Hi! I’m Dana. Welcome to this week’s video. Today, I want to talk about a question that I get asked on occasion, and that is, “Is there life after Sleep Sense?” It sounds like a bit of a funny question, but here’s some of the more common, not complaints, but concerns around getting your baby onto a great sleep schedule. Some people think, “Well, it’s a bit limiting,” I have to be home for nap. I have to be home at seven for bedtime. What if I want to go out? What if there’s a party I want to bring her to? That can be a little concerning, and I totally understand where people are coming from when they ask me that question.

I’m asking you that question today. I want to see it in the comments. What are the sacrifices, perhaps, that you’ve had to make in order to keep your child on a great sleep schedule? I mean, sure, over the years, we’ve had to come home early from the party, or get childcare for the party, or make some decisions about how we’re going to do this, because in my opinion, pushing my children into extreme fatigue, or over-tiredness so that we can get to a party, is not an option for me. I’m just not going to do that. What happens when I do that, is that my child then goes to sleep too late, wakes up at the same time the next morning, and now, is a grouchy bear for the rest of the day.

Sometimes two days, and sometimes three, even, to get him back on schedule. For me, it just became not worth it, not worth it. Not worth it to go to Gymboree Class when it’s nap time because baby’s just going to be a grouch the whole time, anyway. I had to honor my children’s sleep schedule in a way, that I had to plan activities around them. When can we go to the doctor, that fits into my child’s schedule? When can we go for a play-date that fits into my child’s schedule? It’s not that I had to stay home all day every day. It’s that I had to do some planning, and I had to make some choices.

Now, if for example, I wanted to go … I had a great friend who lived about a half an hour away, and some days I’d pack up my playpen, and I’d take my baby and I’d go spend the whole day with her. I had a plan B, in that I would put my son to nap in his playpen in a quiet room somewhere, so that his sleep schedule was still on track, and I wasn’t interfering too much. The nice thing about having a baby who sleeps well, is that you can get a sitter. That is a possibility. You can have a sitter come, maybe you do the routine … Put baby down, and give her a few tips, in case, for some reason baby should wake up … Go out and enjoy your evening.

Again, that’s some choices you have to make, and you have to make a little bit of plan ahead. There’s not a lot of spontaneity involved, especially when you’re a parent of young children. These are choices, let’s call them. I never felt they were sacrifices, to me. They were choices. They were choices that I made because my children’s sleep was so important. To me, and it was important to them. I saw what they were like and how they functioned when they weren’t sleeping well, and so for me it wasn’t worth it. Did it mean that somebody had to take my youngest home for nap when we were on a holiday somewhere?

Yeah, that’s what it meant. We would take turns: “You go with the boys and do an activity,” and I would take her, and we would switch off. Again, not a sacrifice. Just a choice, just decisions that have to be made in order to honor everybody’s sleep needs. I’m telling you, the payoff of having children who sleep really well, who are happy and alert, and engaged, and have good patience, and all of that good stuff that comes with sleeping well, those are huge payoffs. If it means I have to read a book for an hour while she takes a nap, that’s fine with me. I’m okay with that. Keep that in mind. Again, I’m asking the question here today.

I want to know your thoughts around this. Has it ruined your social life? Has it improved it? Has it changed it? Let’s just have a dialogue around how this affects your life, now that your children are sleeping well. Thanks so much for watching! Sleep well!