well little sam is in the beginning stages of his sleep training.  i gave sara some advice and suggested she begin the sleep training focusing on naps first.  if you are asking if naps and bedtime go hand in hand, the answer is yes.  although starting the sleep training process and teaching the self-soothing skills seems to be easier beginning with naps.  one you are less tired during the day or it is much easier to distract yourself in the day time hours than during the night when all you want to do is sleep! also you can train the naps in shorter crying intervals which is often easier for most parents. now, this isn't the case for every family or child, but it is usually the best starting point and works 9 times out of 10! that being said i gave her a detailed nap and bedtime process, step by step, to follow.  it did involve many of the tips i gave in one of my past blog posts titled, "are you a victim of cat naps?" i created a system that i felt would work best for her and her family and she began.  it isn't an easy thing to do to sleep train, but the good news is you do see drastic improvements in just a few days.  usually the first 1 or 2 days are the worst, as you are trying to get used to hearing your little one cry and your baby feels a bit like the rug has been ripped out from under them! poor little things, i know, but in reality this is going to be a huge blessing in disguise for them and lets not forget, you!!  here is a quote from an email i received from sara about the first 2 days of sleep training for sam:

"So yesterday he napped from 10-1230 I did nurse him put him in awake and he did cry a bit and fell asleep :) on his own then he napped 215-315 and then 430-530 I am working on one straight afternoon nap.

 I put him to sleep at 7 it was a bit of an ordeal nursed then put him down asleep he woke up and I let him cry for 3 min went in picked him up rocked him and then put him down drowsy he cried I left him for 4 min then went in I picked him up he was hard to calm I had to nurse him then he went down from 8pm till 4:10am.  At 410 was when the fun started :) he was up! I nursed he fell asleep put him down he cried I waited and picked up rocked he fell asleep this was about three times he finally fell back asleep at 510 and slept till 820am!

 Then he napped from 1125-1pm....and 230-3 on a walk fell asleep and now he's looking a bit drowsy...

 Keep u posted :):)

 Thanks, Sara"

sara wasn't feeling good about these days, but i assured her that all of this really wasn't looking too bad!  first and foremost sam was going to sleep on his own.  yes after some tears, but he was learning to self soothe.  sara was doing all the right things by laying his down drowsy after soothing and sam was catching on!  like i mentioned, the first couple days are the worst.  i gave sara some further advice based on what was happening so we will see what happends next!  i will keep you posted on sam's progress over the next few days!  keep reading, especially if you have similar issues to sara and sam!