My Honest Review of Taking Cara Babies Sleep Program; We tried TakingCaraBabies and here is what happened!
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Hi beauties,
Coming at you with a baby program review. This time, all about Taking Cara Babies. I am so excited to be writing this post and sharing my journey with you all.
Before taking this course.. our schedule went something like this.. I would head to bed around 8 and my husband would stay up with our 8 week old baby until he was ready for bed around midnight (sometimes 1am) then we would switch and I would try to sleep on the couch from then on. We would always put her down in her basinet beside the couch and she would eventually fall asleep after a lot of rocking and walking her around the room. It was exhausting.
Our daytime would only consist of occasional naps but she would always nap on one of us.. never in her mamaRoo or her bassinet. We had no structure, and zero time to ourselves... especially when my husband would go to work and I would be on my own for 12 hours with her. It was tough. I'll admit there was a lot of tears from this mama..
Over the Christmas/New Year break, we decided we needed to do something different... because this just wasn't sustainable. We were exhausted, cranky and just not enjoying parenthood yet. That is when I reached out on my instagram and Facebook page, and MANY people told me about this class. I mean hundreds of people suggested this class.
Moms suggesting the class claimed their baby sleeps anywhere from 10 -12 hours a night by 3 months of age.. WHAT!? I feel like we have won if she sleeps for 4 hours straight. How are these moms able to get their babies to sleep that long?! What was I doing wrong?... or just not right?
So obviously I became super curious. I was envious of these moms getting all the sleep and decided I wanted that too!
So I hit google for Taking Cara Babies.
Her instagram page won me over with all her tips and tricks. Especially the highlight story about "Witching Hour". We have been suffering from witching hour since our baby was born. So to have someone give me tips and help with that, felt like a win! To my surprise her tips worked that night! After that... I was basically sold.
The Taking Cara Babies Sleeping Program
What is Taking Cara Babies?
Taking Cara Babies is a program/course to help parents lay a healthy sleep foundation for their new baby. This program teaches you how to calm a fussy baby, read a baby’s cues, and set days and nights up for success! Cara gives moms and dads the tools to enjoy the newborn stage.
Who is Cara?
Cara is the brains behind this entire program. Previously, she was a neonatal labour and delivery nurse. She has four children (so you really know she knows what she is talking about from ACTUAL experience). Her husband is also a paediatrician. She has helped thousands of parents defeat sleep deprivation and take back their nights with this program!
Cara has created classes and resources to help babies and parents sleep, allowing them to reclaim the joy of parenthood.
Taking Cara Babies Programs and Courses
Taking Cara Babies has several course options.
There is the newborn class (which I took). This course is all about the newborn stage. She teaches you ways to calm your fussy and crying baby, gives you a flexible schedule for your days, how to develop a bedtime routine, and build an overall healthy sleep foundation.
There is the 3-4 month booklet. This booklet helps parents with the 4 month sleep regression. This e-book gives parents the information to make sleep progress during this tricky stage.
The 5-24 month class is the final course. Also known as the "ABC's of Sleep", this program is for that final stage of sleep development. This program helps parents establish 10-12 Hour Nights of Independent Crib Sleep, Teach Your Baby to Fall Asleep Independently, Wean Night Feedings, Handle Setbacks Through Age Two (Teething, Leaps, Travel, Illness)!
Related: My Labour and Delivery Story
Our Experience and Review of Taking Cara Babies
Week One
Week one was very hard. It was hard teaching an 8 week old baby how to fall asleep on their own when she has been falling asleep on mom or dad for the last two months. It took a lot of work to get her down for naps and by the time we would get her down for a nap, it was time to feed her again.. which seems counterproductive!
This week we focused on night time routines and bedtime (just like Cara suggests). We established a bedtime routine and stuck with it EVERY night. We want her to recognize this routine as "now it's time for the long sleep". One huge routine part we added was a bath at night. I usually gave her a bath during the day but moving it to night time routine was important! P.s the use these BEST bath products here!!
So far she is sleeping from 8pm-10:30pm then we dream feed her a bottle of pumped breastmilk, than she goes right back to sleep from 10:30pm to about 1 or 2am. I breastfeed her, and she usually fusses for an hour.. then she will sleep from 3ish to 5 or 6am.. and then would be wide awake until 8am. That has been our routine the first week.
Week Two
Week two was better! I was super excited but didn't want to jinx it. We would put her down to sleep at 7pm/8pm and dream feed her at 10pm. She would then wake up around 2am for a feed and then sleep until 5am. We are getting there!
I am really enjoying the nap time during the day. I had no idea how important it was for babies to have scheduled nap times. Not only is she a happier baby after a nap, but it also gives me time to get things done around the house or exercise which is HUGE.
We also starting using the Hatch Baby sound machine which is amazing! And also are finding that the Love To Dream swaddle works the best for her.
Week Three
We had a bit of a set back this week.. she was waking up every two to three hours again to feed. I looked further into it and realized that she was entering a new Leap.. She was extra clingy and cranky this week. We had a hard time putting her down for naps which really effected our night schedule too. Some nights we would put her down at 7pm and she wouldn't fall asleep until 10pm which would mess up my dream feed schedule.. and then mess up our entire night.
Week Four
Back to making progress! Naps are better and longer than last week. She is also falling asleep and staying asleep at night. Schedule looks something like this now: 7:30pm bedtime, 9:30pm dream feed, she wakes up to feed at 2am (falls right back to sleep after), then wakes up at 6am for a feed (falls right back to sleep after), then sleeps until 7:30am. For me this is manageable!
Week Five
This week is so great! She has been sleeping from 7:30pm to 7am with a feed at 2am. The best part of her sleep now is that she is able to fall RIGHT back to sleep after her 2am feed. I transfer her to her bassinet and she is out like a light until 6/7am. This makes a huge difference her my sleep as well.. especially because she only feeds for 10-15 minutes. I can handle that!
So far I am seeing MASSIVE progress in her sleep. No more late nights walking around my bedroom trying to get her to fall back asleep. I love that she is able to fall right back to sleep after a quick feed.
My goal is to be able to drop that 2am feed so she sleeps from 7:30pm to 6/7am (with one dream feed). That would be ideal. Once she is able to do this, we will transition her to her own room.. when she is 4 or 5 months old.
Cons of Taking Cara Babies
The one thing I found lacking from this program was the "what ifs". What if my baby only napped 20 minutes, how do I adjust the master schedule to this? or What if my baby won't go back to sleep at 1am and I have to rock her to sleep for an hour? What if I can't get my baby to fall asleep?
I would have liked to see more troubleshooting advice in the videos on what to do. She does show videos on her putting two babies asleep but I would have liked to see the babies struggling to fall asleep and what she does to help them.. sometimes her black and white methods don't exactly work for my baby.
My Final Thoughts on Taking Cara Babies Sleeping Program: Is It Worth It?
Overall I am very happy with this sleep program. It has not magically changed my baby into a 12 hour sleeping beauty but has definitely made massive improvements from what our sleep schedule use to be.
I also learned a lot about how to care for a newborn and what they need... everything is a learning process and the suggestions in this course made a huge difference for my family. We still have some progress to be made, but at least we are heading in the right direction!
I hope you enjoyed this review of Taking Cara Babies!
If you are looking to take this course, I definitely suggest doing it! If you don't want to fork out the money to take the course then I suggest looking at Taking Cara Babies Instagram page and browsing through her stories. She has great tips there too!
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