Does she sleep through?

A classic question that make parents feel like a failure.

I hate this question and it’s even worse when you’re a sleep consultant with a baby. People assume that the only right answer can be ‘yes –  she’s great and sleeps 12 hours at night,’ and that anything less is a huge failure. 

But in reality we all parent differently, have varying ideal goals in mind for us and our families and all cope in our own way. My aim is to help parents achieve what they want, by agreeing and implementing a plan that is sustainable. practical and positive. There isn’t one answer or one solution, and so I don’t have a one size fits all sleep routine. We make our own decision as parents regarding our children, that we have to feel comfortable with, whether this is co-sleeping, keeping night feeds, breastfeeding, bottle feeding, baby led weaning or any other parenting style or family routine.

This is no doubt a slightly different way of working than other sleep consultants and maternity nurses, who can be more set in their views about how baby’s can be trained to sleep, and what a ‘good’ sleeper looks like.

I recently came across a thread where someone was insisting that babies should be in bed at 7pm. Why? If Georgie went to bed at 7pm she wouldn’t see her daddy 5 days a week so 8.30/9pm works for us when we get to do the bedtime routine together. So her start to the day tends to be 8.30/9am, which allows me time in the morning to get some work done. This obviously doesn’t work for everyone but is perfect for us.

So in answer to the question –Georgie is a fabulous baby and brings our family so much joy. Does she sleep though? Her sleep works for us, I’m confident in my parenting decisions and when something isn’t working for us, I know how to change it. We are just coming out of the dreaded four month sleep regression, so I have been putting in place all the things I suggest to other parents when they want to change things.

The key thing is that sleeping through the night doesn’t have to be a milestone at a certain age.

So next time someone asks you that question maybe just tell them she sleeps like a baby! Fancy that!