Janet Vandenhoeck - The Lull-A-Baby Sleep Guide 1: The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Your Baby

The Lull-A-Baby Sleep Guide

The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Your Baby

Janet Vandenhoeck

Contents

When you say good night to your baby, do you say it through clenched teeth, knowing the night is going to be anything but good? Has getting your baby to sleep for the night become a major struggle or a complicated routine? Is the middle of the night in your household a torture of interrupted sleep, hours spent with a crying baby, or at best an awake baby, placid but definitely not sleeping? Is your baby's sleep schedule radically impairing your own, preventing you from getting anything close to your full complement of sleep? Are your eyes red and your nerves frayed? Are you and your spouse dragging your way through the days, suffering from a serious sleep deficit and wondering when it will end?

It ends now with this book. It ends with you learning techniques and plans for getting your baby to go to sleep at night when you want him to, without your having to drive him around and around the block in your car, stay in his room with him for two hours, or go through any other complex routine. Of course, if he's very young, he'll still wake up for feedings during the night at first, but he'll soon learn how to go back to sleep once he's full, instead of remaining awake. With the aid of this book, you'll learn how to help him get himself back to sleep when he wakes up for any reason.

Do you want to know how to get your baby to go to sleep at a regular time each night, sleep well during the night, and nap sufficiently for her needs? Note that I didn't say sleep through the night. This is a misnomer. Babies don't literally sleep through the night any more than anyone else does. We all wake up at times during the night, but in most cases we roll over, settle down, go right back to sleep, and in all likelihood don't even remember the episode in the morning. Your baby can do the same. Do you want to help your baby to sleep well and get the rest he needs and help insure that the rest of your family also has a good night's sleep as a result? Read on! We are going to take a path that works with Mother Nature and Mother You.

You want your baby to sleep well for all the obvious reasons for his sake and for your own, as well as for the sake of everyone else in your household. A tired baby is a cranky baby, and a tired mom or dad is often cranky, too. An older sibling whose sleep has been disturbed for several nights is a child who not only may well become cranky, but is also more likely to become susceptible to germs that are floating around. Sleep is just as necessary as food or drink for a person's well-being. Without food and fluids, our bodies cannot function, cannot grow, and cannot survive. But sleep is just as important. It's essential for a person's good health (both physical and mental), and this is true for people of all ages, including new-borns and other babies. But unfortunately, babies don't always sleep as well as parents would like. When your baby is awake at night and crying, nobody in the house can get any sleep the very thing that everyone needs the most.

Children, including babies, need sleep just as much as adults do, if not more. Though some of the effects of sleep deprivation in adults are either not relevant to or not observable in infants, some are especially crankiness. A cranky baby is no joy to be around! The fact that the mom and dad may be cranky themselves, due to their own sleep deprivation if the baby had them up all night, only exacerbates an already bad situation. You know your baby needs plenty of sleep to grow and be healthy and happy, and you want him to get a good night's sleep, rather than sleeping all day.

Unfortunately, babies don't come equipped with sleep buttons or on/off switches. Getting a baby to sleep isn't as easy as turning off a stereo or putting your computer into sleep mode.

Our sleep patterns can be broken into two basic types: REM sleep and non-REM sleep. REM is an acronym for Rapid Eye Movement. During REM sleep, a person's eyeballs move around rapidly, perhaps because they are looking at the people or things they are dreaming about. In babies, terminology used for the two types of sleep is often active sleep (REM) and quiet sleep (non-REM). Babies in active sleep may move their arms and/or their legs in addition to their eyes. They may also coo or make other noises. This is in a way equivalent to talking in their sleep. Their eyes may even be partly open. This does not indicate that they are not sleeping. It also does not indicate that they are experiencing a tummy ache or other discomfort. It does not signify a problem.

A baby's sleep pattern early in life typically involves from two to four hours of sleep at a time, followed by a period of wakefulness, a pattern that may recur around the clock with no regard to whether it's day or night. Just as babies begin to demonstrate a rudimentary but recognizable personality at an early age (She's a happy baby, He's a fussy baby, She's a placid baby, He's so alert and interested!), they also show their recognizable differences, one from the other, in other ways, and one of these is in sleep patterns. So if you know someone with a baby the same age as yours who sleeps more, or less, or simply at different hours, don't worry about it. We're all different babies, too.

There is no one right hour to put a baby to bed. Typical bedtimes range from 5:30 P.M. to 8:00 P.M., and by the same token, your baby's wake-up time might be as early as 5:00 A.M. or as late as 8:00 A.M. This will depend in part on his own internal circadian rhythms, in part on the way you've programmed him to conform to your family's habits, and in part on his sleep needs.

What is important is that you get him on some kind of schedule as early as you can and remain as consistent to that schedule as is practical. While rigidity is no virtue, you should maintain a reasonably consistent sleep schedule and put your baby to sleep at the same time every night, or close to it. If he is already eating strained foods or cereal, feed him about one hour before his bedtime at the same time every evening.

How soon should you expect your baby to sleep through the night? (Sleeping through the night is a misnomer, since we all babies included wake up at least briefly during the night.) Some babies give up their middle-of-the-night feedings as early as when they are eight weeks old. Almost all babies are able to sleep through the night by six months old. Try putting her to bed half an hour earlier.

Although humankind's biological disposition causes people to tend to sleep by night and be active by day, socialization takes over after that and plays a part as well. By wanting to fit in with the rest of the world, to be available to friends when they're available, to be available for work during the hours when most work is performed, to shop in stores when they're generally open, and to participate in most other activities, people learn that it's usually desirable to sleep by night and be awake by day.

Sleeping babies often make noises. If you hear sounds from your baby in her crib when she's been sleeping and before you assume she is hungry and crying, first be sure she is awake. Misguidedly, some parents will wake a baby for a feeding who is whimpering or making other noises in her sleep, or alternatively, they may offer her a bottle while she is still asleep. The baby may suckle in a half-asleep state and then return to sleep.