express sleep plan Archives

If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time, you know that I had an excellent experience sleep training with my son when he was 9 months old. I’ve said many, many times that the “training” part of sleep training was more for my husband and myself than it was for D. Sleep training also did not hinder breastfeeding one bit, in fact, D went on to breastfeed until he was 21 months old.

I won’t recap our entire situation because you can read about it HERE, but the short version is that I was exhausted and delirious from D waking every 2-3 hours at night and only napping in 20-30 minute clips throughout the day. I couldn’t concentrate, I became depressed, incredibly forgetful (to the point of being dangerous), and was often so overwhelmed by simple tasks that it brought me to tears.

After posting a plea for help and suggestions on my blog’s Facebook page, a local sleep consultant contacted me. After a phone consultation, I was convinced that she could help us, but money was extremely tight (as in, unbelievably tight because we hadn’t planned for me to stay at home with our son). Hiring a local sleep consultant who comes to your home is expensive, and we also had to wait for an appointment to get started. While I absolutely maintain that hiring a sleep consultant was the best investment we made in our son’s first year, I would have loved to have had a more affordable option. Enter the Baby Sleep Site.

The Baby Sleep Site offers a multitude of resources to help you understand and guide your little one into healthy sleep habits, including books, email and phone consultations. When the Baby Sleep Site contacted me to see if I would be willing to try out their Express Sleep Plan and share my thoughts with you, I was definitely interested. Intrigued by the thought of inputting information online and having a customized plan created for you – starting at $49 – I was excited to give it a go!

I began by creating a profile on the site, entering in perfunctory information such as my child’s age, nap routine, where he sleeps, what he eats (milk, formula, breastmilk, etc.), and his nighttime routine. From there, I went on to complete the sleep assessment that would be the basis for my customized plan.

While the Baby Sleep Site estimates that their Express Sleep Plan sleep assessment questionnaire will take around 15 minutes, it only took me 6 minutes to complete, so it’s definitely quick and relatively painless (apart from reliving the gory details of your little one’s sleep issues).

It’s important to note that the Express Sleep Plan is meant for babies who do not suffer from medical problems – it’s best to consult your pediatrician for guidance if there is an underlying health issue or if you suspect your little one may have a health concern.

The Express Sleep Plan also includes an option for your comfortability with your little one’s crying, ranging from not comfortable at all to being comfortable with your little one crying as long as you’re outside the room and are able to check on him.

After completing the assessment, the Baby Sleep Site then generated my customized Express Sleep Plan. You may be wondering what I would need with a sleep plan since a.) I already went through sleep training with D, and b.) D is almost three years old. Well, different ages and stages present sleep problems, and our current problem has been D not going to sleep for an hour or so after we put him to bed at night.

D still naps like a champ for two hours each afternoon, and his crankiness on the rare occasion that he misses a nap is an indicator that he’s not ready to give up his nap altogether. What the Express Sleep Plan helped me with is understanding that D’s “Nap Gap” is too short between waking in the afternoon and his bedtime.

In the initial assessment, I was able to input my ideal wake time and bedtime for D, which I now know needs to be tweaked – D’s been laying awake for an hour to an hour-and-a-half at night because there’s not enough of a gap between his afternoon nap and bedtime. Because I don’t want to push back his bedtime (I prefer a 6:30pm bedtime because it leaves the evening for my husband and myself), so I need to bump D’s wake time up to between 5:30-6am. I’m an early riser, so that’s not a problem (he typically wakes at 6:30am).

Because the Baby Sleep Site’s Express Sleep Plan gave a detailed schedule and an explanation about sleep for 2-3 year olds, I am easily able to adjust D’s schedule.

I must say that I’m pleasantly surprised by the amount of information the Express Sleep Plan provided, and definitely enjoy the convenience of inputting information and having a solid plan at my fingertips within a half hour’s time.

If you’re thinking about trying sleep training, or are looking for a more affordable option, you should absolutely take advantage of the Baby Sleep Site’s Express Sleep Plan! The best part is that you can start the road to sleep training in the middle of the night (if you wish), as everything is available with the click of a button.

For more information, visit the Baby Sleep Site at babysleepsite.com, or connect with them via social media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.