A dear friend of mine popped in with cake and a serious case of sleep deprivation this week. She had her second baby 5 months ago, and was really shattered from the constant broken sleep. She hasn’t wanted to ask for help with her little one’s sleep…not wanting to be a pain. But once we started talking it was very clear what my friend needed was a plan.
With all the thousands of mums we have spoken with at The Sleep Store, the one thing that makes the biggest difference is a plan. It can be a gently gently, take 3 months to get baby sleeping through plan. Or it might be a very badly sleep deprived mum who wants a fast acting plan as her own health is suffering badly with the sleep deprivation. But the main thing is to work out the cause of the night waking and make a simple plan that mum and dad can follow in the night…
With my friend, the issue was night feeds…too many of them! Her big bonny baby would do fine with just a dreamfeed, and I reminded her to make sure he was asleep when she did the feed at about 10pm. Then I encouraged her to try any other settling technique to get her little precious back to sleep. Why not send hubby in to cuddle baby until he was calm and pop him back to bed. It was a simple enough plan that she went home armed with a new sleeping bag and a firm resolve to finally get a decent sleep.
And I am delighted to report that only 2 days later, the whole family is sleeping so much better. Baby is settling easily in the night without feeds, mum and dad are catching up on their 5 month sleep debt and will be feeling like new people.
Often people delay even considering encouraging their baby to sleep through the night, thinking it will involve months of crying and damage to their baby for life.. They worry their baby couldn’t possibly manage without 5 night feeds. But babies (and parents) do best when they get plenty of sleep, so get cracking on making a simple plan with the help of The Sleep Store today. Sweet Dreams zzzzzzzzz