When my daughter was born, I read all the parenting books, convinced that by knowing it all I could make my baby sleep. And if one didn’t work, I’d be on to the next. The parenting styles varied wildly and always seemed extreme; if you’re ‘this’ kind of parent or ‘that’, you should co-sleep, make your baby cry it out, do the funky chicken dance. And then your baby will absolutely, positively sleep.
Of course, she didn’t.
It might seem odd to tell you that advice from sleep books doesn't work - when it kinda looks like that's what we're going to do - but often they don’t. They fail to equip parents with the basic tools and rules to help their baby to sleep. They’re often complicated and don’t take into account that as well as every child being different, every family is different too.
Mum Word: Janet’s baby might have been sleeping through at 3 weeks old when all she did was put him in his crib, sing ‘I like Big Butts And I Cannot Lie’, and he slept for 12 hours straight. But her Hip-Hop loving baby is not your baby, and you are not his parent. Thank goodness. Your little dreamboat is all yours (and frankly, they are gorgeous by the way).
We will give you straightforward, non judgemental advice that will give you knowledge, skills and confidence to help your baby sleep, not just for the next few nights but the next year and beyond. p as a milestone that we can help our children towards. Of course, it can happen all by itself (like it did for Janet) but there are also things we can do as parents and caregivers to create the right environment for the skill of sleep to be picked up more quickly. Just as tummy time helps a baby learn how to crawl.
Every child is different. Some will sleep better than others. But sleep is one of the most important things you can help your baby to do because they need it to continue their development into adults. And the adults looking after them need sleep to cope with the daily demands of those tiny growing dictators/humans!