Many parents-to-be are blissfully unaware of the challenges that come with getting your baby to sleep. Naturally, the majority are not even thinking about how they will approach this and probably have a dreamy image of laying their baby in their crib to fall asleep peacefully. Experienced parents know that is not the typical situation and were quite surprised by how overwhelming sleep time can be. If the topic of sleep was brought up to soon to be parents before they need to make the decision of how they will get their baby to sleep, it would be most helpful for all involved, especially the baby. This way future parents can consider options and come to a non-sleep deprived decision. For parenting to be the most rewarding experience it can be, the important decisions for your kids should be based on your own intuition and enough research to feel confident that you will have no regrets.
Getting your baby to sleep falls into the important decision category. Narrowed down there are basically two ways to get a baby to sleep. Letting them cry and eventually fall asleep, or some type of parent involved way such as rocking or nursing. In the U.S. the majority of current and previous generations appear to have done what their parents have done, which is letting a baby cry themselves to sleep. The wonderful quote from Maya Angelou comes into play here, "When you know better, you do better". In 2013 we are realizing that we know better. Research done shows that when a baby stops crying in bed it is because he knows mom is not coming for him. The crying stopping doesn't mean that they are feeling less stress about it, it means that they are not showing their discomfort emotionally anymore. If parents were aware of this, I believe it would not be ok with them to have their babies learning to suppress their precious emotions even though they are still upset.
The way you get your baby to sleep seems to be personal and should be done in any way that works for both of you. Provided that your baby knows you are there for them, so the important brain connections of trust and security are being made. Rocking, nursing to sleep, walking, driving, dancing or any way that you can both feel comfortable so they learn sleep is nothing to be feared, it is wonderful. I have a cousin who would push her baby around her house in a stroller until her daughter fell asleep. I was the first to her defense as our older relatives poked fun at her, it was her loving, temporary way and her daughter needed that at the time. Again, it is personal and I did not share my dancing sleep method until my third child was done and successfully sleeping on his own.
I understand parents don't want to spend all night getting their baby to sleep and I was the same way. I came up with my dancing sleep method out of desperation to find a loving yet speedier put down time in order to have some time with my husband and to myself. This was the happy medium my babies and I enjoyed and I would use successfully through three kids. After completing over 6000 tests of the method it came out with a 99.99% success rate and no after effects with sleep. Using music I loved and my baby agreed on together we would bring down their energy so they could relax and go into a deep sleep.
There are mistakes I have made as a new parent that I wish I would have done more research for, but when I knew better I did better. Parents sharing information to keep making our future generations better is what conscious parenting is about. The topic of sleep can be such an intense subject for parents because learning you might have done something differently given the chance, can go from feeling uncomfortable to pretty painful. This is also why weighing the pros and cons of cry-it-out sleep methods before a parent uses them is important in order to make sure they are not looking for a quick fix while sleep deprived. Parents should be aware that babies are building their brain connections and learning all about life from you. My purpose in sharing the dancing sleep method in my book Gentle Goodnight is not to make parents upset or to feel guilty, but to open minds to think about a loving sleep choice. That is how I have learned real change happens by not complaining about what I feel can be be done in a better way, but instead coming up with a new way to make an old method for sleep obsolete.
Lyssa Armenta, author of Gentle Goodnight loves to problem solve! Her career as an author began as she felt the deep need to share her Dancing Method that she perfected after a decade of getting her kids to sleep. Her passion is to keep improving the quality of life of her family and others. She truly believes Gentle Goodnight can do that for babies and their moms!
Learn more about Gentle Goodnight and the dancing sleep method:
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