Precious Little Sleep Quotes

“most kids between 3 months and 8 years of age should be going to bed around 7:30.”
― Alexis Dubief, Precious Little Sleep

“holding a sleeping infant is “what if Hogwarts was a real school and you could go there” great.”
― Alexis Dubief, Precious Little Sleep: The Complete Baby Sleep Guide for Modern Parents

“But really, all that noise boils down to this: give your child all the love you have to give, read to them every day, play outside, and help them sleep. If you ignore everything else and do those things, you and your kid are going to be great.”
― Alexis Dubief, Precious Little Sleep: The Complete Baby Sleep Guide for Modern Parents

“slept. Never. It”
― Alexis Dubief, Precious Little Sleep

“Have a consistent bedtime routine. It doesn’t have to be long—20 to 30 minutes is fine—but it does have to be a series of calming activities that you can commit to doing every night.”
― Alexis Dubief, Precious Little Sleep: The Complete Baby Sleep Guide for Modern Parents

“People often think their child has “outgrown” the crib and might sleep better if they had more space. However, the best-case scenario is that your child sleeps in a bed as well as they do in a crib. The freedom and mobility of a big-kid bed doesn’t fix sleep issues—it generally exacerbates them.”
― Alexis Dubief, Precious Little Sleep

“Even negative attention trumps no attention, so your well-intended lecture on why it’s critical to stop singing after bedtime is going to encourage more singing. This is why the logical consequence to most bedtime limit-testing behavior is to ignore it. While you may not be keen to have your child take off their jammies and sleep naked, returning to put the jammies back on just encourages further nakedness. You should, if you can within the bounds of safety and sanity, ignore the behavior.”
― Alexis Dubief, Precious Little Sleep

“Remember the cardinal rule of kids: you can’t make them eat, sleep, or poop. But you can make them go to a dark, comfortable, safe, dull place every day at the same time. What they do in there is their business. It’s your business not to confuse their desire to not nap with not needing to nap.”
― Alexis Dubief, Precious Little Sleep

“Many people are eager to quickly wean off the Power Tools as though you get a free Starbucks gift card by being the first on the block to have a child who can sleep without any soothing tools. As far as Starbucks and I are aware, this is not the case.”
― Alexis Dubief, Precious Little Sleep

“Sometimes it feels as if parenting is the only occupation where other people are allowed to critique your performance regardless of their credentials (or lack thereof).”
― Alexis Dubief, Precious Little Sleep

“There is no evidence that a few nights of crying will harm your child in any way. Some day in the near future, when it’s time to leave the sandbox, your child will cry for 30 minutes and you won’t pause to wonder if you’re damaging your child (nor should you). There is, however, ample evidence that chronic sleep deprivation leads to bad outcomes for all members of the family, including your child.”
― Alexis Dubief, Precious Little Sleep

“Most people master the fundamentals of swaddling fairly quickly. However, your Baby Houdini might break free while swaddled. Don’t worry—this happens to the best of us. Babies are small and squirmy, you’re tired, it’s dark out. It’s like wrapping a Christmas present, only the present is an angry puppy and you’re all out of tape.”
― Alexis Dubief, Precious Little Sleep

“Convincing an opinionated 1-year-old to accept a change of scenery is like wrestling an enraged rhino.”
― Alexis Dubief, Precious Little Sleep

“A few tears don’t mean that you’re unloving or that you’re doing the wrong thing. Tears mean you’re frustrating your child, and that’s absolutely okay. Part of your job is to give your child the space to muddle through hard things as they develop new skills. This is neither the first nor the last time your child will struggle to overcome a challenge.”
― Alexis Dubief, Precious Little Sleep