4Moms GoodNight Sleep Trainer Review

Do you need help getting your baby to sleep through the night?
Maybe you are thinking it's time for your baby to start sleeping through the night or at least longer stretches without waking up. A couple of months ago I was getting really tired of waking up every hour with Ethan. While searching online for books and products about getting your baby to sleep at night I came across the GoodNight Sleep Trainer. I was very interested to see how this works!

About the GoodNight Sleep Trainer
The GoodNight Sleep Trainer was developed by a Pediatrician, Dr. Jim Tucker, to help parents get their babies sleep better through the night. Dr. Tucker noticed that babies who fall asleep with a bottle or at the breast do not stay asleep as well as babies who fall asleep themselves. Babies who learn to sooth themselves and settle down to sleep will fall asleep better than in the arms of his parents. Also studies show a baby can start sleeping through the night at 4 months because they do not need to wake for a feeding.



The GoodNight Sleep Trainer is a hand-held sized device that you track the time your baby spends playing, crying, and sleeping. By using this device you will usually get great results within two weeks. 

• Available at Babies R Us and Target stores as well as individual specialty boutiques nationwide. Click here to find.
• The Sleep Training process is over 20 years old and is recommended by thousands of pediatricians to millions of patients. Many books detail the process.
• The Goodnight Sleep Trainer takes Sleep Training and puts it into an easy to use electronic device.
• It is intended for children 4 months of age or older. (When babies no longer need to eat during the night).
• You can upload and view your child’s sleep data, track progress, and access other great tools on our free and secure website.
• MSRP $29.99
• Three AA batteries (not included).
• 6-month warranty.

How the GoodNight Sleep Trainer Works
When you put down your baby down for sleep, you press the "Down to Sleep" button. If your baby automatically starts crying you press the "Crying" button and walk away. The trainer will count to 1 minute then it will tell you to go check your baby. At this time you go check on your baby. Soothe them, but do not pick them up then leave the room. Then you will press the "Done Checking" button.  If your baby begins crying automatically again you press the "Crying" button again and it will count to 3 minutes. You continue this cycle until your baby falls asleep. The Goodnight Sleep Trainer starts at 1, 3, 5, 7, and 10 minute increments. After 10 days these times gradually increase to help your baby learn to soothe himself.

At anytime you can upload the information online and track your baby's progress. It break down the amount of time spent playing, crying and sleeping. It will also compare your baby's patterns to what is typical to your baby's age and the recommended amount of sleep he should be getting.

Our GoodNight Sleep Trainer Experience
We've been struggling with Ethan during naps and night time for months. This child just does not want to sleep. I'm sure it comes from his dad who had the same issues when a baby (not from me, I was the perfect baby ;-) Ethan was waking every 30 minutes to an hour and a half to nurse. After months of this I had to draw the line somewhere! I was happy when 4moms said they would send us a GoodNight Sleep Trainer for review.

This probably wasn't the best time for me to review the GoodNight Sleep Trainer because at the same time I had decided to wean Ethan AND he was teething. The booklet that comes with the sleep trainer states not to start this when going through a major development milestone or stress. I felt guilty, but at the same time I was exhausted from getting no sleep. We used the GoodNight Sleep Trainer for the first couple of weeks. However, we did a little more consoling than the the general pat on the back and out of the room. We never did pick him up because we knew that would make it worse, but we did have to linger a little longer to try to get him to calm down. Ethan gets very worked up! Plus I knew with the weaning and teething he was just going through a lot. Within a couple of days he was sleeping around 4 hour stretches before waking up. We were excited because at least we were getting some sleep! I found myself waking up because I was so used to waking up several times a night. It took a few weeks to get him to settle down faster to sleep. We typically can get him settled within 10 minutes. The last two weeks he is waking up several times during the night again. maybe it's teething?

Overall I love the idea of the GoodNight Sleep Timer. I feel like I haven't had the chance to give it a really good trial run because we ended up doing a little more consoling. However, knowing what Ethan was going through at that time I believe it was the best for him. I'm really excited to try it out on the next baby, although that will be a while seeing how I'm not even pregnant yet ;-) I want to see how this would work on a 4 or 5 month old. If we had started using this on Ethan when he was that young I bet we wouldn't have all the problems with sleep that we have now.

I will be recommending this product to my mom-friends especially to the ones who have their first baby.

Thank you to 4moms who provided me with the product for review. All opinions are my own and no other compensation was received to conduct this review.