What is Gentle Sleep Training? 

Who wants to hear their baby cry? Nobody really!! Some parents are ok with a little crying, some are ok with a few more tears and some approach me for non cry based sleep training. 

One of the biggest misconceptions around sleep training is that you have to let your baby cry it out for sleep training to be successful. This couldn’t be further from the truth and I hope over the coming months and years I can reach those mums who are exhausted and spread this message. 

Sleep training is in fact the opposite. We respond to your baby and most certainly do not leave them to cry. What actually happens is we respond appropriately. So frequent night wakings we teach baby to learn to sleep rather then rock or feed them. So their quality of sleep improves and they eat better in the day and are on the number of feeds correct for them as individuals overnight. 

 Below is Liz and Layla’ story only one example of a family who practice attachment parenting.  Liz was reaching a dark and scary place when sleep deprivation really started to kick in with intense emotions and negative thoughts. 

Layla was 9 months old and was co sleeping, breastfeeding on demand throughout the night. Liz was absolutely exhausted. 

So what does Gentle Sleep Training look like and how did I work with Liz and Layla? 

• We approached night time sleep first and started naps one week later so it wasn’t too overwhelming for Liz or Layla. 
• We used a gentle in room, supportive and hands on sleep trainung method adjusting it when and where necessary. We combined this with cuddling and feeding to calm. 
• Mum set the night time feeding goals which were not a priority but more something mum wanted to do in her time and a goal to work towards. I equipped Liz in exactly how to do this when she was ready
• We did not allow Layla to cry, we meet her needs before she got to that stage by way of hands on settling techniques. 
• Me and mum communicated very single day to review Layla’s last 24 hours to see how she was responding. Anything that needed adjusting was done accordingly with my guidance
• We did not wake Layla up, mum woke her naturally 
• We took a gradual approach to establishing a good age appropriate daytime feeding schedule. 
• Seep training was a combination of my expertise, sleep plan, sleep method, mums input but overall we are took Layla’s lead. 

What we achieved in 2 weeks: 

• Layla successfully transitioned into her cot. 
• Layla learnt to fall asleep independently. 
• Started sleeping long stretches over night. 
• Liz no longer had to feed on demand overnight and Layla established 2 feeds very quickly.
• Settled straight back to sleep after a feed. 
• Layla was waking up at 6.30am.
• We established her on the correct number of naps for her age and started consolidating her lunch nap.
• Liz implemented age appropriate awake times.

 

Liz and Jalaal were over the moon!! You can find Liz’s story in my reviews on here.