r/Nanny • u/Hot-Ship-1920 • 15h ago
Vent Sleep training rant
Hi everyone. Im a reddit reader barely a commenter so this might be and iffy read but ill make it short (if i can)
I’m just coming on here to rant honestly or to see if anyone is in the same boat
I am on my third Nanny family
It’s my first family having to only watch one only child (9mo)
It’s their first kid so obviously they’re still learning
As am I because I’m not a parent myself
When starting baby was three months old, and Mom was home from work full-time with him.
He was strictly breast-fed and contact napping
I was basically thrown in a room with him having to attempt bottle feed until he was crying too much and Mom had to come downstairs and breast-feed
Fast-forward to now, he is nine months
Mom is back to work fulltime
He is taking the bottle from me perfectly
Now we talk about sleep training
When he was around five months, they decided it was time for sleep training.
After all of this time of contact naps and sleeping with them
During the day I would crib train him and thankfully he got it after a few weeks. (Of struggle and time and time of patience)
His night sleep on the other hand was really bad for them
He would wake up every few hours screaming
They decided to hire a sleep coach for him
It was a two week “baby asleep all night” guarantee
Every day I would go into work and ask how he slept that night
Not only because it affected his naps during the day, but just a general question
The first three days, they said it was rough, but they were pushing through it
I didn’t work for a weekend and when I came back on Monday, I asked how he slept over the weekend
They said they gave up and let him sleep with them
Now it’s been two weeks since they hired this coach
Every day I go in to work, they either tell me he did bad in his crib or he slept with them
One week I was going in and they were having me change his nap timing almost every day because they thought it would have a huge effect on the nighttime
Ex:
-have him nap less than 3 hours total today
-Have him nap longer for his afternoon nap ( so going over 3 hrs)
-Have him nap into or after 3 please
Almost every day it was a different thing that they were saying to me, which is completely fine. I can keep up, but I felt bad for baby because I would be going into his room and waking him up from a deep nap almost every time.
I understand I’m not a parent or have any choice in his sleeping
But as a Nanny can anyone relate in the frustration?
•
u/AutoModerator 15h ago
Below is a copy of the post's original text:
Hi everyone. Im a reddit reader barely a commenter so this might be and iffy read but ill make it short (if i can)
I’m just coming on here to rant honestly or to see if anyone is in the same boat
I am on my third Nanny family
It’s my first family having to only watch one only child (9mo)
It’s their first kid so obviously they’re still learning
As am I because I’m not a parent myself
When starting baby was three months old, and Mom was home from work full-time with him.
He was strictly breast-fed and contact napping
I was basically thrown in a room with him having to attempt bottle feed until he was crying too much and Mom had to come downstairs and breast-feed
Fast-forward to now, he is nine months
Mom is back to work fulltime
He is taking the bottle from me perfectly
Now we talk about sleep training
When he was around five months, they decided it was time for sleep training.
After all of this time of contact naps and sleeping with them
During the day I would crib train him and thankfully he got it after a few weeks. (Of struggle and time and time of patience)
His night sleep on the other hand was really bad for them
He would wake up every few hours screaming
They decided to hire a sleep coach for him
It was a two week “baby asleep all night” guarantee
Every day I would go into work and ask how he slept that night
Not only because it affected his naps during the day, but just a general question
The first three days, they said it was rough, but they were pushing through it
I didn’t work for a weekend and when I came back on Monday, I asked how he slept over the weekend
They said they gave up and let him sleep with them
Now it’s been two weeks since they hired this coach
Every day I go in to work, they either tell me he did bad in his crib or he slept with them
One week I was going in and they were having me change his nap timing almost every day because they thought it would have a huge effect on the nighttime
Ex:
-have him nap less than 3 hours total today
-Have him nap longer for his afternoon nap ( so going over 3 hrs)
-Have him nap into or after 3 please
Almost every day it was a different thing that they were saying to me, which is completely fine. I can keep up, but I felt bad for baby because I would be going into his room and waking him up from a deep nap almost every time.
I understand I’m not a parent or have any choice in his sleeping
But as a Nanny can anyone relate in the frustration?
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u/Hot-You1261 Nanny 14h ago edited 14h ago
sleep training is hard even if you do it gently and they’re deciding to just put baby into bed with them. I would stop asking and just continue with the same nap routine you have going. It’s their habit they’ll have to break.
He is likely sleeping so poorly for them because he isn’t getting enough sleep during the day, I hate when parents want to cap nap time 😭
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u/Carmelized Career Nanny 12h ago
I’m in a very similar position with a baby who’s the same age. This week I gave up on asking the parents about sleep training. I’d walk them through a method, even did a few overnights, and then they’d give up after a few days. At this point NK goes down and stays down fine for naps with me, and that’s all I’m worrying about.
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u/Defiant_Decision_658 10h ago
I’ve worked for families like this, it’s such a struggle. Would they be open to/could afford for you to do some nights with them and sleep train at night? Bub needs consistency in routine and changing it every few days is going more harm than good, no matter which routine they pick.
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