It wasn’t long ago that I was where you are now—tired. Like, can’t remember what I was saying tired. Middle-of-the-night rage tired. “Please. PUH-LEASE. I BEG YOU. Please, child, just go to sleep” tired.
Our oldest daughter slept fairly well as a newborn, but when the 4-month sleep regression hit, sleep went downhill fast. She would only fall asleep in my arms while rocked and nursed and was up every 38 minutes throughout the night needing bundles of TLC to get back down. I was on the verge of a total breakdown. Sound familiar?
Being a tear-averse mama of a spirited baby, I knew cry-it-out wasn’t the right fit for us and wasn’t likely to work for my baby. Desperate for sleep and feeling I had no other options, I brought her to bed with us at four months, and we slept soundly… until we didn’t.
Around 12 months, co-sleeping stopped working for us. My daughter was nursing and thrashing throughout the night, and I was starting to feel that desperately exhausted feeling again. None of us were getting the sleep we needed. This time, a trusted family friend recommended a gentle sleep approach—an option I didn’t know even existed months earlier. Within a few weeks, we had transitioned our daughter out of our bed and into her crib, helped her learn to self-sooth at bedtime, night weaned, and taught her to sleep through the night—all using gentle, attachment-focused, and customized sleep techniques with her unique personality and (highly sensitive) temperament in mind. What struck me the most was that unlike with other sleep training approaches, I wasn’t at war with my mother’s intuition—I was in sync with it.
This experience was life-changing. Not only were we all sleeping well and thriving (finally!), I had discovered my life’s passion: helping families and little ones rest easy with as few tears as possible. Rest easy literally, but also in knowing that there is a way to help your baby or toddler sleep through the night without crying-it-out. Rest easy in knowing that with a little support, you can lovingly equip your child with an essential, life-long skill they need to thrive. Rest easy in knowing it’s not too late to teach your toddler independent sleep. And rest easy in knowing that sleep is just around the corner.