I have a friend who once told me a statement that I have come to realize is so so sooo true and made me feel way better about the first two momma problems.
The statement goes like this...
Either your baby will be a good sleeper or a good eater.
I have a great sleeper. Seriously though she was sleeping through the night at the hospital and since we brought her home.
So I feel a bit ridiculous writing about this. I have done a bit of research on this topic in case of emergency, and tons of people have told me that their sleep habits change as they get older.
So here is my logic:
Babies are tiny humans.
It's pretty simple.
Babies are babies, which means their bodies primary job right now is to grow, once they grow enough they can move on their own and they can learn. So again right now main goal is grow.
Growing can take a lot out of you, you will really know what I mean if you ever experienced growing pains.
Not only are their bodies growing but their little brains are getting not so little.
This means they need sleep for body growing, brain growing, emotional growing ( have ever given yourself a headache from crying?) It being night time, momma time... Well a whole slew of reasons can be chalked up for babies needing sleep.
So I propose sleep rule 1:
Let the sleeping baby lie.
You don't know why they are asleep but just let them sleep.
I once read a study about how good daytime naps lead to better night sleeps.
What I got out of this is being overly tired can kick you in the butt. This has happened to us once or twice now.
If the baby does not rest enough in the day it will be not just tired but exhausted, and frustrated which is not a good sleep combo.
I think schedules can help you as a momma remember that your little one will be tired around a certain time, but don't let the schedule dictate your life. I found that my baby has a good rhythm of her own, so I wrote it down, remember and then I can help her get to sleep.
Don't wake a baby to eat, or to change a wet bum.
A baby will wake up when they are hungry.
Urine is sterile and won't cause any infections, poop on the other hand will, so that is the only time you should change a bum for a sleeping baby.
Sleep rule 2:
Naps are naps
Sleeps are sleeps
These two things need to be distinctly different for the baby so they don't get confused between night time and day time.
I'd like you to take a walk down memory lane when it comes to your past naps. Have you ever been exhausted, gone to take a nap, but accidentally treated it like a sleep?
What I mean here is have you turned off the lights, gotten in cozy clothes in your cozy quiet bed and ended up sleeping way way way longer than you intended?
Well that's because your body thought it was time to sleep so it treated your nap like a sleep.
Just like you your babies body can treat a nap like sleep if it's under sleep conditions.
What do we do?
1-lights. During naps there is light on in the toom.
2- noise, noise like light tells our bodies it's day time, we use a fan at night for white noise but during nap time a dish washer sometimes runs, sometimes a vacuum. Really just keep living life, just slowly and quietly introduce the noise. A sudden noise can be a little too much for the sleeping babe to process.
3- location, right now our naps usually don't take place where our sleeps do.
Currently she sleeps in a pack n play in our room, and naps in the crib, on the floor on a blanket or in my arms ( don't give me slack... she will only be this little once and I don't like missing out on the precious moments. Plus she is sleeping through the night so I'm not too worried.)
It's important to remember babies are learning how to sleep, how to put themselves to sleep, and how to stay asleep. Keep this in mind.
What we do for Sleeps
1- dark
2- quiet
3-jammas
4-routine. Ours is, change bum, lotion up, jammas, prayers, last little snack, hugs kisses and good night's.
5-place. Don't hold a sleeping baby during a sleep. You don't want them to be dependent on you for sleeps.
6-feedings we practice le pause, thanks to the book bringing up bebe.
This means when she cries we pause, this gives us time to determine what she needs.
Like humans little humans sometimes wake up while they are sleeping. Sometimes they are hungry, sometimes they are not. When she is hungry we feed her, burp her, give her a hug and lay her back down in her bed.
Plug- I do not support co sleeping what so ever.. Why? My husband is a very sound sleeper and I'm terrified he will smoosh her. I would end up spending the night in defense protecting the baby, meaning I won't get my sleep and that is a definite no go in this house.
I also strongly believe this sets up the bad habit of sleeping with mom and dad, and when that happens special mommy daddy time can't happen.
We need special mommy daddy time.
So far for us sleeps are great, which makes us all happy.
Let's just hope that teeth, and sickness don't mess is up too bad.
I hope we are setting ourselves up for great sleep habits.
Have any good sleep advice?
Feel free to comment and share!
Anything you are going to try? Let me know how it goes!
No comments:
Post a Comment