After reading several books on sleep training, nap training, and the like, I have finally decided to take the plunge and hire a sleep consultant. We were lucky enough to get a reference to a sleep consultant living right here amidts our town and so we have decided to hire her and see what she can possibly do to help. I am trying to keep an open mind but am convinced that my 2-year old is beyond training- I am convinced that my husband and I will be walking zombies for the rest of our adult lives - well, until I jump off a ledge or the kids go off to college that is.
Today, I finally got to speak with the lady we will be hiring to help us train our child to sleep - sure, the onus is on us and that lady will not be sleeping in our home experiencing our triumphs and set backs but she will be there available by phone and email. In any case, I hope the plan she develops for us works. If it does not, I may lose all hope together and decide to go ahead and jump off the tallest building in Denver- what is that building anyway? Does anyone know?
The consultant talked with me about some background information -ages, family lifestyle (i.e. do we work, stay at home, etc.), do we have a schedule for our toddler? Do we co-sleep or prefer the crib and separate bedroom? She is using all of this to hopefully help create a good plan for us. Fortunately, for us, our daughter is already getting used to her own room and sleeps there - she just needs one of us with her. Fortunately, for 28 days out of the month, our toddler is taking good afternoon naps unless we interrupt them of course. In any case, these are all good things I learned but now we work on sleep independence for her.
The consultant informed me that she does not work with infants younger than 4-5 months but that the same principles we learn for our toddler will apply to our infant in another few months and we could try it on our own. She also informed me that she has had no repeat customers. I am not sure that is good info or bad. My thoughts are people are too embarrassed or too broke to call her back :-) But in either case, there is no money back guarantee on good sleep. We will see what happens but in any case, I feel good that I am trying to take steps to get some sanity and sleep back and possibly some quiet times with my husband. Is it possible that we will have our bed back someday? I sure hope so... til then, I will soldier on the best I can and join the ranks of other walking zombies (A.K.A. parents).
