Sleep, Precious Sleep
When your child is an infant, I think sleeping and eating are the two biggest concerns. Fortunately, right now Charlie has eating down pat. Sleeping on the other hand, well that eludes us much of the time.
I think he has become more social now and doesn't want to sleep in our arms like he did a month or two ago. Getting him to go to sleep at night can take time and staying asleep is a whole different story. I don't believe that crying it out is healthy for babies for physiological reasons and for psychological ones. Their blood pressure goes up and we know their stress hormones rise when left to cry for periods of time. And from the very start I have worked to build his trust that I will meet his needs, all of them. If I suddenly quit responding to him because it is time for sleep, I erode that trust and I believe that trust is important for his attachment.
My goal is for him to go to sleep in his bed at a reasonable time like 7:30 and sleep there until around 1 in the morning and then he can come to our bed to nurse and sleep the rest of the night. Sleeping all night in his crib would be nice too!
I still look for ways to help him learn to go to sleep and soothe himself back to sleep. I recently read The No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley. I picked it because I saw numerous references to her and her book on parenting sites that I like. She is a mom who like many of us grew desperate for a way to help her baby and herself get more sleep. She also believes in breastfeeding and co-sleeping, which made the book a great choice for us. It isn't a quick fix kind of book, but she does have some good suggestions for helping little ones associate going to sleep with something other than nursing.
We started a week ago trying to get Charlie to sleep in his crib in his room at least at the beginning of the night. This involves making his crib a place that he associates happy times with, having a sound that he can associate with pleasantly falling asleep, and a lovey that will become familiar o him. I have also been using her suggestion for how to gently get him out of the habit of nursing back to sleep as that is what I currently do when he wakes up and sometimes we end up nursing every hour during the night. It requires me being awake to unlatch him before he falls asleep, so some nights it happens more than others. Like I said, this isn't a quick fix kind of thing, but something that may take a lot of time. I'm okay with that. This time I know that this will all fly by in a blink whether he sleeps all night or not.
I think he has become more social now and doesn't want to sleep in our arms like he did a month or two ago. Getting him to go to sleep at night can take time and staying asleep is a whole different story. I don't believe that crying it out is healthy for babies for physiological reasons and for psychological ones. Their blood pressure goes up and we know their stress hormones rise when left to cry for periods of time. And from the very start I have worked to build his trust that I will meet his needs, all of them. If I suddenly quit responding to him because it is time for sleep, I erode that trust and I believe that trust is important for his attachment.
My goal is for him to go to sleep in his bed at a reasonable time like 7:30 and sleep there until around 1 in the morning and then he can come to our bed to nurse and sleep the rest of the night. Sleeping all night in his crib would be nice too!
I still look for ways to help him learn to go to sleep and soothe himself back to sleep. I recently read The No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley. I picked it because I saw numerous references to her and her book on parenting sites that I like. She is a mom who like many of us grew desperate for a way to help her baby and herself get more sleep. She also believes in breastfeeding and co-sleeping, which made the book a great choice for us. It isn't a quick fix kind of book, but she does have some good suggestions for helping little ones associate going to sleep with something other than nursing.
We started a week ago trying to get Charlie to sleep in his crib in his room at least at the beginning of the night. This involves making his crib a place that he associates happy times with, having a sound that he can associate with pleasantly falling asleep, and a lovey that will become familiar o him. I have also been using her suggestion for how to gently get him out of the habit of nursing back to sleep as that is what I currently do when he wakes up and sometimes we end up nursing every hour during the night. It requires me being awake to unlatch him before he falls asleep, so some nights it happens more than others. Like I said, this isn't a quick fix kind of thing, but something that may take a lot of time. I'm okay with that. This time I know that this will all fly by in a blink whether he sleeps all night or not.
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