Getting baby to sleep can be a tricky task for parents. Each week we feature a mama & baby who have faced the baby sleep training frontline and are finally thriving with more sleep and less stress! Lindsay Shaw, mother to Evie, sleep trained with me when baby was 11 months old. Here is their story…..

mother and child

Photo courtesy Lindsay Shaw

I finally decided to bite the bullet and sleep train because….

My daughter was nursing 5+ times a night, and we were bed-sharing which had me on edge all night and literally on the edge of my bed. Naps only occurred literally on me (we called them nip-naps). Worse than all this was that she wouldn’t/couldn’t sleep at daycare, so I was constantly picking up an infant who was awake for 7 hours and I knew this wasn’t any good to her.

My biggest worry about sleep training was….

How could she go from ALL the sleep crutches to none? Wouldn’t I be confusing her? Surely my daughter was a very special and difficult case! (nope).

Before sleep training my baby slept….

In her crib from 7-10 after nursing to sleep, and then in bed with me from 10-6ish with multiple nursing sessions.

After sleep training my baby sleeps….

7pm-7am in her crib and still does (she’s 3. Yes in a crib.)

My Baby Needs More Sleep!

The sleep training process itself was….

Easy Peasy Lemon Squeazy. She took to it in about two-three days and had marked changes the first night after not nursing her back to sleep at 10.

Did your attachment with your baby change in a positive or a negative way after sleep training?

Positive. I could spend more time doing things with her in the day because I didn’t have to lie with her for naps. She and I both got more sleep, which makes anyone more delightful to be around.

Do you feel like sleep training was a healthy choice for baby, you, and your family?

Yes

How would you respond to hearing, “Sleep training is selfish”?

Babies need sleep. Kids need sleep. Adults need sleep. There are so many data-based research findings that show the positive effects of sleep on babies, and not sleep training my baby would have been careless in my opinion and situation.

How many nights did it take for baby’s nighttime sleep to improve and how many nights did it take for baby’s naps to improve?

1 night showed improvements and she was totally trained in three days. Naps were also faster than I expected, maybe 4-5 days.

Would you recommend BST to a friend and if so, who and why?

There are a lot of sleep training methods, so many that I was second guessing when and how to begin. And I knew that if I didn’t go all in, what was the point of beginning and letting my baby cry just to quit and confuse her? And everyone has an opinion (pat back? Stay in room? Extinction?) I needed ONE method and I needed to know I had an Expert I could talk to when I had a question that pertained to my situation. I recommend BST to my Mommy and Me group.

My Baby Needs More Sleep!