Sleep Training Parents to Sleep Train their Baby

Written by Summer Hartman

We live in a world that expects perfection. The label sleep training is so controversial that we don’t really want to say it out loud because of backlash.

I have been training families over 14 years to nurture and guide their babies to sleep through the night. There are plenty of methods to do so. Not one family is the same, you must make a plan that fits for each parent and baby. We stress the need for consistency and follow through and a reasonable bedtime.

Parents today are under extreme stress. A normal workweek is 60 to 80 hours work with a long commute.  With COVID-19 we are under so much stress being housebound and the cost of living is higher and we also have so much input from outside sources such as social media that we become obsessed with everything. Because of social media your child should sleep 12 hours a night by 12 weeks and if your baby doesn’t why not!

So, you don’t tell anybody the struggle at home. You hold it in and say we’re all good! Baby is amazing we love being parents everything is rainbows and unicorns!! RIGHT! In reality your dying inside, because everything isn’t perfect its horrible.

Your baby is waking every 2 hours and your husband needs to sleep because he works long hours so your taking care of everything so you’re not stressing him out.  Your nursing and supplementing and pumping. This is when you realize you can’t do everything anymore. Or your child is 2 years old and this has been going on for 2 years you feel like your lost, so what do you do?

You read blogs and blogs about sleep training. You buy multiple books on sleep training that says this is the only book you need if you do XYZ!

You follow the instructions and your child responds. You’re like wow! this is amazing my child is sleeping. For one week it works and then your all of sudden back up 5 times a night! So, you go back to the blogs at 2 a.m. and look at what other parents did when this happened. You try multiple different things one night he/she sleeps and the next night your pulling your hair out! What am I doing wrong? What’s wrong with my child?

You realize you need more help than just the internet. You reach out to a sleep trainer in your area. When I have families contact me I go through and ask questions?

• How old is your baby?
• Nursing or bottle-feeding?
• Reflux or colic?
• Where does your baby sleep?
• What temperature is your house?
• Sound machine?
• What sleep methods have you tried?
• What time of night does your child wake?
• What formula or diet is your child on?

The list can be extensive and as parents are answering they start to see what is going on with their baby. I troubleshoot and most of the time I just need to adjust a few areas and baby will sleep.

The reason I’m writing this is that I’m really teaching the parent. You’re my focus! Your child follows your lead. What you say goes. This is being a parent especially when they’re starting to become teenagers!

What I teach is so you can be the best parent you can be. I see the areas that need tweaking and we adjust. Just like a personal trainer guides you to lose weight and exercise.

I’m your Personal Mommy Trainer! To have someone have your back is amazing and gives you the confidence to be the mom you envisioned. If you find yourself needing help you can contact me anytime.