Parenting after 35
attended a baby sleep webinar today
This company in NYC does sleep teaching--they'll come to your house for a night or a half night and basically set up a plan to have your kid sleeping 12 hours a night (seriously!). I have a friend who used them and raves and raves--her 6 month old has STTN ever since. They're pricey, though. (like, $700 for a consult. eek.)
Today they held a web seminar where they walked through some good sleep info (that was only $35). I now actually believe it's possible to have Mally sleep longer than in 4 hour bursts! (It's nice when you're at the end of your rope and something renews your faith that things are possible 
)
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Re: attended a baby sleep webinar today
Oh, no offense taken--I totally agree, that's way way steep of a price (the seminar was $35, much more doable for me!).
Their 3 big things are the sleep environment, sleep schedule, and sleep associations. Environment = blackout shades, white noise, a comfortable temperature, a lovey, plus clearing all stimulating stuff out of the crib (including mobiles). Schedule = getting the baby on the right number of naps for her age, a consistent bedtime, and a routine. And associations = removing the negative ones (ie, stuff that's parent-dependent, like rocking to sleep, nursing to sleep, using a swing) and using the positive ones (ie, stuff that's constant or that the baby controls, like the lovey [it's big enough that a little baby without fine motor skills can grab for it], the white noise, a pacifier if the baby can put it back in her mouth if it falls out [the lovey if the baby's still too young] and/or thumb sucking).
In terms of an approach, they say you can really pick the one you want, as long as the above is all in place. She didn't have a favorite method--just said the most important thing is that the parents agree on the method and are really a united front.
I guess it's not revolutionary or something you can't find in a book, but for some reason I get overwhelmed when I read books about stuff like this and having it presented to me audibly allows me to make more sense of it.
We've got the environment down but I have often wondered about the mobile...its great when I want Brenna to occupy herself but when I'm trying to soothe her to sleep and she's got this big thing hanging in her face, she gets distracted.
What is a lovey and is Brenna too young to have one?
How do you know how many naps your LO should be taking?
And finally - how do you establish a bedtime?
I have been following the Eat, Activity, Sleep (Baby Whisperer) which also includes a back to back feeding at the end of the day....so instead of every 3 hours its 2 hrs...so some days her last bottle is at 8 and some days its 9, depending on her eating schedule that day. I don't do a dream feed. We do bath, pjs, bottle every night though.
We are not so good on the Parent Associations! I do have to rock her to sleep.