Hey! Welcome to Day 4! For today’s lessons, I’d like you to work on the following…
› Watch the video about sleep props, regressions, and room environment
› Read the lesson below the video
› Download and read the Room Environment Checklist PDF
Sleep props…everyone has them! Some are good, and some are not-so-good. As adults, we have props like pillows, blankets, needing to sleep with a window open or fan on, having a sound machine, or keeping your socks on. You might have an extra pillow you like to snuggle with, besides the one you lay your head on. Whatever it is, we all have something we like in order to get to sleep each night. Well, our kids are no different! They might like their socks on too, or a pillow or blanket. They might have a “lovey” (ie comfort item like a stuffed animal, doll, small blanket, etc) or noise machine they like. All good props!
The not-so-good props are ones that involve you, like rocking or patting your child to sleep. Or it could be laying with them until they fall asleep, or letting them sleep in your bed (if that’s not something you’re interested in doing). It might be that they have a pacifier, or like to be nursed or take a bottle in order to fall asleep (#1 sleep prop, by the way). Whatever it is, it involves you, which is what you don’t want. Sleep training is really just teaching your child independent sleep skills that don’t involve you.
It’s important to recognize these props in your house, and what to do about them. Again, some you’ll want to keep and some you’ll want to ditch, so be sure to watch the video to see which is which! Also, in today’s video you learned about “regressions”. There’s only one that I think is legitimately a “regression”, and it’s actually not a regression but instead it’s a sleep milestone (just feels like a regression to most parents). I explained all about that in the video so that you could hopefully understand what was happening then and how to avoid it in the future should you have other children.
I also talked about room environments. Super important topic right here! These are basic things, but they can honestly be a game-changer if your child is having sleep issues. I went through all the things that you should be thinking about concerning your child’s bedroom (or yours if you’re room sharing). I’ve also included a PDF for you to download, read, and print if you want. It’s a room environment checklist, which goes into a bit more detail than even the video. I highly encourage you to go through this checklist before starting any sleep training. Again, these are basic sleep foundations, so you definitely want to make sure you’ve got these bases covered before you get started. In fact, you can work on these things right now while you’re continuing on with the course. I’ve compiled a list of “must-have” products that you should definitely check out to make sure you don’t miss anything. Don’t forget that you can ask questions below or in the Facebook group too!
