6 Things You Need to Know About Sleep Training

What you need to know about sleep training your baby.

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There are many different methods on how to help your baby develop healthy sleep patterns. I believe that establishing a routine with Jase was the key to success in helping him sleep through the night. I shared with you the routine that we put in place with Jase from the very beginning, and now I want to take the time to share with you how we handled sleep training.

The first few weeks Jase was home I felt it was very important to establish a trust between us. Babies communicate through crying, it is the only way they know how to express their feelings and I felt like responding to his cries was very important. I rocked him to sleep for his naps and before bed, sometimes I laid him down, sometimes I just held him. I wanted to savor those moments as a newborn, adjusting to motherhood, and build that bond of trust between us. I knew that eventually I would want him to know how to fall asleep on his own so that I was able to be productive during the time he was sleeping. I did not want to wait too long before starting the process of sleep training; I knew that the earlier we started the smoother the process would go. After a few weeks I knew that I had adjusted to motherhood and felt that Jase was ready to begin the sleep training process.

When Jase was about a month old, I decided I was going to start teaching Jase how to fall asleep on his own. I started this process with his daily naps. I could not handle in my mama’s heart to let him cry it out. I tried once and after ten minutes of him crying it ended with me in me in tears rocking him to sleep. I decided, for myself, I needed to try something different.

I started by rocking Jase just until he was drowsy, and then I would move him to his crib and lay him down. I made sure that every time I laid him down he was relaxed and sleepy, but STILL awake. I did this at every nap and at the end of the day. This helped him transition to learning to fall asleep without depending on me rocking him.

If there was ever a time he cried, I would let him cry in intervals of three, five, and seven minutes. If he began crying, I would go in after three minutes, give him his pacifier, pat him on his back, assure him I was there, and then quietly slip out. I would not pick him up. I wanted to assure him he was okay just where he was. Most of the time, I only had to go back in once or twice.

I would also like to point out that you are your baby’s mom, and you know what your baby needs more than anyone else. This was the system that I wanted to use to sleep train my son, but I wasn’t afraid to detour off of it when it was needed. I knew Jase’s cries, and I knew when he was not feeling well, had a gas bubble, or something else that would require me to go back in sooner and pick him up. Sometimes it was just a simple gas bubble, and I was able to burp and lay him right back down. Other times, he would wake up in a panic and if I couldn’t get him to calm down, I didn’t mind holding him for the remainder of that nap. I think it is important to be flexible in sleep training; it makes it easier on mama and baby.

After I noticed him doing very well with that pattern, I began laying him down directly in his crib and allowing him to put himself to sleep. Because of the schedule he was on from the beginning, I was able to watch the pattern he chose for sleeping. I was able to see about how long he could be awake before needing to go to sleep again, and could lay him down at that time enabling him to fall asleep without much crying. Instead of me trying to put him to sleep at a time he may not necessarily have been tired, I paid attention to his cues from day one to know when he was ready.

I chose to take baby steps in sleep training him to help him naturally fall into the pattern of putting himself to sleep. I also wanted to start early enough before he was able to sit or stand making it harder to help him learn to sleep.

I want to also share a few things that helped us in encouraging Jase to sleep well in his crib:

Swaddle

My Halo SleepSack and Swaddle Me blankets are my best friends. Jase would not sleep well without them, he still doesn’t. As a newborn he wanted his hands swaddled right under his chin, then he graduated to wanting them completely swaddled, and now he breaks them out while sleeping. Whatever he prefers, it has really helped us.

Bedtime Routine

Having something that signaled bedtime to Jase made a huge difference. You could tell that he would start to relax every time we started the routine. Usually he would pass out shortly after.

Dark Room

Jase does not sleep well if the room isn’t extremely dark. I have blinds and blackout curtains on his windows. The blackout curtains did not even make his room dark enough, so we doubled them. We have dark colored ones that don’t necessarily match the color of his room under the cuter ones that match the nursery colors.

Pacifier

I didn’t mind Jase using his pacifier. He has wanted one from the first night in the hospital, so I didn’t mind him using that. The first few weeks at home he would wake every fifteen minutes because it had fallen out of his mouth. So for a couple weeks we would remove it from his mouth before he fell into a deep sleep so he didn’t wake when coming back into a lighter sleep. That helped him not to need it between sleep cycles.

Sound Machine

The constant noise helps babies go between sleep cycles and lull them back to sleep. It’s also great for blocking out other sounds that could startle them.

Flexibility and mama instincts

As I said before, I think this is the two most important things in sleep training. Your willingness to be flexible with discovering what works best for you and your baby helps make it a stress free experience. Don’t be afraid to follow your mama instincts, which are why you have them!

Our sleep training process went fairly smoothly. I definitely believe starting while Jase was young was extremely helpful. I also want to point out, the sleep training started in his pack-and-play in our bedroom. I did not want to move him to another room until he was sleeping through the night. When he started sleeping through the night we were in the process of moving, so Jase made the transfer to his own room in his crib around four months old. I started the process with naps and worked our way to night time. The process went just as smooth. We have definitely been blessed with a little guy who adjusts early, but I also believe routine was a huge key in it all.

You can find the rest of the post in the Baby’s First Year series here.