We sleep trained our second baby right at six months. While I had been hesitant to sleep-train my first son, by the time we had a second kid, I was a lot more exhausted, and slightly more confident as a mom. I knew our youngest was a healthy weight, and he was outgrowing the bedside bassinet. He hadn?t learned to pull up and protest-stand in the crib yet, and we weren?t going on any big, disruptive-to-his-routine trips for at least two or three months. The timing was perfect.
I’d heard so many sleep-training success stories from other parents, who reported three or four rough (but totally-worth-it) nights, after which their babies not only fell asleep on their own, but stayed asleep. All night long. Magic.
But after doing a check-on-the-baby-every-five-minutes method, it only half worked. While he?s been going down independently for naps and bedtimes like a total champ for more than six months, he is definitely not sleeping through the night. He?s 15 months old now and still wakes like clockwork at 11:30 p.m, 3 a.m., and 5 or 6 a.m. I knew we needed help. So I asked Erin Junker, an infant and toddler sleep consultant and founder of the Happy Sleep Company, to help me identify the main reasons why sleep-training fails.
This isn?t a list of why sleep training may not be the right choice for your family?that’s a whole different issue. It?s for parents who find that sleep training hasn?t completely solved all their sleep issues, and need to know why. Here are t...