Sleep training 🤨?

Following bc same 😅

Sleeping is developmental for babies and they all achieve different things at different ages. It's also not linear...as with teething, illness, a new baby sibling etc. they can regress and wake up more often.

I highly recommended The Gentle Sleep Book, by Sarah Ockwell-Smith; she always explains the science and what is actually normal for a baby/child at different ages, which is often contrary to what society pushes. It helps you manage your expectations, helps you follow your instincts, and helps build confidence in your child and a secure attachment.

It's very normal for babies to wake up in the night, and actually a built-in safety mechanism to prevent too deep a sleep. The question you get of "are they sleeping through the night yet?" Is such a silly one, and I so wish people would stop asking it.

Feeding to sleep is also normal- and if breastfeeding then your milk (specifically at night) even helps with melatonin production for them.

Every baby develops at a different rate with sleep ❤️

Just a quick note- Cry It Out methods aren't recommended; they don't stop babies crying because 'suddenly' they've learnt to be settled or 'self-soothe', but because they've learnt that when they cry no-one is coming to help or pick them up: learned helplessness.

They did a study, and babies who had gone through sleep training woke up just as much but just didn't alert their caregivers. They had learned crying, wouldn't do anything. They also found that even after babies stopped crying and fell asleep, their cortisol levels remained raised. They can't cry forever, eventually sleeping from exhaustion/giving up. Then they stop crying at all.

Soothing baby/toddler every time they wake now will help then sleep so much better as an older child and an adult. In terms of managing sleep
deprivation, if your baby is still napping then sleep when they sleep, or try and have partner/a friend have baby for an hour or two so you can nap. They do say 4 hrs of straight sleep helps if sleep deprivation is severe.

I genuinely think it’s down to the baby.

Up until til 7 weeks, our girl went down at 11, yo at 2/2.30 m, then up again at 5.30 and awake at 7.

Now she goes down at 9/10 and sleeps until 4.30 and then wakes for the day at 7.30

I just think we’re lucky. We’ve done nothing except follow her lead. She now starts to get restless at 8 ish, so I’ll turn off big lights and just have a lamp on downstairs, put a blanket round her and cuddle with her with hush sounds for a while. It does the job.

I fully expect it to be a phase and before long, she’ll have a regression and be awake a lot more. I’m just trying to take what I have now and prepare for the change.