Zzzzzzz…
23rd March 2006
I never realized how big an issue sleep would be with Lucy and children in general.
In these early weeks I always knew getting enough sleep would be a battle for us, as parents. But the quality and quantity of sleep for kids is a giant topic filling the Internet and every parenting magazine I’ve been handed.
Even at less than a month old we’re already questioning Lucy’s sleep patterns:
-do we let her have long (4-5 hour) naps between feeds?
-do you wake up a sleeping newborn?
-will long and frequent naps during the day affect overnight sleeping?
-should we start letting Lucy fall alseep on her own (meaning: crying herself to sleep) without us rocking/singing/snuggling/bouncing/bopping her into slumber?
-will rocking/singing/snuggling/bouncing/bopping her into slumber mean she’ll come to rely on us to get to sleep?
-is it ok that we put her in the swing to fall asleep?
Everything I’ve read has said you can’t spoil a newborn before 6 months, and that helping them with sleep isn’t going to affect things down the road. But they also talk about establishing patterns with babies (like a bedtime routine).
Right now, Lucy is still so unpredictable with her sleep. She tends to nap in the morning, but at different times. Ditto on the afternoon. And night time is one big day-by-day question mark: last night she slept from 11 pm-2:30 am, 4 am-5:30 am, then was wide awake until I put her in her swing (to go pee) at 6:45 am where she remains in a vocal and fitful sleep.
Yet Tuesday night Eric and I thought we’d hit the jackpot: Lucy slept from 10:30 pm-3-ish am, then 4 am-almost 7 am. Only having one middle of the night feed makes such a giant difference in our sleep, as did that 4.5 hour stretch (the most I’ve gotten in a row in probably six months).
But how do we duplicate that? What did we do that night that was so different than other nights? Was it how long she slept during the day?
What a challenge! Any advice from parents out there would be wonderful. Please email me! ASAP before my head hits the keyboard!
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Hey Carly,
My son is now 3 and i was told i had a wonderful baby who loved his sleep(he was sleeping thru the night at a couple weeks old!). Altho, i did keep him awake during the day when i could! I would feed every 4 hours even if it meant letting him cry for a little bit(i’d try playing with him if it was too early to feed). Then only letting him sleep for a couple hours(again i would play with him to keep him awake, this makes them more tired when it’s time to sleep). I started this routine the day we came home from the hospital. Babies and children (i’ve found) love routine, they behave better and are happier!
I used to put Sean in the swing to fall asleep because they get used to the noises (doing dishes and TV, outside noises)so they wouldn’t be disturbed while sleeping.
I also didn’t let having a baby hold me back from going to the mall.
We used to go to the mall(and a lot of other moms too) and walk around, when it was feeding time there is a spot in the womens bathroom or if you are bottle feeding any resturant will give you a large cup of a little boiling water, have your bottles pre-prepared and just heat them up by putting the bottle in the cup(don’t spill it! lol) I hope this helps!
I know you probably hear this a lot but i’m going to say it anyways… Lucy will grow up fast, treasure every minute of it, even when she is being nasty! lol! I heard it so many times and i’d just say “yeah” but wow, he’s 3 and it’s so hard to believe!
Carrie
I’ve been reading your blog for quite some time. It’s part of my routine work day in fact! Thanks very much – and congratulations, she’s beautiful!
I have two girls, age 10 yrs and age 19 months. We found that trusting our instincts regarding sleeping habits has always worked. If the baby cries, we cuddle her and sing to her. We’ve never believed in letting a baby cry. We rock her to sleep, and we let her sleep as long as she wants. Although my wife breastfed with both, we started supplementing with formula from an early age. It gave me a way to feel useful and a really good opportunity to bond! I know they say that the baby needs to be fed every 3 hours, but we never could bring ourselves to wake her just to feed her. Perhaps the supplementing helped assuage our worries that she wasn’t feeding often enough. However, we found with both that within a short period, they were sleeping pretty much through the night!
Good luck and trust your instincts, you’ll soon be as much of an expert as anyone whose advice you seek!
We really found The Happiest Baby on the Block to be a great, helpful book. Also, the swaddling and the routine help. Everytime I felt at my wits end or “will we be swaddling her at 3 years old”, we would turn a corner.
I really believe that letting babies CIO is not right, especially at such a young age. And even if I did want to do it (when my Lucy was so small) I just couldn’t bear to listen to her needing us. When my daughter was 12 months, we did finally let her cry/fuss for up to 5 minutes and eventually she did go to sleep on her own.
Anyway, check out that book if you have the chance. What a sweet baby you have!