The No-Cry Sleep Training That Worked For My Baby

This post about the no-cry sleep training that worked for my baby is sponsored by The Baby Sleep Site, however, all opinions and experiences are my own. 

Growing up, there was a song I liked. It was Sleep by Riley Armstrong. The line I remember well was:

Sleep, no I never get enough. Always waking up tired. Sleep, no I never get enough if I don’t show up I might get fired. 

As a teenager, I thought I didn’t get enough sleep. Ha – now I laugh at my teenage self. Welcome to motherhood, Janessa.  I have five children and have never had one who slept through the night, consistently, before a year old. So, when I was contacted a few weeks ago by The baby Sleep Site, I figured it couldn’t hurt to check it out and see if there was something I was missing. 

So, about 8 week ago I signed up for the Basic Email Package with The baby Sleep Site. I filled out info about Aram’s daily schedule and shared my goals for him. At the time his basic schedule was:

• Random naps during the day. Usually 2 naps that weren’t very long but the naps were always unpredictable
• Nighttime schedule was as follows:
  • Bedtime between 7-8 in crib.
  • Wakeup around 10pm to breastfeed, back to crib.
  • Wakeup around 1am to breastfeed in bed with me.
  • Wakeup around 4am to breastfeed still in bed with me, starting to get restless from this point until waking for the day.
  • Wakeup around 6am for good (and to breastfeed more)

As you can probably guess, yes, I was feeling pretty sleep deprived at this point. Some days I felt like I was a walking zombie. 

Baby Sleep Site Review

Aram’s Personalized Sleep Plan

I didn’t know what to expect with the personalized sleep plan, but it was WAY longer and more in depth than I had imagined! My personal sleep consultant went above and beyond to share tons and tons of info with me. She shared a recommended schedule for Aram based on our families needs and goals and then gave a lot of details on how to achieve it. 

I’m Not a Cry It Out Fan – I Wanted a No-Cry Sleep Training Solution

My biggest concern with using a sleep consultant is that the advice was just going to be to utilize the Cry It Out method. This isn’t meant to shame any parent who chooses to use this method, but it’s not for me. I don’t believe in using it at this age and probably wouldn’t even begin to consider any forms of it until at least 18-24 months. Really it would depend on each child and their maturity, but it’s not something I wanted to use with a 10-12 month old baby. (Side note, all of my children have slept through the night by about 15 months without ever needing to use the CIO method.)

When I filled out the form at The Baby Sleep Site, I made note of this preference for a no-cry sleep training. When I received the first customized sleep plan I was a little disappointed to see that it was still part of the recommendations. 

Luckily this plan comes with the option to email your personal sleep consultant twice with concerns and I message her right away about mine. She was able to work with me on implementing some no-cry solutions for Aram which made me very happy! She was also honest about the fact that not utilizing a form of CIO would make the process take longer. I was okay with that. 

The No-Cry Sleep Training That Worked For My Baby

There were things I took from the sleep consultant that we implemented and some things we did not. For example, even though it was something that I knew I should be doing in the back of my mind, I hadn’t done a great job at setting up some sleep associations for Aram. Doing this consultation made me realize I needed to set that up and provided me with some good ideas. For us, that meant a little lovie and a song that I play now every time we start rocking for his nap.

(The song, for those of you wondering, is “Come Thou Fount”. It’s one of my favorite hymns and soothing to listen to.) I play the song on my phone for him and now even when I pick up my cellphone he knows it is coming and is excited to go nurse and go to sleep.

I have noticed that the sleep associations for Aram has really been helping get him in the sleep “mood” and they are making a difference. 

The consultant initially recommended that I cut out rocking but I just couldn’t do that. I didn’t want to do that. I still rock him. I’m a mom of 5 so, been there, done that a few times. I know how fast babies grow and I really enjoy rocking my babies. I wasn’t ready to give that up. So, we worked together to keep that as part of our bedtime routine for now as well. The sleep consultant I worked with was great about listening to my needs, concerns, and wants, and making the plan work right for us. I loved that about her! 

I REALLY enjoyed how easy it was to talk to my consultant and make a plan that I was comfortable with. There were things I wanted and didn’t want, and she was helpful with helping me implement things that I wanted. The tips were great and really helped motivate me to make a change for the better for all of us. 

I’m pleased to say that Aram is napping better (usually 1 long nap a day but sometimes 2 good naps if we’ve been busy and our schedule is off). Today his nap was over two hours long!

And – the real progress. Aram is going to bed around 7:30, waking once around 3:30, then sleeping until about 6:30 when he wakes up for the day. One night he even slept all the way until 5am. For the past week I have been getting a SOLID sleep at night and the results have been amazing for both of us. I’m hopeful that with some continued work he will be skipping the 3:30 feeding in the near future too. 

The baby Sleep Site offers a lot of different options to help you and your baby achieve a better night’s sleep. Click here to visit their website and see what they can do for you! They were a big help for me and I’d highly recommend them.