A First-Time Mom's Guide To Sleep Training

I’m going to be honest with you guys; I did not think my son was the scheduling type. From day one to about 3 months old, he didn’t have a schedule. He ate when he wanted, he slept when he wanted, and he for sure did the number two when he wanted. There was no “scheduling” for Benjamin in the early months. By the time he was 6 months old (still on no type of schedule) he was a cranky little booger! Obviously we checked all the boxes when he cried (fed, clean diaper, nap, etc.) but by the time I woke up in the morning, I was still exhausted. Mind you, we did bed-share with my little nugget as I was trying my damnedest to continue breastfeeding. I had no clue how on earth we would get Benjamin to sleep through the night, in his crib, in his own room. It seemed impossible.

And then my husband and I took a 4-day vacation for our wedding anniversary. We dropped Benjamin off at my in-laws house and said “good luck!” Little did we know, our little nugget was sleeping through the night in a pack-in-play by himself, and was on a schedule. I was SHOCKED. We came back and I asked my mother-in-law how she got him to sleep through the night and the magic words were “he needed a schedule.” I wish I could explain the look on my face other than this emoji: 😐

So we started a schedule. And it was hard. Nap time was a breeze on our days off, and instead of Benjamin falling asleep on our chests for three hours, we moved him to his crib. Also, having a baby monitor with a camera helped my anxiety SO MUCH. I was so scared to leave him in a room unattended, afraid that something would happen to him. My in-laws gifted us the Lollipop Baby Monitor for Christmas and it was a game changer! I would HIGHLY recommend either this monitor or one with a camera.

But, we were still struggling with bedtime. I had always told myself once Benjamin was six months old, he would start sleeping in his own room. Well at six and a half months he was still sleeping with us and it was so hard to get a good night’s sleep. If I moved or my husband coughed, Benjamin would wake up and want to feed again. One night I decided to start with the transition by moving the entire crib into the bedroom… This lasted for four days. Again, it was so hard even to have him in the same room with us while we were all trying to sleep.

And then we finally hit our threshold. It was time for Benjamin to sleep in his own room. So I moved his crib back to his room, mind you, it was not a simple task. I had to take apart nearly the entire crib to just get it through the doorway. We had the tiny space heater on to warm the room up a little, had the crib all ready to go and as soon as we set him down he starts screaming. We picked him back up, rocked him until he fell back to sleep, and set him down again. He fussed a little, but stayed asleep for maybe an hour. And then it was non-stop screaming for 30 minutes. And it wasn’t the kind of screaming where he was in pain, or was hungry or needed a clean diaper. He was mad. He was furious that we weren’t there to snuggle him and that there was no boobie nearby. He was mad that he was alone. We let him cry until he was so exhausted that he fell asleep and slept through the entire night.

And that is how we sleep trained our son! No guides, no courses. Just some advice from my two mamas, an amazing baby monitor, and a few glasses of wine.

I know there is controversy about the CIO Method of sleep training, but one night of crying and it worked. Every few nights, Benjamin is fussier than usual and just screams for 30 minutes, but after that first night he sleeps 9 - 10 hours through the night. I’ll also add that he is on a pretty strict schedule from the minute he wakes up to the minute he goes to bed. This helped immensely, and I would highly recommend setting a schedule for your little one.

What method did you try to get your little one to sleep through the night?

This is all for now!

Tootles,

~ Izzy