by Brooke Arevalo
Mom to Alynne, 2.5 & Fynnlan, 8 months; Husband: Ron
I remember when I was pregnant with my first child, I read so many parenting books and
articles. I’ll admit, at first I was just merely trying to see if there was a way to get my future child
to sleep as much as possible. I used to sleep until noon every weekend and getting to work at 9
was a struggle for me! As I began more research, I quickly realized that beyond my selfish
desires to be well rested, there was an actual method, and great benefits, to getting your baby
to sleep through the night early on. I know many people believe children will naturally learn to
fall asleep on their own, and I completely agree. They will certainly do this, but at what age? In
the same way I encouraged and pushed my 2 year old daughter to learn how to use the potty on
her own, I encouraged her as a baby to sleep through the night. Though she was not showing
“signs” of being ready to potty train, I knew she was capable. Within 2 days, she was trained
and hasn’t looked back. Of course, if we hadn’t pushed her, I’m sure she would have figured it
out on her own someday. And the same goes for our babywise efforts. After a week of sleep
training, both of our children have slept 12 hour stretches from 3-4 months on.
With the arrival of our second child, we saw immense benefits of babywise as we learned to
manage life with two. My oldest, was very easy to manage because she had a very predictable
routine and schedule, but until we began our sleep training efforts with our baby, it was a bit
chaotic in our house. As the baby got older, I saw that naturally his sleeping was getting worse.
Ironically, though I love my sleep dearly, I wasn’t concerned with waking up 5+ times a night
with him, the days were worse. During the days, he would wake up mid-nap and need to be
held the rest of the nap. While I did enjoy the cuddles, every time he woke up, it meant screen
time for my oldest while I tried to keep her quiet, or it meant I was working and typing one-
handed while I tried to multitask my workload. We quickly realized this was not sustainable for
anyone in our family. At 12 weeks old, we started sleep training, and after only 2 days of it, he
was taking 1.5+ hour naps and sleeping through the night!
I know there is no one correct way to parent, (and I have plenty of friends who would never
dream of parenting in this fashion!), but we have seen the benefits Babywise has brought to our
home. It might be tough in the beginning, but habits are much easier to fix at 3 months than 3
years!