Hey there, you’re listening to the My Sleeping Baby podcast, which is all about baby and child sleep. I’m so excited to teach you how you can get your little ones sleeping so that you can sleep too and enjoy parenthood to its fullest. I’m Eva Klein, your resident’s sleep expert, mom of three, founder of the Sleep Bible online coaching program, and lover of all things sleep and motherhood. If you’re looking for tangible solutions for your little one sleep woes or you simply want to learn more, this podcast is for you. For more information, check out mysleepingbaby.com and you can follow me on Instagram and Facebook @mysleepingbaby.

(00:45)
Okay, welcome back. So before we dive in to another episode of the, my sleeping baby podcast, I quickly want to read out a review from a past client named Adrian. Um, Adrian said Eva has been a life and sleep saver. Each time we had a sleep regression with our son, Eva had a personalized strategy and tactic that worked quickly and effectively without causing much distress to us and to our kid. She has various age appropriate methods that truly work and take time to understand our child before making any recommendations. We can’t recommend her enough. Her sleep strategies are magic. Thank you so much for such a heartwarming recommendation, Adrian. And that actually brings me into the topic of this week’s episode, which is all about my approach. Otherwise known as the sleep easy method. What is the sleep easy method? So I get this question asked all the time from people who are thinking about working with me one on one, or are thinking about joining the sleep Bible program.

(01:47)
You know, they wanna know what kind of approach I take to helping our little ones sleep through the night. Do I use cryo out? Do I, don’t not use cryo out? Do I use a more gentle approach? And before I answer that question directly, I just wanna emphasize that there is actually much more to it than just picking a sleep training method. So my sleep easy method is a four part method that helps you get your baby sleeping or toddler or preschooler and keep your little one sleeping. So, and I also just wanna clarify that the sleep training question that a lot of people ask is stage three. So let’s first talk about stage one and stage two, and what is involved in those preliminary stages. So before we can even delve into and explore any kind of sleep training, we need to make sure that your little one’s sleep foundations are properly down pat first.

(02:51)
So when we talk about sleep foundations, we’re looking at your little ones sleep environment. Is it conducive to good quality sleep or is there tons of natural sunlight coming through these big, massive windows? Is there lots of background noise is the room too hot, too cold sleep attire, not matching whatever temperature there is. We need to address that first, right? What is your little one’s daytime nutrition look like? Are they eating when they need to be eating during the day? How’s their milk intake or are they eating a lot more at night? Because they’re not eating as much as they need to be eating during the day. Do you have wind down routines in place? Does your little one know when sleep time is coming? Do you have those cues down pat so that they have that consistent routine in place that cues them night in and night out, that it is time for them to go to bed or time to go down for a nap.

(03:48)
These are really important puzzle pieces that need to be in place first, before we explore any sort of sleep training, because it goes without saying that sleep training, isn’t going to work without a proper sleep environment and daytime nutrition and routines. Right? And so then that’s what brings us to the second step, which is getting your little one on a consistent biologically appropriate schedule. So for those of you who have been listening to this podcast for a little while now, you will know that overt tiredness is your worst sleep enemy or one of them for that matter, because when you’re a little one is overtired from not napping when they need to be napping and from going to sleep too late or not, when they need to be going to sleep, that can cause every single sleep problem out there, difficulty falling asleep, night wakings, early, rising, short, crappy naps, all four of you hit the jackpot.

(04:47)
So before we explore any sort of sleep training, we need to make sure your little one’s on a fairly consistent and correct schedule. It’s not just a matter of having them on a schedule. It needs to be the right one, right? Because an incorrect schedule could mean that your baby is overtired. And then the sleep training of any kind is not going to work. So regardless of whether or not you are working with me, one on one, or you are getting my support in my sleep Bible program, you will be taken through step by step, how to implement these preliminary steps first, because without it, the sleep training isn’t going to work now, before we go on and talk about stage three, I do just want to assure you that getting through this preliminary work should not be an incredibly time consuming process. Maybe it’ll take us a couple days up to maybe a week if there’s a lot of rebooting and tweaking and troubleshooting that we have to do in this department.

(05:54)
So it sort of depends on what your starting point is. I’ve had people I’ve had sleep. Bible members begin sleep training a couple days after they’ve made all these really important tweaks. I’ve had some that have needed a little bit longer than a week to maybe get their little one acclimatized to their new room if they’ve been bed sharing this whole time. So it really depends on what the starting point is, but even so I do just want to assure that this is not an incredibly time consuming process because I am not a naturally patient person to begin with <laugh> on a good day. So the fact that I can help people make earth shattering changes in a very short period of time fits amazingly with my personality and what drives me. Okay. I digress once we have this preliminary work properly down path, then it is time to move on to stage three, which is when we teach your little one, how to sleep independently.

(06:55)
And if we need to remove any nighttime frees from the equation, then we’re gonna also be simultaneously implementing a night weaning strategy. So when people ask me, well, what kind of sleep training method you use? I wanna emphasize that there is no one size fits all approach here. I do not subscribe to one particular option because every baby is different. Every family is different. And it’s incredibly important that you feel comfortable with whichever method you are using. So do I use the quiet out method to be honest, the majority of people who work with me and join my program are not comfortable doing quiet out in its purest form, which is basically put baby in the crib, say goodnight, leave the room. Don’t go in for 12 hours. Um, and if that’s you, if you, if that just doesn’t sit well with you, um, you are in good company.

(07:54)
I would say that the majority of people who work with me, um, depending on what their starting point is, are not looking for that kind of approach either. You know, they, they don’t want to wait it out. They don’t want to just continue with the status quo, with the hopes that things will magically improve. They’re done. They’ve, they’ve either hit rock bottom or they know they’re going to hit rock bottom and they don’t want the current situation to continue. But at the same time, they’re also not interested in doing something so extreme and so cold Turkey. And so there are absolutely other approaches that you can take where your little one is still going to cry, but you can intervene in some way, shape or form. There is always support that you can be providing your little one while they are going through this learning process.

(08:48)
Right? The way that I look at the crying is to a huge extent. It is unavoidable because if your little one is used to getting fed or rocked or held, et cetera, to be able to fall asleep, and we are changing that up, it is different than what they’re used to, and they’re not going to like it because it’s simply because it’s unfamiliar. We can support them throughout that learning process and still be able to get you from point a to point B, still be able to get your little one sleeping like a champ while supporting them throughout that whole process. Right? So whether it means that you are checking on your little one, whether it means that you are sitting next to them and moving further and further away, you know, over time, there are many approaches that, that you can explore to ensure that the plan that you go with is something that you feel comfortable with because of news flash, all your friends can tell you, oh, you should totally do cry it out.

(09:46)
Your pediatrician can be telling you, cry it out is the best. If it doesn’t sit right with you, you’re not gonna be consistent with it. And it’s simply because you’re human, like humans are not designed to do something consistently. That just doesn’t feel good to them. So if that’s how you’re feeling right now, you don’t have to do it. Now. I do have people in my program that don’t, that do want to explore some form of cry out and that’s okay as well. Again, for a lot of circumstances like, you know, for toddlers or babies who have been bed sharing and babies that are used to waking up and eating very frequently at night. That’s usually not the route that we take regardless, but it’s still a possibility to explore depending on the situation. And by the way, the same thing goes with night feeds.

(10:35)
If your little one is waking up and eating five times a night, and the goal is to get them down to let’s say one night feed one night waking, there are many different approaches that we can take to get you from point a to point B that don’t need to involve just removing those four feeds cold Turkey. In fact, those are, those are four full feeds. You’re not gonna wanna be removing those four full feeds, cold Turkey anyways, cuz you’re gonna have a very hungry baby otherwise. And if you’re breastfeeding, you’re gonna be incredibly engorged and cursing my name in the middle of the night. So that is actually not something that I would be advising people to do in that situation. But what I wanna just emphasize is that just like with sleep training, when it comes to night weaning, there are many other different approaches that we can use to get you from point a to point B, depending on what your starting point is.

(11:28)
If you’re looking to go from two feeds to one, you might use one approach. Whereas if you’re looking to go from five feeds to one, then you might need a different approach. Considering your baby is used to eating much more frequently at night. So I just wanna emphasize that there is no one size fits all approach here. And if cry it out is not something that you want to do, you don’t have to do it and we can still get your little one sleeping like a champ. Okay? Now once we have your little one sleeping like a champ, we’re not done, we’re not done. Now. We move on to stage four, which I would argue is the most important stage out there. And a lot of people don’t even know exists. It exists. Stage four is maintenance. We got your baby sleeping. Now we need to keep your baby sleeping.

(12:18)
I don’t want you guys just getting a quick win, you know, for a hot second, your little one slept 11 hours. And then literally two hot seconds later is back to waking up three times. And unfortunately that can happen if we aren’t five steps ahead of the game. And so the key in stage four is to make sure that we are aware of all the various different transitions and milestones and regressions that can happen, um, that do happen and how to navigate them and prevent them ultimately from happening. And even if they do happen, how to nip them in the bud as quickly as possible so that they don’t turn into a bigger problem because without a plan in place, they can turn into a bigger problem. And as I said, I want sleep to always be a thing. So that’s why in my sleep Bible program, I have a whole section in stage four, taking you through how to navigate all these various different sleep Steelers.

(13:21)
That’s what I like to call that. So stage one of the approach is those sleep foundations, your little one sleep environment, routines, daytime nutrition, ensuring that those are all properly down pat and in place and conducive to good quality sleep, which then brings us to stage number two, which is ensuring that your little one has a correct and consistent biologically appropriate schedule so that they’re not overtired. And so that they’re napping when they need to be napping and sleeping, when they need to be sleeping again, those first two parts can be addressed in a matter of days, it’s not something that needs to take a huge amount of time. And then stage three is when the real fun happens, we teach your little one how to fall asleep and how to fall back to sleep independently. And if applicable, this is something that you want.

(14:15)
We also work on night, weaning removing some of those nighttime fees and transferring those calories to the day. And again, none of this needs to be done with any form of quiet out. There are many other approaches that we can explore here followed by stage four maintenance mode. We now wanna be able to go into cruise control and make sure that you’re a little one continues to be a champion sleeper look, things are always changing with your little one. They’re always getting older. And so we need to be on top of things. And because I am so passionate about helping exhausted moms, get their little ones sleeping and keep it that way. That was what inspired me to start my sleep Bible program, which is an incredibly affordable membership year long membership that helps you always make sure that sleep is a thing in your life.

(15:10)
So I hope that gives you the gist of what you are looking for. If you are looking to get started. And you’re just like, okay, this resonates with me. I’m hearing this. I am ready to get my little one sleeping. And I love this approach. I love this holistic method. Where do I begin? How do I begin? Start by watching my free masterclass. The link is in the shed show notes. It is all about how you can get your little one consistently sleeping through the night. So you can feel like a functioning human. So go and watch that masterclass right now. Thank you so much. Again, everyone for tuning in you all have a wonderful day.

(15:51)
Thank you so much for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review and share this episode with a friend who can benefit from it. I also love hearing from my listeners. So feel free to DM me on Instagram @mysleepingbaby, or send me an email at eva@mysleepingbaby.com until next time have a wonderful restful nights.