THANKS FOR NOTHING, SLEEP WHISPERER

I know that lots of people swear by the Sleep Whisperer, but I would prefer to swear at her, I think.

I really should know better by now than to read anything about babies at all. With Lauren, I found it to be a huge source of stress because she wasn't "normal". I was doing things that would help her. When Lauren stopped sleeping through the night (unbeknownst to me because of her heart condition), I brought her into my bed. Having me beside her helped her throughout the night when she needed constant comforting. Well, Elyse has no heart problems, but according to the Sleep Whisperer (and random people who like to share their opinions with me), apparently I am messing Elyse up really badly as well!

Here's why - up until this past week, Elyse only slept well during the day if she was in motion. That meant that she would take all of her naps in the car, while on a walk in the stroller or in her swing. If she wasn't in motion, BOOM, awake. And the crazy part was that I was okay with that... until I started reading and people started commenting. If I didn't stop doing that right away, she was going to be 13 and still sleeping only in a baby swing!

  

Stupidly, I decided to try to stop that cold turkey. I decided that she would only sleep in her crib and she would like it. Let me tell you, she's starting early with that whole "not listening to mom" thing. Not only was she only having short naps, she stopped sleeping through the night.



That was the kicker for me. By eight weeks old, she slept through the night (10 hours in a row). By ten weeks old, she would sleep straight through half of the nights in a week. And I was messing that up with my determination to have her sleep in her crib during the day. Suddenly, it was a struggle to get her down at night and then she was up multiple times. What had I done?! After two nights of that, I grabbed my Sleep Whisperer book, threw it in the garbage and put the baby back in the swing for her naps. After one day of napping in motion, she was back to sleeping through the night. For me, the nighttime sleep is so much more important than still naps. I went through the house and grabbed ALL of the baby sleep books that I owned and got rid of every single one of them.

Is my baby sleeping well at night? Yes. Does she sometimes nap in the car? For sure. We have places to go! Does she sometimes nap in her stroller? If she wants to. Does she nap in her swing? Interestingly, not as much as she used to. Now at 13 weeks old she is also napping in her crib. I didn't decide that she should nap there, she did. I guess I won't have to worry having a teenager sleeping in a baby swing, which is good because I'm pretty sure these things have a weight restriction.

The Sleep Whisperer Solves All Your Problems Can Shove It.