For new parents running on fumes, the quick fix a sleep-training professional offers can far outweigh the cost. Alyssa Maher, who has a five-month-old daughter, has firsthand experience with the wonders of sleep consultants. “For the first four months of my daughter’s life, I had a terrible time getting her to take naps and sleep through the night,” she recalls. “I finally became so desperate that I hired a sleep consultant, and she worked wonders right away. The night after her first visit, my baby slept from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. without waking up once, and she’s continued to get at least ten hours of uninterrupted sleep each night since then. At first, I couldn’t believe I was actually paying someone to help me, but it was worth every penny in the long run.”
Nighttime Is the Right Time
According to the National Sleep Foundation, 70 percent of all babies sleep through the night by the time they’re nine months old, even if they haven’t been “Ferberized.” But if that feels like an eternity to you when your four-month-old is keeping you up for hours on end, there are abundant resources available to guide you through the sleep-training process—and if the experts are correct, the odds are good that your entire household will be slumbering harmoniously within a relatively short period of time. And when you’re having a moment of weakness as you listen to your infant screaming from his crib, just remember: suffering through a few days of wearing earplugs is a small price to pay for a future full of restful nights.
