Sleep Training – Part 2

So, how do you get the baby to sleep through the night? Cover your baby and his sleep habits/patterns with prayer!

Let me just say upfront – all things being equal, some babies are better sleepers than others. And so, some babies learn to go to sleep on their own and through the night easily while others will fight tooth and nail with you. But all can be trained. It depends on how consistent you are.

Please note that this is only to be attempted after you have read the books I recommended (see Sleep Training – Part 1) because I do not have the time nor space to write in details about the hows and whys. You need to know and understand the principles behind the “method”.

Do not attempt this without fully understanding the entire premise. Why? You could be setting yourself and the baby for failure and causing unnecessary distress and confusion (when you start-stop) to the baby. Also, while you can sleep train your baby anytime you are comfortable with, please only sleep train for the night time after the baby is 6months old.

Even as I want my baby to sleep through the night as early as possible , personally, if my baby is waking once or even twice a night to nurse, I usually let it pass till they have started some solids. It is when they are waking every hour or 2 that I will put my foot down.

You do have to watch that they are nursing well and enough during the day to do this. A baby that is very distracted and nursing 4 times a day may really need those night feedings. Making sure that baby has a feeding just before you go to bed is also helpful in “topping up” baby’s tank.

Even armed with all these knowledge and experience, our fifth child was the most difficult to train! But God has been so gracious. Even with all that interrupted sleep, all of us still managed to function Having a sense of humour helps too!

I will add something else here which may offend some : If you are a SAHM, I do not agree to getting dad to get up to tend to the child in the middle of the night. Why? He has to go to work the next day.

As SAHMs, we have the luxury of being flexible in our timings and the work we have to do. If this has been a bad patch, we can rearrange our schedule and hang on till the weekends hit.

Then we can graciously ask daddy to take over while you snooze for 3hrs and finish up what you couldn‘t do during the week. And we can do a catnap when the baby sleeps in the day. But daddy can’t! And he can’t and shouldn’t be seen as unprofessional or slipshod in his work. His time is not his own (unless he is his own boss but even then…..).

AND …. Remember, cover everything you do with prayer!

Please do not write to me about the so-called bad side effects of sleep training. There is really no concrete proof that sleep training causes a whole host of problems that opponents of sleep training claim. What I do know if that a well-rested child is a happy and contented child. And a well-rested mom is also a happy and contented mom.

Click here for Sleep Training – Part 1