Labor, as part of the birth process, is merely the first part of the process of becoming a mom. Many moms would probably agree that the real labor starts after baby is born. Moms and Dads know that being a parent is a full time job. A job that we cherish and relish and which brings a great amount of joy and love to our lives, but it’s still a job and raising a child is hard work!

So, we decided to celebrate the job of parenting with a Baby Sleep Site Giveaway. With this in mind, we’ve tried to come up with some prizes to help make our jobs as parents just a little easier. Of course, this means we’ve included some prizes to help with baby sleep because as we well know, when baby sleeps better, we sleep better.

Take a peek at our list of prizes and then read to the end to find out how you can enter to win in The Baby Sleep Site Labor Day Giveaway. It only takes a few seconds of your time.

GRAND PRIZE:

Dyson Handheld Vacuum Cleaner (Only U.S. residents are eligible to win the Hand Vac. A Grand Prize winner located outside of the U.S. will win a $100 gift card from Amazon, instead.)

One lucky Grand Prize winner will win a Dyson Handheld Vacuum Cleaner. The Dyson Hand Vac is perfect for those quick pick ups including cereal off the floor, crushed cookies in the carpet or cracker crumbs off your computer keyboard. It is lightweight and cordless which makes it easy to grab and clean in just minutes. As you may already know, Dyson is one of the best vacuums out there for sucking power and durability. This hand vac includes lifetime, washable filters so no bags are necessary and includes a lithium ion battery that charges up to three times faster than others.

RealSleep CDs

Six winners will receive one of the RealSleep CDs. RealSleep is a CD you play while you or your child are going to sleep. Created by a neuroscientist, it uses nearly-inaudible sounds embedded in music to help you or your child go to sleep faster and stay asleep longer. RealSleep has generously given us six copies of their RealSleep Children’s CD to giveaway to Baby Sleep Site readers. This version is optimized for children’s higher hearing range and can help balance the mechanisms to help children go to sleep more quickly and stay asleep longer. While not a substitute for teaching a baby or toddler how to fall asleep on their own, the RealSleep CDs sounds can help trigger the body’s natural processes for falling asleep and staying alseep. Read more on their website about RealSleep CDs.

Gift Certificate to My Baby Pajamas

Everyone knows that comfort is one of the key elements to a good night’s sleep and this includes what we wear to bed. My Baby Pajamas has some of cutest and snuggliest pajamas around. And not just for babies! They have pajamas available for kids up to age 14 and for adults as well. My Baby Pajamas wanted to be able to provide parents with a place where they can find cute, cuddly, durable pajamas at a reasonable cost. You can shop for a boy or girl, by age or by brand. We have a $30 gift certificate to use on MyBabyPajamas.com for one lucky winner. You can check out all the pajama cuteness at www.MyBabyPajamas.com

Babble Soft- Baby Insights Day Tracker

Ditch the notebook, pitch the scraps and scribbles, and reclaim control over your time. The Baby Insights Day Tracker™ gives you one central place to store information about your baby’s care. These tools provide everything you need to give your life that perfect level of structure whether you are needing to schedule your day or are a mom returning to work and need to coordinate with the nanny or caregiver. The new solids and mom’s food tracker helps track down food sensitivities in breast milk or new foods given to your baby.

Baby Insights gives you instant round-the-clock web and mobile access to your baby’s daily schedule log, so no matter where you are, you can quickly update and review: breastfeeding or bottle feeding sessions, the time and amount of feeding, sleep time and durations, solid feeding, mom’s food, diaper changes, medication dosages and developmental milestones. (Also works as a great baby shower gift!)

Two winners will get a FREE three-month subscription to Babble Soft to track baby’s sleep, feedings, pumping, medication doses, etc. You can find more information about Babble Soft at www.babblesoft.com.

And, last, but not least:

The Baby Sleep Site^TM

After sleep coach and owner, Nicole Johnson, overcame her son’s sleeping issues in a way that complemented her own parenting style, and after such a happy success, she knew it was her mission to help other tired parents “find their child’s sleep.” Your baby’s sleep shouldn’t be stressful and The Baby Sleep Site strives to provide a strong, non-judgmental, support network to help you and your family sleep better. Our website has helped countless families through free online articles, step-by-step e-Books, and private and personalized sleep consulting services.

Two (2) people will win the 2 e-mail sleep consultation package to help with your sleep struggles. You’d be surprised how far you can get in just two e-mails! If you already have an account, your account will be credited.

Deadline to enter is Monday, September 6, 2010, 8:59 p.m. EDT.

Here is how you can enter:

(*Please note that all shipped prizes are available to US residents only.)

1. Leave a comment below, preferably a brief story of the labor of one or all of your babies! – 1 entry

2. Stumble this post. – 1 entry (Leave a comment that you stumbled)

3. Follow one of our sponsors on Twitter. The following sponsors are on Twitter (and you can receive one (1) entry per sponsor followed):

BabySleepSite, BabbleSoft, BabyPajamas.

4. Tweet about this giveaway with a link back to this post and the tag #parentingrocks. The tag will allow us to track and locate your tweet entry. – 1 entry (You can enter as many times as you wish! Tweet daily!)

Sample Tweet: “I just entered the Labor Day Giveaway by The Baby Sleep Site™! http://bit.ly/9pWvai #parentingrocks”

5. Subscribe to this blog, the Babble Soft blog or My Baby Pajamas blog. One (1) entry for each blog subscription. Please post in the comments which blogs you subscribed to.

Baby Sleep Site Blog via RSS or via E-Mail, Babble Soft Blog via RSS or via E-Mail, My Baby Pajamas via RSS Feed

6. Connect with any of the sponsors on Facebook and get one entry per Fan Page you join. Please post in the comments which Facebook Fan Pages you belong to.

The Baby Sleep Site Facebook Fan Page

Babble Soft Facebook Fan Page

My Baby Pajamas Facebook Fan Page

7. Blog about this giveaway on your blog. Include a link to this giveaway post in your blog post. Please post a link to your blog post in the comments. Blog posts must be posted publicly and not on membership sites to be entered. – 10 entries

Good luck!

With both our boys, we used The 3-Day Potty Training Method by Lora Jensen (no affiliation). Truth be told, neither boy was potty trained in just three days (though my first was done with pee within 3 days), but I can see how some might. Compared to a lot of struggling parents I have read about, it was a very quick method both times, so I do recommend the method and she has a lot of good strategies for common pitfalls.

Below are the 6 ways potty training is like sleep training (and probably MILLIONS of other things we need to teach our children):

Sleep Training and Potty Training take initiative and bravery

The first step is often the hardest to take. The fear of the unknown and how your baby will respond to sleep training or your toddler to potty training is scary and paralyzes us from moving forward. Truth be told, I loved the idea of being diaper-free, but was not looking forward to potty training. It takes awhile until they are truly independent and it was awhile until we felt “free” when our older son was potty trained. This is similar to how it feels never-ending if your baby doesn’t sleep 11-12 hours at night, consistently, right after you sleep train.

There were many days I remember thinking diapers were a bit easier in those early days. But, it’s a step you know you have to take one day and I knew waiting too long only gets them more set in their ways. This is one reason I recommend sleep training sooner rather than later, when you feel your baby is ready, and before they are pulling up, crawling, etc. We potty trained around 2 1/2 years old with both boys and it was a perfect age for them, maybe a little old for my first, actually.

Sleep Training and Potty Training takes confidence

With The 3-Day Potty Training Method you essentially go to underwear, day and night, and not look back. With our first, he was at least waking up dry in the morning, but not our younger. He would even leak his diaper, some days. With our first we were lucky and never had a bed-wetting accident, even at night, but we knew this would probably not be the case this time. And, we were right.

That first night potty training, he wet the bed, but the worst part was he was so awakened and intrigued by us changing the sheets that he was up for 1 1/2 to 2 hours that first night. It was so brutal that the next day we broke one of the method’s “rules” and bought Pull-Ups, the kind that gets cold, to save us from another rough night, but hoped we weren’t undoing the potty training. With the “cold pull-up” he did wake up when he peed in the pull-up, but only did so enough to get out of bed and lay on the floor outside his room (don’t ask me why). We didn’t even know until we went upstairs awhile later and we put underwear on him (my plan was only to use one pull-up a night) and he woke up dry that morning. That was the last day he fully peed the bed since. There was only one other day he started to poop at the end of his nap and that was it. We didn’t have the utmost confidence that he COULD hold it all night, but he really could do it! It really reminded me that you need to have confidence in your baby or toddler’s ability, even though it’s scary and might disrupt your own sleep, temporarily. With sleep training, it’s the same. I can’t tell you how many parents are afraid to take the first step, but then see that just a few days later they have a baby who can sleep!

Sleep Training and Potty Training take being realistic and expecting setbacks

Most people expect accidents during potty training, so it surprises me when they don’t always expect setbacks with sleep. Whenever you learn a new skill, there will be days you do it well and days you seem to be re-learning for the first time. Practice makes perfect and you need to be realistic that your baby might not sleep well every night, no matter what those books say!

Sleep Training and Potty Training take consistency

People preach and preach that “consistency is key” and it’s 100% true. Consistency can come in different forms. For example, since day and night sleep are handled by two different parts of the brain, you can focus on nights first and then worry about days (or vice versa) and still be “consistent”. I find other ways, in a personalized sleep consultation, to remain consistent.

With both potty training and sleep training, consistency is very important. When sleep training, we had to make sure we put our son down before he was asleep or we’d end up back to where we started. When we were potty training him, he pooped in his underwear ONE time and that turned into a habit that lasted a month. With our younger son, this time, we were much better at consistency and he “got it” a lot faster.

Sleep Training and Potty Training take patience

Patience is an important aspect of both sleep training and potty training, too. It’s very often that a baby will have an off-night or struggle with learning a new skill. With potty training, it’s very common for a toddler to have accident after accident while he learns the sensation to look for before he actually goes. It’s a lot messier, but going straight to underwear helps them learn this sensation faster just like actually falling asleep without a pacifier, breastfeeding, bottle, etc. will help your baby learn to sleep faster than having them try and then you put them to sleep.

Sleep Training and Potty Training take encouragement

When your baby or toddler is learning something new, it’s a great idea to give them positive reinforcement and cheer through their successes and be understanding during their failures. It’s the same for both sleep training and potty training. Even though you might not believe your baby can understand everything you say, she can very much understand tone of voice and their level of understanding happens sooner than you think. Talk often to your baby and encourage them, so they can gain confidence in themselves. If she is old enough, consider a sticker chart.

Digression: I find it interesting that it is “okay” to say you are potty training a child, but if you say you are sleep training, people say “they aren’t a dog you train.” In reality, both instances are really teaching your child a skill that takes time, patience, and work to learn. And, just like sleep training, how long it takes to potty train varies by child, where some will get it in a day and others might take months, I’m sure. Digression over.

So, what happened?

My 2 1/2 year old son had numerous accidents that first week, but within just a few days we were down to about one a day. By two weeks he was accident-free both day and night, pee and poop, and sleeping through the night, again! Sure, he has an “oops I thought that was gas and now I have poop in my underwear” moment, but for the most part, we are now done with diapers and loving it!

Comment below on your potty training or sleep training experiences. Did I miss anything?

Baby Signing As Part Of A Bedtime Routine

Many parents know the importance of a bedtime routine. A bath, followed by milk and cuddles, then a story, is the foundation of a good night’s sleep. Learning the signs for Bath and Milk are fun ways for baby to communicate with you at this important time of the day. When Mom signs that it’s bath time, your baby will understand what is to come, and feel more secure and confident. Babies love to know what’s happening – and their confidence increases every time they correctly predict what will happen next.

Baby Signing Reduces Frustration

Tiredness and frustration are a major cause of a baby not sleeping well. Baby sign language is proven to reduce frustration in babies and toddlers. As their understanding grows, their ability to communicate also grows, along with their confidence. A happy, contented baby goes to sleep more easily than an anxious, frustrated one.

The Tiredness Trick

When a baby is still young, she will need at least one nap a day, as well as around 11-12 hours sleep a night. Some babies are masters at hiding the fact that they are tired! Watching for and learning your baby’s drowsy signals will help you to know when it’s time for a nap or bed. As part of everyday signing, babies learn signs for Tired and Sleep. With repetition and regular practice, your baby will learn to recognize when she is tired. This prevents over-tiredness, a common cause of disrupted sleep.

Baby Sign Language at Bedtime and Practicing

It’s a good idea to practice the bedtime routine through play. Making the signs for Tired and Sleep, show your little one that Teddy is tired and wants to sleep now. Put him to bed and read him a story. Leave the room for a moment then go back in to wake him up. Repeating this play will teach your baby that Mommy or Daddy will always come back when sleeping time is over.

Bonding With Baby Sign Language

Signing with your baby creates, over time, a fantastically strong bond. Sleeping alone (nighttime separation) is not as stressful for babies who are securely attached. Signing gives lots of opportunities for positive attention throughout the day, reducing the need for babies and toddlers to ‘play up’ at nap times. Parents are more confident about understanding their baby, so aren’t as anxious if there is a little ‘tired’ crying when baby’s in bed.

Baby Signs To Help With Your Baby’s Sleep

To sign Tired, extend your fingers and hold them together. Start with your fingers touching your chest, with your elbows up. Drop your elbows down. It is as if you are so tired you cannot keep holding your arms up.

To sign Sleep, start with fingers extended and spread apart. Beginning with your hand over your face, move your fingers down to end with your hand below your chin and your fingers touching your thumb. To add to the sleepy effect, as you make the sign feel your face relax and your eyes get droopy.

The milk sign is a lot like milking a cow (or goat), but without the vertical motion – you are just squeezing the udder. You take both hands, make them into a fist, relax, and repeat. You will notice most babies have trouble moving all fingers together at uniform speeds, but any kind of repeated squeezing and relaxing of the hand is likely milk.

To sign Bath, make a fist out of your two hands, then move the fists vertically up and down your chest. The sign looks a lot like someone scrubbing themselves with both hands.

Be sure to check out the Baby Sign Language website for any questions you have in helping your baby with their daily routine through signing. This a free resource to all the mother’s and father’s out there who want to start signing with their baby.

How much sleep your baby needs, on average:

• Newborns to 3 month olds: 10-11 hours at night, 4-5 hours day in 4-5 naps (short naps are common)

• 4 to 5 month olds: 10-12 hours at night, 2-4 hours day in 3-4 naps (at least two 1+ hour naps)

• 6 to 8 month olds: 11-12 hours at night, 2-3 hours day in 2-3 naps (two 1+ hour naps and 1 short one)

• 9 to 17 month olds: 11-12 hours at night, 2-3 hours day in 1-2 naps (1+ hour long)

• 18 month olds to 3 years: 10-12 hours at night, 1 nap (1 to 3 hours long)

• 3 to 5 years: 10-11 hours, sometimes 1 nap (1 to 2 hours, usually), but most lose between 3 & 4)

• 5 years+: 9-10 hours, no nap

Keep in mind these are just average baby sleep needs, so some will naturally fall below and some above. If your baby is sleeping a lot more, and you are concerned, you should talk to your doctor. Typically, your baby may just need a lot of sleep, but since that is less time to learn and play, you’ll want to make sure if your baby’s sleep needs are excessively high. If your baby is waking up a lot at night or taking short naps, these averages might feel very far-fetched and like a dream.

How much sleep your baby gets and whether your baby gets enough sleep will depend on quite a few factors including your diligence in keeping your baby on routine, providing the opportunity for enough sleep, and their personality / willingness to sleep. We can’t *make* our babies sleep, we can only provide the opportunity.

Here are a few tips to make sure your baby gets the sleep she needs:

• Keep in mind the average amount of sleep appropriate for your baby’s age.
• Know your specific baby’s average by logging your baby’s sleep for a week or two.
• Don’t fall into the trap that later bedtime or keeping babies up longer will promote longer naps or better night sleep or waking later in the morning. Over-tiredness is the #1 reason babies take short naps, have more night-wakings, and wake earlier in the morning. Strange, but true. Consider reviewing our sample baby sleep and feeding schedules.
• Don’t fall into the trap thinking your baby doesn’t need more sleep because she’s happy all the time. Some babies get cranky without enough sleep and others don’t. Even if your baby is happy, she may still need more sleep than you are offering.
• If your baby is sleeping less than the averages and is happy, then don’t stress too much that you are forcing more sleep than she can sleep. If you know HER average and she’s getting close to that AND she’s happy, breathe a sigh of relief.
• Adjust how much sleep your baby needs as she gets older. Most of the time, babies will not need two hours less sleep overnight. However, your baby will slowly need less over time. This should only decrease at a slow rate, though.

Knowing how much sleep your baby needs is the first step to better sleep. Figuring out how to get that much sleep is a whole other matter. Hopefully these tips help get you on the right path.

How Much Sleep Does Your Baby Need and How Old is Your Baby?

Imagine, you are learning to ride a bike. Your parents have put training wheels on your bike to stop you from falling. But, now it’s time for you to learn how to ride your bike on your own. Your parents tell you it’s time to take the training wheels off, but they’re still holding your shoulders as you pedal down the street. All of a sudden they ask you “Are you ready for me to let go?” and you say “I think so.” and they let go and you are off riding your bike all on your own. You look back and seeing your parent has let go of the bike, you freak out, and you fall down, scraping your knee.

It scared you to think that your parent was no longer holding on to you as you rode your bike. You fell down because you lost your focus and confidence. You are scared and you never want them to let go again. Maybe you’ll just never know how to ride a bike by yourself.

At this point, your parent has three choices: a) Put the training wheels back on, b) Keep holding on to your bike while you ride up and down the street, or c) Let go again and hope this time you learn to ride on your own. Having the age and wisdom, your parents know that you CAN ride a bike and all you need is practice and confidence. If they choose the third option, they can find a gentler way to teach you how to ride a bike. But, one thing remains the same: It is very difficult to learn to ride a bike without some falling and we parents want to cushion your fall as much as possible.

When it comes to helping your baby sleep, you might use “training wheels” in the form of a pacifier or rocking your baby to sleep or feeding your baby to sleep or some other sleep crutch, but one day you will realize that it’s your fault your baby won’t sleep and it’s time to take the training wheels off. You have decided that what your baby once NEEDED to sleep, now it’s simply a crutch, hindering him from actually learning how to sleep well on his own.

There are endless sleep training or coaching strategies (are you sleep training a tortoise or a hare?), but one thing that remains the same with all of them: it is difficult to convince your baby that she can sleep on her own without some crying just like it’s difficult to learn to ride a bike without falling. Does that mean you send your child outside to ride a bike on her own or let her cry it out all alone in her crib in her room? Not necessarily. Some people abruptly “let go” of the bike without telling their child “ripping off the band-aid” and others hold on for years and know that, eventually, she will learn to ride a bike. Everybody parents differently and you should have confidence in that your way is the right way for YOUR family.

Did you know there are many children and adults who don’t know how to ride a bike? Did you know that some adult sleep problems have been linked back to childhood? Did you know that sleep problems in children are now being linked to young adult drug and alcohol problems? I only just learned that because the study just came out this year. Here is a significant finding of that study:

“We found that ‘having trouble sleeping’ in early childhood, ages three to five, predicted a higher probability of ‘having trouble sleeping’ in adolescence, ages 11 to 17, which in turn predicted the presence of drug-related problems in young adulthood ages 18 to 21,” said Wong. “Overtiredness in early childhood predicted lower response inhibition — that is, having problems inhibiting impulses and behavior — in adolescence, which predicted higher numbers of illicit drugs used. Overtiredness in childhood also directly predicted the presence of binge drinking, blackouts, driving after drinking alcohol, and the number of lifetime alcohol problems in young adulthood.”

Now, I know that the parents who read this site won’t necessarily have children in this high-risk group because I know that you are working on your sleep issues. This article is mostly to encourage you to work on it sooner rather than later and to resist the temptation to avoid all tears at all costs.

Crying is part of the way babies communicate. She may have trouble finding that confidence that she CAN do this without you getting out of her way a little bit and “letting go”. Stay with her to encourage and support her through the transition, if you wish, but don’t keep “holding on” to avoid her disappointment and crying. We all need to fall down sometimes to learn how to get back up and it’s part of growing up. Only you can decide the “right” time for her to learn to sleep on her own. I promise you that most of the time the first few nights are the worst and things can get ten times better after that.

If you need help developing a personalized sleep plan for your unique situation, when you are ready, make sure you check out our baby sleep consulting services, where we work with you on a plan YOU can feel good about.

What is your view on crying and baby’s sleep?

Unfortunately, for some of us, sleeping in the crib is just a nice dream. After you had your baby, you might have purposely decided to keep baby in your room in a co-sleeper bassinet and imagined transitioning her to her own room and crib around 6 months old when she was sleeping through the night. When she turned 6 months, you might have learned it’s not that easy to transition baby to sleep in her crib and I’m here to help!

One thing I want to emphasize is that only some people can sleep anytime, anywhere. My husband happens to be that way (as I’m typing this, he just started snoozing on the couch next to me). Only some of our babies will sleep in a stroller (my boys are NOT among them!) and only a few will transition to sleep in a crib without a hitch. For three days my younger son slept in a Close and Secure Sleeper in our bed and then we put it into the crib and it was an easy transition. My older son (who inspired this site) was not so adaptable, which is why I did make a whole site about baby sleep.

When your baby is a newborn, she might not sleep in her crib because it’s far away from anyone who she seeks comfort from, mommy and daddy. And, it might seem too big compared to the womb, especially if she isn’t swaddled.

Months later, now your baby won’t sleep in the crib because it’s the equivalent of you going to sleep in the guest room. It is only her bed because you said it’s her bed. Your nursery might be beautiful, but to her, she may as well be in a different house when she’s trying to sleep in “her room”. Some adults can’t sleep well in a hotel (even the nice ones) for the same reason: It’s not your bed.

Once again, sleep associations come into play in how your baby knows how to fall asleep. Does she need to move to sleep (via rocking chair, bouncing ball, or bouncy seat)? Does she need to suck to sleep (via pacifier, nursing, or bottle)? And, is she in a comfortable place to sleep? Up until now she hasn’t slept in her crib, so why would that be a comfortable place today just because she turned 5 or 6 months old?

How to Get Your Baby to Sleep in the Crib

The #1 goal in helping your baby sleep in the crib is to make it feel like HER room and HER bed. Here are a few tips you might consider:

• Consider putting YOUR bed in HIS room for a few days.
• Make sure you spend non-sleep time in HIS room
• Have him sleep on his own crib sheet for a few days, so it has his scent
• YOU sleep on his crib sheet for a few days, so it has YOUR scent
• Give it time. Don’t expect it to go perfectly the first day. It might take a few days to a couple of weeks, but the first few nights will most likely be the most difficult. Expect it to be rough and he might just surprise you, but do expect it to take work. Only some will have an easy transition.

One thing you want to do is make sure your baby knows how to fall asleep on his own, FIRST. Otherwise, you are simply going back and forth from your room to his all night, instead of reaching over a foot or two (or if you are co-sleeping, maybe just a few inches). Even if your baby is sleeping great in your room, if she has trouble adjusting, make sure you are sensitive to the fact that this is a new place for her and don’t just let her cry it out. Some babies actually sleep BETTER, immediately, once they are in their own space, not smelling Mommy’s milk or hearing Daddy’s snoring all night long.

If you need help in getting your baby to sleep, please consider our 3-Step System to Help Your Baby Sleep e-Book (plus bonus materials) or our baby sleep consultations, where I will work with you on a personalized sleep plan that you can feel good about for your unique baby and your unique situation.

How Did You Get Your Baby to Sleep in the Crib?

The winners have all been notified by email.

Flip Video Camera to one lucky winner to give to or share with the dad in their life. What a great opportunity to be able to capture all of life’s special moments or even quite possibly create the next YouTube video sensation. (Have you seen the video this kid’s dad made of him after a visit to the dentist? Over sixty million views! A very patient dad, indeed.)

The Flip Ultra Camera is a compact, easy to use hand held camera that can capture up to 120 minutes of video on 4 GB of built in memory. This camera not only makes it easy to capture video of kids and family in action with just the push of a button but it makes it simple to download onto your computer and share with friend and family. The Flip Ultra Camera comes with a flip USB arm that plugs directly to your computer automatically launching the FlipShare software. This software lets you easily manage and share your videos by email or uploading online. There is a large 2 inch screen on the back for immediate playback.

Winner: Rebecca B. Congratulations! We’ll look forward to seeing that next YouTube sensation.

Mastering Naps and Schedules e-Book- We will be giving away two copies of the Mastering Naps and Schedules e-book. If naps are a struggle or if you have questions about how much and how often your baby or toddler should be napping, then this is the book for you. This book covers how to help your child learn to nap longer, why naps are so important for nighttime sleep, how to break baby’s dependence on you to fall asleep, how to help your early riser learn to sleep later, and includes over 40 sample schedules…plus much more!

Winners: Jennifer and Hannah R.

The 3 Step System to Help Your Child Sleep- There are also two copies of this e-book up for grabs. This book helps you design a 3 step a sleep coaching plan that works for you and your family. It also includes a quick reference guide with age-specific sleep guidelines and sleep log for tracking your child’s sleep patterns. Whether you are interested in co-sleeping, crying it out, setting schedules, night weaning or feeding at night, this book covers it all!

Winners: Jeaninne and Julia

3 Month Membership to our Members Area- Two more lucky winners will each receive a 3 month membership to our Members Area which is packed with premium content. The Members Area includes access to all three of the Baby Sleep Site’s e-books, (including the two mentioned above), access to a member’s only chat room (with weekly expert advice), quarterly tele-seminars with a Q&A Session, and archived tele-seminars. With membership to the Members Area, you will also be eligible to purchase baby sleep consultations at 20% off!

Winners: Patricia and Nicole R.

Congratulations to all of our winners and many thanks to everyone who entered.

When big changes in our house happen, I can bank on my sons’ sleep being affected. I could probably go to Vegas and, if they’d give me odds, I could win some money, even. When my son was a baby, a routine change would set us back a week, MINIMUM.

This week a big change in our life is happening. The boys had a nanny and now it’s time to move onto school. It is a big transition, especially for my youngest. It was not a decision taken lightly and I knew there would be adjustments…for all of us. We will miss her dearly and hope she finds another family quickly. God bless her that she’s helping us transition the boys slowly, so we can ease them in. If anyone needs a nanny, I’d gladly refer her.

On top of this big change, *I* need a change. I sit at my computer no less than 10-12 hours a day. I don’t get enough exercise and my once ultra-healthy diet has turned into semi-healthy, sometimes. I don’t weigh too much more than pre-kids, but it’s what’s IN my body I don’t like. I need exercise, but where to find the time?

So, I made this nifty, nerdy calendar using Google Calendar that makes it easy for me to see a whole week at-a-glance and color-code it into family, work, “me” time, exercise, cleaning, etc. Yes, it’s a little crazy, but I’m visual and needed to “see” where I could fit in the time. My husband laughed at me, but hey, I need to do what I need to do, right? Know what time I found to exercise? 5:30-6 a.m. on Tuesday and Thursday plus a class I’m taking with my friend on Sundays 2-3 p.m.

Last night, both boys woke up in the middle of the night, one with a nightmare (which isn’t too uncommon even on a normal day) and one, twice, just because. I KNEW it would come this week. After all, I logged my sons’ sleep for months. I know them. And if you think getting up with one is hard, it is. Getting up with two is downright brutal! But, being the great mom that I am, I cuddled each of them knowing a) that this is a phase, a big transition going to school (yesterday was their first day) and b) I have learned well how to avoid making this into a long-term habit (since I’ve been through these things so many times now): Be loving and encouraging, but draw the line somewhere. Oh, and try not to co-sleep, unless I want to do it every night.

When my alarm went off at 5:25 a.m., I hit snooze. Then, I opened my eyes. I got up. I tried to talk myself OUT of exercising. I put on my exercise clothes and told myself “Just do 10 minutes.”

I walk down the stairs and I hear chirping. Are those the baby birds we’ve been watching for the last couple of weeks outside our bathroom window? Today was the first day I heard them chirp (they just opened their eyes a day or two ago). I peek out and I see the mommy bird feeding them worms and the whole family looked so happy. It melted my heart. If mommy bird can fly around at the crack of dawn to find worms for her babies, then I can exercise! And, just like that I did 20 minutes on the treadmill, thought of this article and typed it up, all before 6:30 a.m.

So, this message is for you to go out and find YOUR motivation today to tackle your baby’s sleep (or make any change in your life you’ve been putting off). It might not be the 12 hours a night you’re looking for, but start with 10 minutes. You might surprise yourself and get the 12 hours anyway.

What’s YOUR motivation to tackle on your baby’s sleep?

So, with that in mind, we will be giving away a new Flip Video Camera to one lucky winner to give to or share with the dad in their life. What a great opportunity to be able to capture all of life’s special moments or even quite possibly create the next YouTube video sensation. (Have you seen the video this kid’s dad made of him after a visit to the dentist? Over sixty million views! A very patient dad, indeed.)

The Flip Ultra Camera is a compact, easy to use hand held camera that can capture up to 120 minutes of video on 4 GB of built in memory. This camera not only makes it easy to capture video of kids and family in action with just the push of a button but it makes it simple to download onto your computer and share with friend and family. The Flip Ultra Camera comes with a flip USB arm that plugs directly to your computer automatically launching the FlipShare software. This software lets you easily manage and share your videos by email or uploading online.  There is a large 2 inch screen on the back for immediate playback.

*Please note that the Flip Camera prize is available to US residents only.

Of course, we want to ensure that Dads (and Moms!) are getting good sleep so we will also be offering the following Baby Sleep Site ™ prizes:

Mastering Naps and Schedules e-Book- We will be giving away two copies of the Mastering Naps and Schedules e-book. If naps are a struggle or if you have questions about how much and how often your baby or toddler should be napping, then this is the book for you. This book covers how to help your child learn to nap longer, why naps are so important for nighttime sleep, how to break baby’s dependence on you to fall asleep, how to help your early riser learn to sleep later, and includes over 40 sample schedules…plus much more!

Help Your Child Sleep- A Step by Step Guide- There are also two copies of this e-book up for grabs. This book helps you design a step by step a sleep coaching plan that works for you and your family. It also includes a quick reference guide with age-specific sleep guidelines and sleep log for tracking your child’s sleep patterns. Whether you are interested in co-sleeping, crying it out, setting schedules, night weaning or feeding at night, this book covers it all!

3 Month Membership to our Members Area- Two more lucky winners will each receive a 3 month membership to our Members Area which is packed with premium content. The Members  Area includes access to all three of the Baby Sleep Site’s e-books, (including the two mentioned above), access to a member’s only chat room (with weekly expert advice), quarterly tele-seminars with a Q&A Session, and archived tele-seminars. With membership to the Members Area, you will also be eligible to purchase baby sleep consultations at 20% off!

Deadline to enter is Sunday, June 20, 2010, 8:59 p.m. EDT.

Here’s how to enter:

You can enter using all the methods and enter multiple times per day by tweeting about the giveaway.

1. Leave a comment telling us what’s special about the dad in your life and why you would like to see him win.

2. Follow us on Twitter (@babysleepsite) and tweet the following:

Baby Sleep Site Father’s Day Giveaway! Enter to win a Flip Ultra Video camera for Dad. http://bit.ly/flipdads #babysleep

3. Subscribe to The Baby Sleep Site on YouTube.

4. Join The Baby Sleep Site on Facebook AND leave a comment on our Facebook page letting us know you joined.

5. Click on the Facebook Share button below and post this giveaway as a status update on your Facebook profile. This button lets us keep track of how many people shared on Facebook, but be sure to also leave us a comment below letting us know you shared it on Facebook with all of your Friends.

6. Subscribe to receive updates from us via RSS Feed or by email: Baby Sleep Site Blog via RSS or via E-Mail

7.  Blog about this giveaway on your blog. Include a link to this giveaway post in your blog post. Please include a link to your blog post in the comments. Blog posts must be posted publicly and not on membership sites to be entered. – 10 entries

What does it mean to have your baby sleep through the night?

For me, “baby sleeping through the night” meant my baby sleeping 10-12 hours without feedings. It was around 4 months old, with both breastfed sons, that they started sleeping pretty much straight through with two feedings at night, so I couldn’t really expect much more than that. Sleep was not perfect (particularly with my eldest son because why else would I have a whole website about baby sleep?), but it was ten times better once I changed their sleep associations with needing to breastfeed to sleep or be rocked to sleep all night long. Of course, that’s the trickiest part of this crazy thing about getting babies to sleep and why it’s never a simple answer or silver bullet (oh how I wish it were! I’d e-mail everyone my silver bullet RIGHT NOW!).

One thing I know for certain is regardless of whether you think of “sleeping through the night” is with or without feedings, it can feel like your baby will never do it. If it’s not one thing it’s another. If it’s not a feeding, replacing a pacifier, or rocking her to sleep, it’s cold in her room. If it’s not cold, maybe it’s hot. If it’s not temperature, your baby is now teething. Later on, with your toddler or preschooler, it might even be night terrors or nightmares. You will think of a million reasons about maybe WHY she isn’t sleeping through the night and you might seriously start feeling like it’s a pipe dream that will ever happen.

When Will Your Baby Sleep Through the Night?

Obviously, I can’t really look into my crystal ball to tell you when YOUR baby will sleep through the night (I save the crystal ball for winning the lottery, but for some reason it’s on the fritz right now), but I can tell you that I’ve heard it all when it comes to doctors telling parents when their baby shouldn’t need anymore night feedings and should be sleeping all night. I can also tell you that parents who are skeptical that their 3-month old breastfed baby can go without any feedings for 12 hours per night, you should be. 12 hours is a LONG time, even for many adults and if your baby is breastfed, she will likely need to eat at night a bit longer than her formula-fed friends.

But, when I hear about 12 to 18-month old toddlers who still need a bottle (or 2 or 3) per night or aren’t sleeping all night, then I say there is action to take IF you want a baby who sleeps through the night. If you are fine with co-sleeping or feeding your toddler at night, then there is nothing much to worry about except the effect on the teeth without brushing and how it can lead to bottle mouth syndrome, in some cases.

The short answer is that NO ONE goes off to college needing a bottle in the middle of the night (at least that I know of), so don’t worry about it “never happening” (same for potty training, by the way, as I never saw anyone in the dorm still wearing diapers).

The not-so-short answer is that if your definition of sleeping through the night is with feedings, your baby can sleep fairly well through the night by 4 to 6 months, usually, on average. If you mean straight through without feedings, most can be night-weaned by around 9 months, sometimes as late as 12 months or beyond. The “experts” all vary:

• Dr, Sears (The Baby Sleep Book) says night feedings are normal up through 18 months or more.
• Pantley (The No Cry Sleep Solution) agrees.
• Weissbluth (Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child) says it’s normal for babies to need 1-2 feedings up through 9 months, and can then be night-weaned.
• Kim West (Good Night, Sleep Tight) agrees.
• Ferber (Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problems) says a baby can go up to 8-10 hours without feeding by 3 months.
• Baby Wise agrees.
My pediatrician and yours would probably say something different, too.

This is why reading all of these different opinions made my head spin and I wrote my own book on baby sleep (to save other parents time and money). No, I don’t have THE answer. I actually keep the option open that YOU have the answer! Surprise!

If you think your baby or toddler is waking out of habit, then he probably is. Even if you think he is truly hungry, you might have the confidence that if he would just eat more during the day, he’d be able to sleep all night (I recommend at least an attempt at night-weaning once you feel this way). If you believe your baby or toddler “needs” to eat just to fall asleep and not because he’s hungry, then teach him how to sleep without eating. You know your baby best and the key is not to have the answer (believe me, there is not ONE answer for all of us), the key is to have the tools to teach your baby to sleep independently and when you have your tools, sleeping through the night will naturally follow when your baby is truly ready.

When did your baby/babies sleep through the night?