Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Digression - The Sleep Solution - Understand it NOW!

Granted I've disappeared from my blog for around a month and a half, and I still haven't finished my final uni assignment, but anyway I'm diverting into a pleasant rant instead - here we go...

Sleep!  I thought I would digress at this point away from stuff you can buy and make sure everyone in the house gets a few important points.  SLEEP!!

We all need it, and when giving birth, feeding, looking after small people, we REALLY need it.  The best gift that you can give your little one is teaching them to sleep properly, its the lesson that gives for a lifetime.  There are a million websites and books available that share copious amounts of information, but I'm just gonna point out a few basic facts, and then point you to my bible.

There are a few important things to remember:-

  1. Self settling is the key to good sleep now and for the rest of bubba's life
  2. More sleep = more sleep (and the opposite is true, less sleep = less sleep)
  3. Routine is everything.
Naraya's tribute to sleep
Here is the breakdown in laywoman terms.  Self settling is teaching the art of falling asleep by themselves, without any assistance from objects like dummies, touch (mummy), breast or anything else.  

So when it is time to sleep and he/she has been fed, changed, burped so that all problems have been eliminated, they get swaddled, and layed down fully awake and left with a "time for sleep now", even if you want to stay, stay out of sight.  But, my suggestion is go get a cup of tea etc.  

If they are still crying by the time you finish your tea, go back in and check that everything is OK (no strange monster has crawled out of the wardrobe, or they haven't wriggled so much the swaddling cloth is up over their face - mine did that) preferably without being seen.

There is a lot of covert mission work, you know crawling on the floor so baby doesn't see you as you pop up behind the bassinet, or drop from the manhole with only a wire attached to your butt!

The other side is - if you don't teach self settling (and many people don't), a baby's sleep cycles are around 40mins, so think about being woken up every 40 minutes to, pick up the dummy and put it back in, to put the baby on the breast so it can sleep, to pick up that toy she's dropped....etc etc.  I know what I prefer.

More sleep = more sleepso don't get any ideas about "if I keep her up for six hours then she might sleep all night!!" It don't work like that sista... if a baby gets over tired it takes buckleys and none to get that child to sleep, and LOTS of screaming (that's you and the baby) in between.

Routine is everything - If the baby knows what to expect, what is going to happen when, they seem to find comfort in this.  So, if their sleeps are at the same time, their feeds are the same time and their bath is the same time they tend to work with you a little more (unless they are a rebel and just say NO whatever you do!! - you know who I'm talking about).  Bath - Breast - Book - Bed is such a great rule of thumb, it really winds them down, and by the time they're in bed they're just ready to sleep.

Complications -  If you have a baby with colic, gastric reflux, other illness, some of the above will change, my sleep bible has alot of case studies with these scenarios, so if applicable check it out there.  But I know you can elevate one end of the bassinet/cot to increase the comfort of the baby, and if they have thrown up, they won't choke on it.

THE DADDY WARNING (JET READ THIS!!!!)
DADDIES HAVE BEEN KNOWN TO THWART THIS PROCESS OF TEACHING SLEEP, SWADDLING AND OTHER NECESSITIES.  DON'T BE AFRAID OF LETTING THE BABY CRY, YOUR LITTLE PERSON WILL BE ALRIGHT, AND AT THE END OF THE DAY IS THE GREATEST MANIPULATOR YOU HAVE EVER MET!!  THEY MAY LOOK SMALL BUT ARE A WORTHY ADVERSARY WHO IS TRYING TO MAKE YOU THEIR SERVANT...DON'T FALL FOR IT!!  TRUST YOUR WIFE/GIRLFRIEND AND "HELP" HER INSTALL THESE SYSTEMS FOR BOTH YOUR SANITY - TRUST ME, IT CAN SAVE A RELATIONSHIP (you know make time for tv and or nookie)


Save Our Sleep by Tizzie Hall
Save Our Sleep - Tizzie Hall - My Sleep Bible
(Insert Godly Ethereal Music here...Ahhhh)  Okay, basically most of the sleep gurus say basically the same thing, with subtle differences, not really important.

Save Our Sleep is my drug of choice, Tizzie breaks it down in a simple easy to understand way.  Read it BEFORE baby arrives, because you won't have time or patience afterwards.

After birth I used to just photocopy the routines and put them on my fridge so I didn't have to think.  She has really good routines that go from birth through to 2years, covers a range of topics, but I've now done my two babies on them, and many of my friends who didn't have routines asked me for the book after about six months so that they could install order in their house.

Most babies will naturally revert to a routine that is similar to these, but do think this is a great reference, even telling you which breast to feed from and when to express.

Then it has case studies about many different scenarios, e.g gastric reflux and twins.  Love, love, love it.

Kya is killing Naraya in the lounge room so I have to go, going to coax them outside to do yoga in the sun!!