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A Breakthrough-Why Didn't I Do This Sooner?!

  1. #17
    TeamNZ is offline Registered User
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Sai Kung
    Posts
    42

    Personally:
    1. Dark or darkened room - Yes, at very least a change in the level of light to signal sleep environment (we travel alot as well).
    2. Swaddle tight - For us, this is our signal for sleep time (swaddled our son until he was 18 months, the gave him a "blankie".)
    3.Routine - Eat, Activity, Sleep, You. Just like Tracey says, the bonus of this is everyone incl Baby knows what happens next...
    4.Toys in bed - mmmm, personally we decided bed contains nothing but blankets and baby. Bed is for sleeping or resting, not playing. We avoid all crib/bassinet bumpers etc.
    5.Noise - mmm this is a hard one, we didnt want to live on eggshells but had to respect no one can fall asleep easily with noise so we compromised. We go about our daily tasks without too much change just awareness but avoid loud music and unnecessary noise whilst the little one is trying to sleep. Once they are asleep, anything goes!
    6.Treat your baby like a person, tell them what you are doing even when they can't talk or understand, this is great help for later when they do understand. I find the talking also helps calm my nerves and keeps me neutral otherwise I felt like I was losing my mind.

    Tracey's book was invaluable especially the advice on interpreting Baby' signals, it gave us somewhere to start!
    Helped us to recognise and avoid our biggest problem; over-stimulation.

    In saying this I remember it to be somewhat easier...

    We are trying for EASY with our 2 week old (8lbs/bottlefed) and very lucky she sleeps already 5-6 hours through the night and has her night routine sorted but seems to have real difficulty with the days.

    Awake for 3 hours (by then well overtired) and then completely out to the world for 6 hours..... I have to remind myself she only know what we teach her!

    So yesterday we began trying to help her find her routine....


  2. #18
    MLBW Guest
    Quote Originally Posted by TeamNZ View Post
    Personally:
    ....
    2. Swaddle tight - For us, this is our signal for sleep time (swaddled our son until he was 18 months, the gave him a "blankie".)
    3.Routine - Eat, Activity, Sleep, You. Just like Tracey says, the bonus of this is everyone incl Baby knows what happens next...
    4.Toys in bed - mmmm, personally we decided bed contains nothing but blankets and baby. Bed is for sleeping or resting, not playing. We avoid all crib/bassinet bumpers etc.
    We also tried the swaddling thing and our son would not tolerate it--even as a newborn--he would freak out if we swaddled him--tight or lose--didn't matter. He wanted to have his hands free and then he was content.

    My son still doesn't have a "transitional object" even at 14 months--no special attachment to a blanket or doll or toy--he is quite fond of his pacifier--which maybe is a "transitional object"--but he only gets that when it is sleep time--so that is also a thing that signals sleep.

    The routine was really the part we found very helpful to us. My husband and I, by nature are both fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants people. Pre-baby if we felt like going out to eat at 2 am, we would--or sometimes 9 at night or earlier-depending on our mood. We soon learned that with baby, this didn't work and so now we are quite tethered to our home in the evening--which has actually been very cozy for us.

    Toys in bed--I know that for probably 12 months we did the same thing--no toys in the bed--nothing but the mattress and a blanket to cover with. And even now, when my son actually sleeps, no toys in the bed--we actually do the play time at an odd time that doesn't coincide with sleep--just simply and exercise for him to develop affinity with his bed and to see it as a pleasant place. So, play with the toys and make the bed a fun place, then take the toys out and later on bring him back for a nap there. Worked so well for us!

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