, so can you.