Sleep is BAE

BG has always been a pretty good sleeper. She likes to rest but she also doesn't want to miss out on anything.

At one point, we had been out of town for a while and she wasn't sleeping well so I was letting her sleep in the bed with me. Then we all got sick and I was nursing her multiple times throughout the night. Those few weeks created a monster!

There are so many different methods and opinions... the thought of reading multiple sleep books and spending a month or two trying out different methods made me cringe, so we decided to work with a sleep consultant.

We started this on BG's 7 month birthday, but I will do it a little sooner with the next baby. She was already crawling at this point, and she was able to pull herself up and move around her crib, when she should have been sleeping.

We used Bliss Newborn Care. They're located in Chicago but everything is done over the phone or by text, so anyone anywhere could use them. Amanda was our sleep consultant aka our SAVIOR! The great thing about working with the sleep consultant was that it was completely customized to BG and what we wanted to do. We did not want to do hardcore CIO (Cry It Out), so we took a more gentler approach.

The sleep training we did was 3 weeks long. The first 2 weeks were spent weaning BG off of her two nighttime nursing sessions. The last week focused on the sleep. We started letting her cry for 3 minutes, then 5 minutes, then 7, and so on... Eventually we would let her fuss for 15-20 minutes if she woke up during the night before going in to soothe her (but she very rarely ever went for that long.) Amanda texted me every morning to see how the night went. She offered advice and support and tweaked the plan based on how BG was doing.

The main things the sleep consultant taught us were:

• Do not associate eating with sleeping. We were giving BG her nighttime pumped bottle in the pitch black and letting her fall asleep while eating. Instead, we started giving her the bottle with the lights on, then read a book afterwards, then turned off the lights and put her in the crib.

• Do not pick the baby up out of the crib if they're fussing. When we went in to soothe her, we only laid her down on her back in the crib, put her paci back in, patted her head. Picking them up is the cardinal sin of sleep training!

• If the baby stops crying when you go in the room/pick them up, they are manipulating you! They aren't crying because anything is actually wrong. (This was a good reminder when we were letting her cry.)

Before the 3 weeks were over, BG was sleeping through the night! HALLELUJAH!!! She is still sleeping great. We stick to our schedule and routine even when traveling, so she hasn't had a set back. She is typically asleep by 7pm and will stay asleep until at least 7am. Sometimes I have to go in and wake her up!

This was by far one of the best things we've spent our money on. It was good for ALL of us - quality rest for BG and sanity for her parents! I highly recommend it.