There are only a few topics that make new parents riled up as much as talking about their child’s sleeping (OK, and perhaps their poop). Much they are getting, it is not enough, and they are not sure how to receive their tot to sleep longer. “Sleep deprivation is the top problem you face as the parent of a baby,” by Dr Harvey Karp, author of the popular The Happiest Baby collection of parenting manuals, such as his most recent book, The Happiest Baby Guide to Great Sleep: Simple Solutions For Kids From Birth to 5 Years ($6).
Based on Dr Karp,
“Sleep deprivation is a lousy nuisance at best; at its worst, it can lead to marital conflict and postpartum depression.
Based on Dr Karp, parents may begin introducing sleep cues on infant’s very first night. “All of the people tells you you can sleep train at 3 or 4 months of age — they can’t learn how to sleep before that,” he states. Why can’t they learn excellent it? It’s so transparently wrong, yet they keep doing the same thing over and over again!”
Finally, Give Up the White Noise
As soon as your tot is using white noise to go (and remain ) asleep, will they get it forever? That is determined by you, based on Dr Karp.
“That’s your choice, at least for the first year. Parents always ask, don’t they become addicted and stuck to it? And the answer is No. 1; they’re addicted to it when they’re born, so to go from having it 24/7 to none is way too abrupt for a baby. No. 2, you can wean it. The beauty of white noise, and swaddling for that matter, is you can wear it in steps. If you like to wean the sound, you gradually lower the sound over a week or two and will be over. Sleeping with your baby or nursing your toddler to sleep, it’s all or none. It’s much harder to wean them off of that. Sleep cues are not a that bad thing.”
Wake Your Baby as She Falls Asleep
It might sound counterintuitive. However, Dr Karp says it is vital to waking up your baby as she is drifting off to sleep.
“When you have a baby, it’s OK to rock them to sleep and nurse them to sleep — in fact, you can’t stop them from falling asleep while they’re nursing. However, they will get dependent on that. You [need to] feed your baby, swaddle your baby, turn on the white noise, and rock your baby to sleep. Then you slide them into the crib or bassinet, and you wake them up — you tickle their feet or something, and you wake them a little bit. They’re drowsy; they’re kind of drunk from the milk a little bit. They’re clothed, they have the white noise, so they tend to fall back asleep in five to 10 seconds. Or, at most, you jiggle the crib a little bit to get them back to sleep. In those 10 seconds, they’re learning how to put themselves back to sleep in the middle of the night, without your help. So you can train a baby the bad habits in the first few weeks, but you can also start training them the right habits in the first few weeks.”
You might want to read Baby Sleep Guide