Read about why Megan decided to hire a sleep coach in the first place in her post HERE.
Our Sleep Coach Journey: The First Night
I finally took the plunge and hired the sleep coach. We had a one hour call to go over baby girl’s “sleep plan.”
The main question everyone asks when it comes to sleep training is…will there be crying/how much crying?
My coach assured me during our call that learning to sleep a new way is adjusting to a new behavior. Any behavioral adjustment is going to be met with protest, no matter what age, so yes there will be crying. But no, we didn’t just lay her in the crib and let her scream.
I had my plan, I paid the invoice, I was exhausted and ready to begin. I decided to start on a Friday night. Night one was here.
We started with a bedtime routine that was similar to our usual routine. Bottle, bath, pajamas, book. We then started the new plan.
I put her in her sleep sack, told her how much I loved her, turned on the sound machine, and laid her in her crib. No pacifier! No rocking! She immediately let me know she was unhappy with this change and started to cry. I closed the door and started my timer.
My plan for my particular baby involved going in and offering reassurance, comforting words, and a little gentle touch at timed intervals. But my baby got more hysterical when I went in the room and did NOT pick her up. After three hysterical check ins, I stopped going in.
A good friend who sleep trained all four of her children told me to text her if I needed help being strong through this process, and I took her up on that offer. “This is so hard! She’s been crying for X minutes, I confided in her.” She gave me the best advice EVER. Shout out to Skilar for being my rock on this rocky night. She said turn off the sound of the monitor and go take a bath. Don’t just sit there listening to her cry counting the minutes. I brought the monitor so that I could make sure she was safe but took a bubble bath and attempted to relax.
My baby finally fell asleep independently after a rocky start of crying…and slept…ELEVEN blissful hours!
The next day, I checked in with my coach, and got advice for naps. We did the same, albeit shorter, routine for naps. She did great for her morning nap and cried maybe five minutes before falling asleep for a solid hour nap. She had more protest for her afternoon nap, but she ended up sleeping a good hour and a half.
We are over a week into our plan with the sleep coach and I won’t give away any spoilers for the days ahead other than she is worth the price in gold and I’d 10000% do it again.
