sleepeasy solution - Stuff Parents Need

The Best, Most Affordable Sleep Training Materials Coming to Video!

September 9, 2013 · by Tiffany Merritt · 6 Comments

Tim and I didn’t sleep train Darah until she was 13 months old, and we were all completely miserable. We vowed that we would do it sooner on with Layah. And guess who was the biggest barrier to doing so? ME! I am a total wimp when it comes to hearing my babies cry, and so in my exhausted state of mind every night, I could never understand how going through sleep training was a better choice than getting up 4-7 times to rock her back to sleep.

Baby Sleep Training

Fortunately, Tim had his wits about him and knew something had to give by the time Layah was 8 months old. We decided to try The Sleepeasy Solution, and it CHANGED. OUR. WORLD! The book was fantastic, but what I loved the most was the DVD option. You got to watch families going through the process and see exactly how the different steps worked. I cried while I watched it because I was so overjoyed at seeing those infants and toddlers learn how to put themselves to sleep in just a matter of 2 or 3 days. And I was hopeful for what our life would look like once the adults in the house got to go through complete REM cycles!

So when I heard about the 16 part video series all about The Sleepeasy Solution on Mom Assembly, I was thrilled to have the chance to partner with the company to tell you all about it. For the price of $15 (which is roughly the same price as the book) you get the entire process laid out for you in easily digestible videos that Jen and Jill, the two ladies behind the program, have made. It is as if you are sitting in one of their workshops and learning right along side other weary, worn out moms and dads.

I reviewed the videos and I thought they were AWESOME! Jen and Jill both have such calming personalities, and they are gentle with their parents, and understanding of all their concerns. They have been working with parents and children for over 15 years, so they really have a firm understanding of what is going on to keep sleeping through the night at bay, and they have suggestions that, in my experience, really do work.

What I love about the video format of this information is that the steps in the process are broken down into very manageable pieces (each video is between 6-12 minutes in length). So you can watch them any time you have even just a few minutes to spare (and let’s be real, sometimes that really is all we have!). Additionally, when you purchase the video workshop, you have the ability to pose questions, and those questions might be answered by other parents who also purchased the program OR they might be answered by Jen or Jill! Having access to their personal feedback is something extra special. And if you want all the information they review in written format, they even have 27 pages of information available in worksheet format for you. Basically you are getting the best of everything for one very reasonable price!

I’ve never seen an online workshop offer this level of detail and this level of access to the presenters for this price. And the subject matter is a total game changer. Tim and I honestly refer to our lives as parents in terms of pre-and post sleep training!

Whether you have a 5 month old or a 5-year-old who won’t sleep through the night, Jen and Jill have a plan that can help, I promise. They actually promise, too, and they offer a money-back guarantee if you don’t see results after following The Sleepeasy Solution method with your child. You have nothing to lose but sleepless nights!

And if you aren’t personally struggling with this issue, but you know someone who is, this video series would be an amazing gift to give. Affordable and life changing; who could ask for more!

Mom Assembly

The Sleepeasy Solution is just one of several fantastic video workshops available on Mom Assembly. You can also find a wide variety of videos that cover the following topics:

Behavior
Discipline
Feeding and Nutrition
First Year
Health and Wellness
Marriage and Relationships
Newborn Care
Pregnancy
Safety
School Aged Children
Sleep
Special Needs
Toddlers
Working Moms

Prices for the videos start at the great low price of FREE (!) and many of the courses you will find are in the $10-$15 range. What an amazing resource. I wish it had been around when I was new to this whole parenting gig!

I’d love to hear what you think of the videos being offered. Are there any topics that you are struggling with and that you’d like to see some video resources for? Mom Assembly wants to offer solutions for moms who need some extra help, and they would be grateful for your suggestions!

How to Spring Forward without Messing Up Your Child’s Sleep Schedule

March 8, 2013 · by Tiffany Merritt · 6 Comments

It’s time to spring forward this weekend. Saturday night, before you go to bed, remember to set your clocks forward one hour. It stinks to lose that hour of sleep, but it is just one more signal that Spring (and Summer!) are on the way.

If you have any children at home, you also need to prepare them for the time change! The following is an excerpt from The Sleepeasy Solution. This is the book that changed our lives and helped us get Layah sleeping through the night. I will most definitely be doing exactly what they suggest below, and wanted to pass it on to you so that you can do it, too!

How to Help Children Adjust to Daylight Savings

Before bed, turn clocks ahead 1 hour. If your child normally sleeps till 6:30 AM, the next morning she will likely sleep till 7:30 AM. Her entire schedule – naps and bedtime – will then shift one hour later.If you’re happy about this change, great! Just protect her room from too much light in the early morning, and use white noise so she won’t wake with the birds.

If you’d rather help your child get back to her usual schedule, try the following:

1. Put your child down at her regular bedtime, say 7:30 PM, on Saturday night.

2. Set your alarm for 6:30 AM (according to the new clock) and wake your child at this time. To her, it will feel like it’s 5:30 AM, but don’t worry. She’ll be tired, but she’ll adjust.

3. If your child naps, put her down at her normal nap time according to the new clock and resume a normal schedule from there. Don’t allow her to nap longer than usual.

4. On Sunday night, put her down at her usual bedtime according to the new time.

For more information, check out The Sleepeasy Solution!

Shared with permission. No compensation was provided. Just wanted to share some great tips!

How We Established a Bedtime Routine That Really Works for Our Infant

February 11, 2013 · by Tiffany Merritt · 2 Comments

Recently I had a conversation with my older brother, who has an 18 month old son. His family has struggled and not yet had success getting their child to sleep through the night. My sister-in-law has been running a 102 fever for over 2 months now, and the doctors have simply concluded that she is so stressed out/sleep-deprived that her body just can’t recover from illness.

To say they are struggling would be a gentle way of putting it. And I know all to well how frustrating it can be to have other people who don’t walk in your shoes tell you EXACTLY what you are doing wrong and EXACTLY what you need to do to fix it. Ever notice how for any given problem there are at least 20 different solutions that other parents swear by, and sometimes those different solutions are even polar opposites of each other? It leaves parents utterly confused and doubting their instincts. Been there. Felt that way.

But I can also tell you that not every aspect of parenting is intuitive. Far from it! It is ok to be completely lost at sea and not know what to do. And it is ok to ask other parents for advice. You’ve just got to be prepared for folks to get their noses out of joint if you choose not to take their advice. Because that will happen!

Establishing a Bedtime Routine

So with all that said, I am going to give those of you who have a child who won’t sleep through the night some advice. You are free to take it or leave it. I won’t be offended if you aren’t interested in it! I simply want to share what is working for us. Maybe it will also work for some of you!

First and foremost, I recommend The Sleepeasy Solution, which is what helped us go from a baby who woke up every 90 minutes to a baby sleeping 11 hours straight, all within a 4 day time span.

Beyond, that, though, I want to recommend that you create and STICK TO a strict bedtime routine that your child will be able to recognize easily. We have found that “the routine” goes a long way toward helping our baby, Layah, get herself calm and ready for sleep.

Here’s the nighttime routine we are using:

1. Bath time! We show Layah the sign (we use some sign language with her) for a bath, which gets her VERY excited. She usually will crawl into the bathroom and stand by the tub, watching us fill it with water. She will also put tub toys in the bath while it fills up. It’s totally cute. Mommy’s Bliss Sweet Slumber 3-In-1 Baby Wash is what we are currently using, as it contains lavender, chamomile & ylang ylang in a very gentle formula.

2. To the room! After the bath, we dry her hair for about 30 seconds and then take her into her room to put on her diaper. After her diaper is on, we do a quick baby massage with Mommy’s Bliss Sweet Slumber Massage Cream. It is really amazing how quickly she will go from being very active to very calm. She knows that night time is near once her massage begins. After her massage, we put on whatever she is sleeping in that night. It is very important that all bedtime related activities (other than the bath, obviously) happen in her room.

3. Story time! Now it is time for 1-2 books. Darah often reads with us. Sometimes Layah sits attentively, and sometimes she crawls over to her crib, letting us know that she is ready for night night.

4. Bottle! This is Layah’s favorite part. Either mom or dad will rock Layah in the rocking chair and feed her a bottle. We also turn on some white noise at this point, as well. Layah holds onto her lovey (a small stuffed dog) while she drinks her bottle. The overhead light is off, and her closet light is on. At this point, if she is having trouble getting very drowsy, I will use the Mommy’s Bliss Sweet Slumber Mist and give a quick spritz to her bedding and her lovey. I don’t use it every night, just as needed.

Important note! We keep Layah awake during the feeding. Very important not to let her fall asleep while eating! Then we turn off the closet light and put her in her crib, drowsy but still awake. She usually rolls over on her side, cuddles on her lovey (a dog), and goes right to sleep.

What a dramatic change this is from just 6 weeks ago. Our lives are completely different! I’m enjoying using the Mommy’s Bliss products as part of our new routine. I feel confident about these products because they are made with essential oils that are historically known to assist with relaxation and sleep. Best of all, they are easy to find! You can purchase them at your local Walgreens (a place I shop at every week!).

I’d love to hear if you are having trouble getting your little ones to sleep, or if you have a routine that works like a charm! Feel free to leave a comment with your concerns, questions or solutions!

I received complimentary products for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own. This post may contain affiliate links at no cost to you.

How We Got Our Baby to Sleep Through the Night (Sleepeasy Solution Review and GIVEAWAY!!!)

January 7, 2013 · by Tiffany Merritt · 56 Comments

I’ve been looking forward to this day for months and months now. The day when I could share with you that my baby is soundly sleeping through the night. I assumed that she would do it pretty much on her own, just as her sister did around 6 weeks of age.

Long story short, I couldn’t have been more wrong, and as Layah got older, she seemed to get worse and worse at putting herself to sleep and at staying asleep. She had absolutely no clue how to do either and Tim and I were at a loss for how to teach her.

One of the many reasons I am so thankful for the Stuff Parents Need community is that I not only get to be a resource for all of you, but all of you pay it back by becoming a resource for me when I need it. I reached out on Facebook asking for tips and suggestions for getting a little one to sleep through the night. On both my Stuff Parents Need Facebook account and my personal account, the Sleepeasy Solution was mentioned and lauded, so I decided to check it out.

I had a great email conversation with one of the founders, and I could immediately tell that she felt a true calling to helping parents through the sleep troubles that plague so many infants and toddlers. I decided that I wanted to try out the system, and was sent a book and DVD.

Now, to be honest with you, I wondered if it was redundant to have the DVD and the book. I remember thinking, “just one or the other should be fine!” And you definitely can get a complete understanding of the system by just having one or the other, but I’m SOOOO glad I had both, and I’ll tell you why.

The book is great for some of the nitty gritty questions you may have. I definitely referenced it a few times as we ran into specific problems when trying to implement the system. On night two of our training, we had some major fails, and it was only after going back through the book and re-reading some sections that we realized a critical error we were making (we tried to wean Layah off night feedings too quickly).

And the DVD is something I would recommend SO strongly, as I can’t even begin to explain how helpful it was to watch parents implementing the system, and to see coaching taking place during those difficult moments. You guys, I cried and cried watching that DVD because I empathized with the struggles of the parents, and because I felt a glimmer of hope as I watched those babies get the hang of it and put themselves to sleep. I wanted that so badly for my little girl, and by watching the process, I was better able to accept what we needed to do.

So what is the process? The Sleepeasy Solution emphasizes a very predictable bedtime routine for your little one (something we thoughts we were doing but after watching the DVD, realized we totally WEREN’T doing!). It also emphasizes removing sleep crutches (no falling asleep on the breast, no falling asleep with a pacifier, no falling asleep on mommy or daddy). Tim had been walking the top floor of our house for months with Layah at night time, swooshing and bouncing her to get her to fall asleep. He’d have to do it 2-4 times a night. And she always had a pacifier at sleep time.

The removal of the pacifier scared me more than anything else. But it also excited me more than anything else, because we didn’t do the hard work with Darah when we should have, and as a result, she gave up her binky on her third birthday, and it was an ORDEAL. Could we really break the pacifier habit AND get Layah sleeping through the night all at once?!?!

The final component of the Sleepeasy Solution is to put your baby in the crib awake so that she falls asleep on her own. At first, of course your baby will cry. You are set up to go in after 5 minutes, again after 10 minutes, and then again every 15 minutes until the baby falls asleep. This is the hardest part because when you go in, you are not to touch your child. You are to have a soft, calm and very positive voice and simply let the baby know you are there, they are safe, and that they can do it.

I think one of the most difficult things for a parent to do is to watch their child struggle. Every bone in your body aches to fix it for your kid. But for us, 7 months of “fixing” her struggle at night time resulted in such sleep-deprivation for me and for Tim that we genuinely felt uncomfortable driving our cars. Our reflexes were impaired. And to say we were grumpy with each other would be a very kind way to put it. Without a very basic need like sleep being met, it is hard to give time or energy to higher order pursuits. In short, we were miserable and our baby was, too.

It took us 4 days for Layah to really get the hang of putting herself to sleep, but she’s got it, now. We don’t nurse or bottle feed after bed time anymore (another thing we were doing at all hours of the night previously). She doesn’t use a pacifier to sleep, and she sleeps from about 6:30 -5:30 every day now. She seems so much more rested and alert during the day and I can tell you that Tim and I are finally coming out of that fog of sleep-deprivation.

It is nothing short of glorious. I am so thankful to my readers for recommending this program and I am so glad that Tim and I put in the hard work for a few days so that we could totally turn around all the bad sleep habits we had unwittingly introduced our daughter to over time. We are all happier and healthier.

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I received complimentary products for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own.