How I used tech to defeat my toddler's sleep regression
I review the tech provided from the Batelle Sleep School. Check out this $250 discount for my readers! (Part 2/2)
See the end of this post for $250 off Batelle’s child sleep program via an affiliate link — 10 hours of sleep within two weeks or your money back.
When my family moved cross-country this winter, I expected my son to have some regressions. Maybe his potty training would stall or maybe he’d take longer to get to sleep at bedtime.
What I didn’t expect was for him to nearly instantly become terrified of his room — “Mommy, the monsters are going to bite my toes!” he cried, pointing at the AC vent — and for him to run into our bedroom for comfort every time we tried (and tried and tried) to tuck him back in.
We tried giving him “monster spray” (air freshener) to spray around the room before bedtime. We read stories about scaring away monsters and read up ourselves on anxiety. We let him sleep in a pop-up play tent because his new, bigger room felt too large for his tiny body. We gave him walkie-talkies to speak with us in the middle of the night. We got him stuffed animals from Monsters Inc. to protect him. We even tried audiobook stories to lull him to sleep with the familiar plotlines of Lightning McQueen and Cinderella.
Nothing stuck for more than a day or two. His dad and I were at our breaking points. So we called in the reinforcements: Batelle Sleep School.
Batelle is a hands-on sleep program for newborns up to 6 years old that guarantees a 5-minute bedtime with 10 hours to 13 hours of uninterrupted sleep within two weeks or your money back — really, they mean it. They’ll refund you if your kiddo isn’t sleeping within two weeks.
The program ships you a box of tech and tools that help with the process — which, by the way, never includes “cry it out” — that aims to teach your child how to trust that they are safe to fall asleep on their own.
If you haven’t already, check out my review of the program’s technique in this post.
The tech Batelle sent us was significantly more robust than the walkie talkie and monster spray we’d used so far. Our package for a 3-year-old came with an Amazon Ring video monitor, a MomCozy programmable night light, a door fasciner, and the Batelle app. Younger kids are given a sleep sack system that encourages them to stay in bed. We had to buy a separate baby monitor (our existing baby monitor didn’t have two-way talk), and you have the choice to buy a bluetooth speaker or use the app to play the mantra.
Two-way baby monitor
To begin, we had to buy a two-way monitor. We had one from our son’s baby days but had since abandoned it. The audio wasn’t very good and didn’t have the ability to talk to our son over it so we bought a new one. The one you already own is probably going to be just fine.
You can choose any monitor you want as long as you can use it to see, hear, and speak to your child. We chose the Infant Optics DXR-8 Pro which I reviewed in this post about non-wifi baby monitors, but any monitor that meets those three criteria will work great.
You’ll use the monitor to talk to your child after bedtime and to repeat the mantra (more on that later) to them if they get fussy and to evaluate when to go back into the room.
You’ll play games with your child where you tell them to run into their room and share secrets with the monitor like their favorite color, and then they’ll run back to you and you’ll get to magically tell them you heard them all the way across the house. My son loved this game and would squeal every time I told him that I heard how his favorite color was red or his favorite toy was his lion stuffy (as if I didn’t already know, buddy). He now trusts that whatever he says out loud in his room is going to reach my ears, and this helps him feel secure to fall asleep.
Ring monitor
The Amazon ring baby monitor might feel like overkill for a minute, but bear with me. Why do you need two baby monitors, you ask? Because this one is accessible over the internet and can be shared with Batelle support staff overseas during your bedtime and overnight times. They’re on the clock and able to log into your camera (with your permission) to watch how you respond to your child and to give advice in real time via the app about how to help ease your child back to bed.
When we did the Batelle program, we struggled for the first week pretty hard. We used the daily sleep support group calls as a lifeline and workshopped tips for our specific situation — get him a sippy of water before being tucked in, no toys other than stuffies in his room, no back-and-forth negotiations, etc.
Eventually, by a week and a half, we had Batelle checking in most nights. One night, our son kept asking for us to check in on him every time we left the room. We would respond on the monitor to him and he would ask us more questions, wondering what we were doing and what our cats were doing.
“We want to avoid getting into a conversation with him but we want to make sure he is being heard,” a Batelle staff member coached us that day. “[Let’s say] you’re ok buddy. You are safe. Let’s go back to your bed and daddy will do a check-in.”
The staff members reassured us when things got tough and offered words of praise when we successfully got our son to sleep.
“Well done for pushing through as long as you did,” they praised on a particularly hard night. “You did really well — I know that was tough.”
Hatch Rest or MomCozy nightlight
Batelle sent us a MomCozy nightlight, but they’ve used Hatch’s product in the past. We already owned a Hatch — which I previously reviewed here — so we use that for our nighttime sessions.
We put on a yellow light during story time, a red light during sleep time, and a green light that tells our son it’s OK to wake up now. The nightlight has pre-programmable routines that you can set, so we always make the red light turn on at 7:30 p.m. This is extra helpful if there’s a babysitter at home.
Bluetooth speaker or Batelle app for one week
There will be one week at the start of your sleep training where you’ll play a recorded message of yourself singing “night night, sweet child, night night” on a loop.
We chose to record and replay this message to our son from the Batelle app on my cell phone, so I was without my phone at nights for a week (oh boo hoo for me). You could buy and stream the song on a bluetooth speaker, but I’d only do this if you need your phone for evening work or if you already have a bluetooth speaker. It isn’t strictly necessary otherwise.
You’ll stop playing the mantra and start singing it in person and over the monitor every now and then as a sleep association strategy.
Best of luck to all of the families out there struggling to get a good night’s sleep. The struggle is so real, and your frustration is valid. I know this program isn’t right for everyone, but all I can say is that four months later, my son is still sleeping 11 hours a night and only takes 5 minutes to 10 minutes to put to bed. A solid financial return on investment in my book.
Big hugs, fellow parents!
Batelle Sleep School’s guarantee is your child will be in bed within five minutes for 10 hour to 13 hours of sleep or your money back. Use the link batelle.com/parentinghack for $250 off their program. Your patronage helps to support this blog.
This post contains an affiliate link from Batelle Sleep School. I only choose to work with companies that allow full editorial control to remain in my hands and products I would write about regardless. We paid for our participation in Batelle ourselves and graduated before Batelle approached me for this agreement.