Advice: Sleep training rocks. Also, I totally win at babies.

I’ve been a mom for three whole weeks now. I think we can all agree that this makes me an expert on all things child-related. In fact, at the 1.5 week mark, we got excused from our next pediatrician appointment because Veronica hit all of her benchmarks early. Clearly, she is very talented and far ahead of her peers. Let it be known that I totally win at babies.

Which isn’t to say that I don’t still have a thing or two to learn, and Michelle brings us some great advice to help us all sleep better at night. I, for one, am intensely grateful.

Filed under sleep training:

1. Don’t read the soul-crushing, guilt-inducing beginning of the chapter on sleep in the Sears Baby Book. Don’t touch it! It’s evil, like the stuff in the toaster at the end of Time Bandits! (If you don’t want to sleep train, I totally respect that. But I frown on anything that lays guilt on that thick.)

2. Sleep train before you reach your breaking point. Believe me. I waited too long. No one wants to see your breaking point.

3. Make a contract with your S.O. or anyone else who might be around during the night. The contract lays out the rules: When we pick the baby up, how often we check in, how long we let this whole crying thing go on. Sign the contract in blood. It is unbreakable til morn. You will spare yourself many 3 am “You’re breaking our baby!” fights this way.

4. Once the baby sleeps through the night, you will forget how hard it was. Write down what you did — with minute-by-minute detail — so you can help another new parent get through it.

Have you got a great life lesson to share? Did a mentor, teacher or song lyric change your life?