sleeptrained

It’s controversial to sleep train but honestly why? Why embracing sleep is a controversial thing doesn’t really make sense. Let me be clear, my kid never cried it out for hours, but I sleep trained my son and I still credit it for how much he loves sleep.

Of course, I heard just like every mom that I’d never sleep again after having my baby, but something about that just did not seem right. I knew that my husband and I would be returning to work and I needed a plan.

While pregnant I made an appointment with a sleep trainer. She walked me through her system, which did involve allowing our son to cry a bit (we set our comfort time at five minutes) so that he learned to self soothe. She also helped us create schedule of parent-led feeding that created a way for him to eat every three hours and then transition to every four hours. While she never came to our home (a service she offered), she was always available when we had questions or any regressions (hello, teething).

Our son was sleeping eight hours by six weeks old and 10-12 hours by ten weeks old. At two-and-a-half-years old he tried to stop naps and I immediately called her. She had strategies to help and at four he still takes a nap once a day and goes to bed at 7:30pm.

Sleep training is honestly what I credit for staying sane the first year of parenthood. I won’t tell you our son never woke up because of course he did, but it was rare. I also won’t tell you it was easy. We started sleep training early and the first month was extremely difficult since it is the time you must stay consistent while setting up the schedule. Five minutes the first week felt like forever. But I will tell you that it was so worth it. Our child got rest and so did we… and isn’t everyone happier when they’ve slept?

Kimberly Peña
Hello AMB readers! I'm Kim, a working momma married to the love of my life, Marco. We welcomed our joy boy, Thomas, in 2013 who is hearing impaired and full of energy! I am a history teacher by day and blogger by night. I love staying busy and always have about a dozen projects in my head at any given moment. I love spending time with my boys, creating inquiry based learning units, and blogging about cooking, motherhood, marriage, and womanhood here and at www.thehillcountrywoman.com.

2 COMMENTS

  1. How do I contact this sleep trainer? I am not ok with crying it out and go back to work in 3 weeks. My 11 week old sleeps in chunks but none longer then 5 hours.

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