– Hi, I’m Dana, creator of the Sleep Sense Program and I’m here today to explain to you why your baby seems to wake up the minute you put her down.

And I can remember, this is a very frustrating experience for every new parent. I can remember with my first son, I would rock him in my arms, he would be fast asleep, I would think for sure, he’s in the deepest sleep he could be in. I’m picking up his arm and dropping it and it’s like dead weight.

And I’m as careful as I can getting him over to the crib and I’m doing this whole little like transfer thing, super slow, trying to get my hands out from under him without waking him up, back outta the room as quietly as I can and 20 minutes later he’s awake again, if I got that far. Often he would wake up pretty much the minute I put him down on the mattress. And I would think, “How do you know? “How can you know that I’ve moved you to the crib?” And so it could just really be a tough experience for every new parent.

So, first thing to know is you’re not alone in this, this is not your baby. It’s not just because you’re cursed with this baby who senses every movement you make. It’s every baby. So, the fact of the matter is, we are all aware on some level of our environment while we’re asleep.

I mean, when you think about it sort of historically throughout time, it makes some sense. Back in the day when we didn’t have secure housing and we were living in tents or caves or wherever we were living and danger was nearby, we really needed to be sort of easily awoken from sleep in order to defend ourselves and our family. So there’s some level of awareness there no matter how deep asleep you are, and so we can sense change.

And so if a baby falls asleep in your arms, even if he’s going into his deepest part of the cycle, when you get him to the crib, at some point, he’s gonna surface a little bit, notice that things are different, and wake up, and usually they wake up fairly alarmed. If you’re watching a baby, they usually like startle themselves wide awake or if they can sit or stand, they fly to sitting or standing and they’re crying usually quite loudly, A, because they’re not rested enough, that like 10 or 20 minutes of sleeping is not enough. So they’re still tired. And also they’re a bit alarmed because the environment has changed.

So that’s why. There’s a always a reason why something is happening. So the goal then is, let’s get this baby to fall asleep in the same place they’re going to end up, right? If you want them to take a nap, then we’re gonna put them in the crib and that’s where we expect them to nap or the bassinet and that’s where we want them to nap. And if they can learn to fall asleep without a lot of assistance from you and then any time they come to the lighter stages of their cycle, there’s no need for alarm, “I’m exactly where I knew I would be. “I’m in my crib or bassinet, everything is fine “and I’m gonna continue to nap “or go into another sleep cycle.” So that’s what your goal should be.

Now, for a lot of you, that’s the hard part of the issue. “This baby doesn’t fall asleep in the crib. “I hold them or they lay on me, “I do all kinds of things “to get them to go to sleep in the first place. “So how, how, how am I gonna get them into this crib awake “so that they can fall asleep there “and know that that’s where they are?” Well, that’s why you should check out a copy of the Sleep Sense Program because I will walk you through that step by step. And it really is a matter of teaching a baby some independent sleep skills so that they can fall asleep independently without a lot of extra help from you and then sleep beautifully for both naps and through the night.

Thanks so much for watching, sleep well.