Every Mamacita Deserves a Good Night’s Sleep
If there is something I dreaded most before having my second child, it was the sleepless nights that were ahead. Although everyone tells you while pregnant to sleep as much as possible because once baby arrives sleep will be limited; you can’t even comprehend it until you are living it. The newborn stage is brutal because of sleep deprivation and exhaustion. It’s traumatizing, in my opinion.
My kids did not sleep through the night at three weeks or even three months. My son never slept more than 1.5-2 hours at a time until he was five months old. Nighttime was scary in our household. When I reminisce about that time, I don’t know how we even functioned throughout the day. I remember counting down every day and week, praying that my son would start sleeping more than two hours at a time. I would say to myself, “oh so and so’s baby slept through the night at seven weeks, so mine will too.” Nope, not mine. Then I would think someone else’s baby slept through the night at 12 weeks, so will mine. Again, not mine.
I started to read about sleep schedules for babies when my daughter was about a month old. I did my best to get her on a proper nap and sleep schedule, and at three months, she only woke up once per night to eat and go right back to sleep. I figured that was as good as it would be for us and just went with it. My son, on the other hand, was brutal. We were walking zombies, and as soon as he turned 20 weeks, we decided to do something about it. We hired a Sleep Consultant.
I discovered the Goodnight Sleepsite when my daughter was a baby. It was my go-to Instagram page and website for sleep advice. Since my daughter started sleeping better when she was three months old, I never felt we needed to hire anyone to help us with her sleep (something I regret not doing), but it was a different story with our son. I always had my doubts about hiring a Sleep Consultant because sleep training comes with its share of opposing opinions. My initial thought was, “I don’t want to let my son cry for hours; it will traumatize him.” But we were desperate for help, and I reached out to them. Jennifer was the Consultant who worked with us through this. The package we purchased was a two-week training program which was all done virtually, and we also received a personalized Sleep Program Guidebook for our son. I remember the night we had our pre-training FaceTime call with Jennifer. We chose what method we felt was suitable for our family, and we filled Jennifer in on our son’s sleep challenges. We told her we were desperate and prayed for a miracle. Jennifer smiled gently at us and said, “there are no miracles here; we guarantee that your son will learn how to fall asleep on his own even if he wakes at night.” At first, we had our doubts, but she seemed confident; we were willing to be coachable and did everything she told us.
Jennifer was right. Within a few days, my son was sleeping 12 hours at night and napped twice a day for 2 - 2.5 hours at a time. I know Jennifer said this wasn’t a miracle, but we believed it was. I remember the first night my son slept 12 hours; I woke up in a panic because I couldn’t believe we all slept so long. Once my son started sleeping more, he was a happier baby. Sleep Training was a life-changing experience for our family, and since then, I am an advocate of it. My son is now 3-years old, and he is still a great sleeper.
Mamacitas, if you are sleep-deprived like I was and want help with your children’s sleep schedule, I urge you to look into sleep training. There are different methods available for each family, and they will bring you positive results. This doesn’t just apply to baby sleep, they can help you with any sleep challenge. They even have programs for adults.
Below are a few tips for a proper night routine for babies / toddlers:
Develop a consistent bed time routine (ours is - a bath, brush teeth, read a book, pray & lights out).
Depending on their age, they should sleep in a sleep sack. Our son wore different ones depending on the weather. We didn’t keep anything in his crib besides a fitted sheet. The sleep sack took the place of a blanket. I’ve linked our favorites below.
Set the mood - we keep his room really dark.
Have white noise playing in the background.
Once baby is in his/her crib, walk out and close the door.
For reference, I am linking all of our resources below:
Jennifer, Sleep Consultant , Instagram
Goodnight Sleepsite, Instagram
Sleep Sacks - I added to my Amazon cart
Have you ever hired a Sleep Consultant? If so, we’d love for you to about your experience in the comments.
Xoxo - G
P.S. this is not an ad. I am just a Mamacita who wants you to get good sleep and Goodnight Sleepsite is the best for this.
