“I can’t work on my babies sleep until she has a bedroom”
“My friend told me it’s impossible to sleep coach if my baby can see me”
“I want to work on sleep but the guidelines say my baby needs to stay in the same room for 6 months”
As a sleep coach based in Vancouver these are all comments I hear on a daily basis. I understand that real estate is a premium. Most families only have one or two bedrooms to work with. I am here to tell you that IT IS absolutely possible to work on sleep with your child sleeping close by.
Every week when I do home visits part of the process is checking out your child’s sleep space . This does NOT mean that a child needs their own sleep space but just a sleep space suitable for age.
Here’s What You Should Consider
For all babies at every age I highly suggest a room that is blacked out. A space that is dark helps with the production of melatonin (our sleepy hormone) and avoids early morning wakings and disruptions for naps. I highly suggest a white noise machine. This should be placed at least a meter away from the crib and placed between where the most noise is coming from. To protect hearing the noise should be 50 decibels of sound. There are so many great continuous white noise machines out there. When you are sharing the room with baby and parents I find the most natural white machines to be more tolerable for most adults. The Dohm is a great option because it is a natural sound of a fan and not a continuous recording.
When babies are younger than 6 months old, most of the time they are not extremely aware of your presence in the room. They are mostly unable to sit up or stand up in there crib so we are not so concerned about their ability to see you! After 6 months old though they can sit and often a child seeing you in the night or knowing you are present can cause more disruptions in the night. It is like having a slice of pizza on your bedside table, if you know it is there…. Ahh you are very inclined to just take a bite even if you’re not hungry. This is the same for a baby except YOU are the pizza.
SO what can we do to help this?
If you child is 6 months or older creating some sort of barrier between you and them is ideal. I have had families rearrange furniture, possibly putting a long dresser in between or turning the headboard of the bed around in the room to create a room divider. Just some slight room configuration can be helpful. Another option would be to purchase a room divider and likely the cheapest option, purchasing this clothing rack and throwing a blanket over top! One of the most ingenious options on the market these days is The Slumber pod.(Head over there now for your 10% OFF) This helps create a small “room” for your baby and avoiding having to black the entire room blacked out and furniture adjusted.
Every once and a while parents feel more comfortable moving out of the bedroom for a couple of nights while they gain some momentum and sleep skills for their little ones. This can also be helpful but you don’t want to be forever couch bound so remember to move yourself back in after a couple of nights knowing this might be another adjustment period!
I am so excited to be doing a giveaway for two of my most used baby products with this post— One person will receive a SLUMBERPOD and another will receive a DOHM sound machine, all to help your baby sleep more peacefully (and yourself) in close quarters! — To enter, Share this post on Facebook or Instagram and tag @amandathemamacoachvan to enter!
