We’ve accumulated quite a few posts on sleep training your baby since we launched the Practically Perfect Baby! And we know they will help you to make sleep training your baby easier than you ever imagined. Understanding the nap-feed-play order, how and when to feed your baby, what activities your baby needs when, and how napping works best is just the beginning! So read up on our posts and get excited…because with our steps, your baby is fast on his way to becoming a “rock star sleeper!”

Step 1: Get a plan and become a sleep training team.

It’s up to the two of you to become a team and to support each other in sleep training. Always remind each other that you’re working toward the lofty, but totally achievable goal of everyone sleeping through the night as soon as possible! How to Become a Practical Parent, Baby Blueprint: Year One, Ready for First 3 Weeks?, Maintaining Some Normalcy

Step 2: Make the nursery a sleep haven for your baby.

We think teaching your baby to sleep in his nursery right away will be the single best decision you will make to ensure that your baby learns to fall asleep and stay asleep on his own. The Nursery on Night One!, Nursery Organization, Baby Temperatures, Changing Table Essentials, Nursery Humidifiers

Step 3: Prepare your baby’s crib for good sleep.

Once you have purchased a crib, there are certain essentials you’ll need to acquire that will help to create a peaceful and safe crib setting for your baby. Crib Essentials, Crib Soothers, Sound Machines, Baby Sleep Wedges, Swaddling

Step 4: Become an expert at our 15-Minute Rule.

Despite what the books say, your baby will inevitably (and often) wake up early from his naps and night-time sleep periods. When this happens (and given that he is not ill), your sleep training must is to use our 15-Minute Rule. 15-Minute Rule, Are You Doing Our 15-Minute Rule Right?

Step 5: Print out our Scheduling Logs and our age-appropriate Schedule.

Sleep training is impossible without a good, consistent, scheduled home-life. You just can’t create a confident, peaceful, playful, joyful baby with an inconsistent, unpredictable, and unreliable schedule. We think you’ll find our schedules to be simple, all-inclusive, and parent-friendly because we’ve taken out all of the guesswork. But don’t worry, we don’t intend for our schedules to be rigid or inflexible — they’re meant to be spelled-out for you so that you can then make adjustments when necessary. PPB Scheduling Logs, Importance of Logging, All PPB Schedules, Late Start Scheduling

Step 6: Prepare for your baby’s activity time.

In sleep training, it’s important to build-in a ton of baby playtime activities to your baby’s schedule so your baby is actually tired at nap time. But in the first few months, oftentimes your baby’s “awake” time is nothing more than being outside of his crib. You want your baby to get used to his schedule and before you know it, he will be up, alert, and ready to play.  In the interim, trying to keep your baby awake can be an exhausting task for you, but it’s important to try your hardest because his naps will truly suffer if he’s getting too much sleep during his playtime.

Baby Activities, Baby Places, Travel Gear, Power of the PlayDate, Play Yards, Baby Bathtime

Step 7: Learn how and when to feed your baby.

In sleep training and feeding, what’s most important is that you’re feeding your baby on a scheduled-basis (not on-demand). This way, when he cries you can eliminate the idea that he’s hungry because you know he’s received an adequate feeding earlier – in other words, you can deduce that the problem is most likely something other than hunger.  And you want to wake your baby up for his feedings (yes, wake your baby up to feed him!) and do your best to establish the rhythm of feeding, playing, then napping — in that order because it’s sleep training magic! Feeding Dilemma, Baby Nightcap, Baby Waking Tips, Drink Up!, Anti-Snacking

Step 8: Understand how naps work.

Naps will not go well on a consistent basis if you don’t understand what not to do! Napping No-No’s, Troubleshooting Baby Naps, Waking Early from Naps, Put Baby Down Awake

Step 9: Understand why your baby will cry.

Sleep training means it’s your job to teach your baby how to sleep — but ALSO how to eat, how to feel and deal with frustration, and how to gain some independence and, consequently, some confidence.  Otherwise, you create a child who is literally attached to you and dependent on you to do everything for him — including and especially how to fall to sleep! Why is My Baby Crying?!?, Crying Facts, Self-Play & Self-Soothe

Step 10: Be ready for the game changers.

There are some obvious setbacks that can occur during sleep training that will have nothing to do with how consistent you are with the schedule. Learning your baby’s signs will help you discern what’s up and how best to help your baby through it. Baby Growth Spurts, Baby Colic, Overtired Baby, Overstimulated Baby, Baby Signs, Baby Gas, Baby Witching Hour

 WHY SLEEP TRAIN YOUR BABY?

We totally believe every baby needs good, consistent sleep, just like everyone else does.  How is he supposed to function well during the day when he experiences erratic, unpredictable sleep at night? You don’t…do you?  Putting your baby on a schedule right away is the key to creating a “rock star” sleeper and it’s entirely possible and totally beneficial for your baby. Think about this: pediatric nurses at the hospital put babies on a schedule, why wouldn’t parents continue this practice at home? And we’re not talking about letting your baby cry-it-out all night long or some rigid schedule that doesn’t allow for flexibility. There is nothing cruel, dangerous, or militant about sleep training starting on night one! And there’s no reason to wait to start. Your baby doesn’t need a fourth trimester…he joined this world ready to learn how to live and thrive in it!

Showing you the techniques and products that will teach your baby how to sleep on his own and sleep well on an every nap/every night basis is one of Practically Perfect Baby’s most important missions. After all, we teach toddlers how to behave; we teach children how to read, why would we not teach our babies anything? During your baby’s first year, it is your job to teach your baby how to eat, play, nap, and sleep through the night because he won’t learn how to do any of these things well on his own (at least not for a year or two)! We’re talking about regulating your baby’s metabolism, setting his body clock, and creating his overall health and happiness. You can’t afford not to teach him! Your baby, even if he’s colicky, is completely capable of sleeping through the night at around eight weeks old, so why wouldn’t you want to help him achieve this? Nobody wants to be responsible for an overtired, cranky, sleep-deprived baby. You want to know what your baby needs and when. And because you are your baby’s first and most important teachers, we want to help you become experts on fulfilling his needs.

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Also read these good resources on the benefits of sleep-training your baby:

Baby Sleep Training Methods Safe for Infants (Study), Moyer Slate Article, On Becoming Babywise, Jo Frost’s Confident Baby Care: What You Need to Know for the First Year from America’s Most Trusted Nanny, The Secrets of the Baby Whisperer, Bringing Up Bebe,The New Contented Little Baby, Dr. Spock’s Baby and Child Care,Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, and  www.babywisemom.com, 

MISINFORMATION ALERT:

Heard that the American Academy of Pediatrics “issued a warning against Babywise?”  THIS IS FALSE!  Read up on the facts:

Robert Bucknam, M.D., FAAP Response to AAP “News”

Compare AAP and Babywise advice side-by-side for yourself!

Note:  Sleep training is only meant to be used with healthy babies.  Always seek the advice of your pediatrician, physician, or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition and sleep training.

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