This past summer we welcomed our third son into the world, and it’s been a whirlwind of craziness for more than one reason. We brought him home to chaos, which you can read more about here, and we quickly discovered that he required extra care as well.
His newborn time was spent sleeping well, thankfully. We had so much going on and he had many all-day doctor’s appointments which made the sleepy newborness of him that much more gracious. Between the ongoing appointments and general disruption of having two toddler brothers at home, that newborn-sleep-magic faded quickly.
Just past three months old, I was not sleeping and he was not happy. He would wake up crying and would keep crying (or at least be really hard to keep happy) until he was back asleep. I researched almost every technique with my other kids and grew comfortable with different methods and approaches when it came to sleep, but I was out of my league with my third.
So I threw in the towel.
I remembered seeing a Baby Sleep Consultant, Like A Dream LLC, at the last Bloom event and contacted her right away. Our situation was a little unique, so I made sure to run everything by Jami (owner of Like A Dream LLC) first—she ended up thinking that we could benefit.
Spoiler Alert: We did.
Let me preface this by explaining that it’s not magic or some secret trick that only sleep consultants know. When I contacted Like A Dream, I wasn’t sure in the slightest on what to expect and that’s why I want to share it with you.
The process went something like:
- I reached out, desperate.
- She asked questions and gathered information.
- We discussed.
- She gave me a plan and an open ear (and a reality check or two).
The top benefit, which sounds silly in writing, was taking the decision off of my shoulders. I was no longer the one deciding what was best with sleep. I threw in that towel and waived my white flag, so I was giving someone else a shot. I’ve seen countless articles on a mother’s overwhelming mental load, and in case you didn’t know—this is a huge one.
We were juggling appointments and insurance battles and toddlers and a first year of PreK and it was All. So. Much. Having an outside opinion was helpful.
(I need to fully disclose here that my husband offered different advice and support constantly with sleep but any time anything went wrong I would be not-very-nice, so for the sake of our marriage, having an outside opinion was good. I very well could have handed the reigns to him, but I’m a control freak. He rocks and knows that I can be a little crazy.)
The process was a struggle for me in more ways than one, but I was already struggling to begin with. If I had to compare using a sleep consultant versus doing your own research and implementation, I would say that using a sleep consultant puts the stress onto the consultant, and they streamline the information to you, saving you reading 500 books on baby sleep. It was helpful already having knowledge on sleep habits and preferences coming in to this process, but I could also see it being even more of a smooth transition for a brand new parent with zero baby sleep knowledge. Basically if your baby is miserable and not sleeping, you’re not doing so hot from any angle you spin it.
A few months into first contacting a sleep consultant, we’re doing okay. He falls asleep on his own, and I have a plan and a goal which helps when things get rough. With a constant plan and rigid schedule, my baby is happy. And that fussiness was the worst issue of them all.
Have you had sleep problems with your baby?
