Sleep Training- Always wake a sleeping baby!

Ok so before you read this please remember that every mommy is different, every baby is different, every family has different values, and every parent parents differently. So with that being said a lot of friends have asked me how we got Ava sleeping through the night, 12 hours, before she was 4 months old. So I thought I would share our technique and the book we read prior to her coming into this world. 

When we moved to California we joined a great church and got involved in a small group that studied the book Preparation for Parenting by Gary and Marie Ezzo. It went over how to prepare for your new baby and all about the feed, wake, sleep cycle. The Ezzo's also wrote "Baby Wise" but this is the Christian version of the book so it goes over how God also fits into your new family dynamic. 

It had some great advice and I think all of us who took the course felt like we were 100% prepared for our babies... seemed simple enough... your baby wakes up, you feed them, and then they go back to sleep. Easy cheesy.... but then the baby comes and none of it works, they wont stop crying, they won't wake up, they wake up at the wrong time, you sleep through a feeding, they don't poop for a day, they scream when you try to feed them, they have reflux, they like to have "awake time" from 4am-7am... Basically lots of stuff happens that is not in the book. 

Luckily Ava was a pretty easy baby. We were able to use a lot of the principals in the book and she actually did start sleeping through the night, 12 hours, around 3.5 months. The basic principal of the book is that during the day, every 3 hours, you need to wake your baby up and have them eat. This seems easy but during the first few weeks your baby is very, very, very sleepy. But if you wake them up and keep them awake to get a full feeding they start getting on a schedule. The first few weeks they will need to eat every 3 hours but after about 4 weeks you can start letting them go longer during the night and let them naturally wake up when they are hungry. Don't get too excited because normally that means they only sleep 3 hours so there are 4 hours between feedings. Eventually they start sleeping consistant 4 hour stretches, 6 hour stretches, 8 hour stretches and then eventually 12 hours straight. 

The best thing that I read in the book was that during the night feedings you need to keep the lights off and make minimal noise. This will help them fall back asleep quickly and get their days and nights straight. It worked for Ava and for a few of the other babies in the class so hopefully if you try it out it will work for you as well. If you have a little one on the way good luck, gets lots of sleep now, and get ready for the most wonderful blessing that is about to rock your world!