“Baby Sleep Tips - Some Tricks For The Transition”
|
Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child Marc Weissbluth
As a new parent, one of your priorities will be to establish good sleeping habits with your newborn. Your baby needs to learn to sleep on his own; the transition from sleeping with his mother to sleeping by himself takes some time.
Of course, as add added bonus, if you get your baby to learn to sleep on his own you will also get some much needed rest yourself. To instill good sleeping habits in your baby, research and try to employ different baby sleep tips:
try a lot of things and see
what works for you, and don't be afraid to trust your
instincts.
Many baby sleep tips center on the idea of establishing
routines and associations for your child between nighttime and
sleep.
The sooner you child begins to associate bedtime with
sleep, the more likely he is to be able to go to sleep without
a fuss. A period that is often overlooked, however, in
establishing day vs. night associations, is the period of
"transition" - that is, the one between being awake and falling
asleep. Here are some transitioning techniques to try:
Try what is sometimes called "fathering down."
Just before
placing the baby into bed, the father should cradle the baby in
such a way that the baby's head rests on the father neck. The
father should then talk gently to the child. Because the male's
voice is much deeper than the female's, babies are often more
soothed by it, and will fall asleep more easily after being
exposed to it for some time.
You can also try what is sometimes referred to as "wearing down." This is effective if your baby has been active throughout the day and is too excited to go to bed easily. All you have to do is place your baby in a sling or carrier - "wear him" in other words - for about half an hour before his bedtime.
Simply go about your regular household activities: being close to a parent and slowly rocked about before bedtime will provide your child with an easier transition from being awake to being asleep.
Finally, if you've exhausted other options, you can go for the tried and true method of "driving down." Most parents are probably familiar with this as a last resort: place your baby in the car and drive around for awhile until he falls asleep. This one, while inconvenient, usually works every time, and if you desperately need some sleep it can be a godsend.
Obviously, you don't want to do things like drive around every night to get your child to sleep. Nor do you want to have to carry him around in a sling. The idea, though, is to start with these more drastic techniques and then slowly ease out of them. Keep in mind what a major transition your baby is going through when he is tiny: he's never slept on his own before. He simply doesn't know how to transition himself from being awake to being asleep.
By employing these transition techniques you will be slowly teaching him how to do so, and as they are gradually removed your baby will learn good sleeping habits, which will ensure that both you and your child get a good night's rest.
About The Author: Brandon C. Hall maintains Free Info Blog http://www.freeinfoblog.com which contains many articles and resources on baby sleep http://www.freeinfoblog.com/category/baby-sleep-tips tips as well as many other topics.
This free toddlers activity and Parent Child Development guide site has articles for positive parenting skills, social skills training for child, positive parenting tips for Toddler Separation Anxiety and childhood depression, parenting advice about childhood anxiety, Child & Divorce, child self esteem, kids sleep problems, including free child development toddlers activity and Parent Child Development resources.
“Baby Sleep Tips - Developing Sleep Associations”
toddlers activity Baby Sleep Tips
Everyone who has had the experience of being a parent knows all too well the difficulties of getting your baby to sleep soundly throughout the night. The dark circles around the eyes of new parents are usually familiar to all those that have been around them. In terms of baby sleep tips, one of the most important things you must try and establish as a parent is getting your baby to learn to fall asleep on his own.
The process by which your child begins to fall asleep on his own is one that involves a natural transition from falling asleep with the mother to falling asleep in an independent fashion. One of the best ways in which you can speed up this transition is to encourage your child to develop sleep associations that he or she can recreate independently.
Naturally, everyone - and babies in particular - will develop sleep associations. These are the things that you associate with bedtime, and allow you to create an environment in which it is easy to fall asleep. When your baby is at an extremely young age, he will naturally develop sleep associations involving the mother, as he will often fall asleep in her arms. As you attempt to get your baby to sleep in his own, however, it is crucial that you work to change these associations.
If you always put your child to sleep by holding him, or allowing him to use a pacifier, you create a sleep association with these things. Then, when your child wakes up in the middle of then night, he can't go back to sleep on his own because he is unable to recreate his sleeping environment without you: he needs you to feed him or rock him in order to sleep.
As you begin to try and get your child to sleep on his own, you should introduce items into his sleeping routine that he can sleep with, such as a particular blanket or a stuffed animal. What this will do is create associations for your child with these items for sleep. Then, when he awakes in the middle of the night, he will be able to recreate a sleeping environment without your assistance by grabbing his stuffed animal, etc. It can also be beneficial to introduce "transitional items" into your baby's bedtime routine: Allow him to have his stuffed animal or blanket with him during a final feeding and before-bedtime activities, and allow him to take these things with him to bed.
No matter what you do, your child is going to be creating his or her own sleep associations. Your job is to try and create associations with items that are under his or her control. By giving your child as much control over his sleeping environment as possible, you allow him to begin to achieve sleep independently. The most difficult transition in early parenting is the one towards independent sleep for your child, and if you introduce new items into your child's sleeping place, you will hasten this transition, which will soon allow both you and your child to get a good night's rest.
Back to Baby Sleep Tips Toddlers activity DIRECTORY PAGE
free toddlers activity & discipline guide
HOME PAGE
Contact Us || Your own Website || Subscribe Newsletter || Parenting & Childhood Quotes || Link Directory || Parent Child Blog || Privacy Policy || Site Map || Terms of Use
================================================================
DISCLAIMER: The free toddlers activity and child discipline guide site resources on this site are not intended to be a substitute for professional advice. While all attempts have been made to verify information provided in this publication, neither the author nor the publisher assumes any responsibility for errors, omissions or contrary interpretation of the subject matter herein. There is no guarantee of validity of accuracy. Any perceived slight of specific people or organizations is unintentional. This free toddlers activity and discipline guide site resources website and its creators are not responsible for the content of any sites linked to.
The free toddlers activity and child discipline guide site resources contents are solely the opinion of the authors and should not be considered as a form of advice, direction and/or recommendation of any kind. If expert advice or counseling is needed, services of a competent professional should be sought. The author and the Publisher assume no responsibility or liability and specifically disclaim any warranty, express or implied for any products or services mentioned, or any techniques or practices described. The purchaser or reader of this publication assumes responsibility for the use of these materials and information. Neither the author nor the Publisher assumes any responsibility or liability whatsoever on the behalf of any purchaser or reader of these materials.
This free toddlers activity and Parent Child Development guide site has articles about Baby Sleep Tips for positive parenting skills, social skills training for child, positive parenting tips for Toddler Separation Anxiety and childhood depression, parenting advice about childhood anxiety, Child & Divorce, child self esteem, kids sleep problems, including free child development toddlers activity and Parent Child Development resources, strategies for fussy eaters, including free child development parenting resources for parents who want Baby Sleep Tips parent tips.
This free toddlers activity and child discipline guide site article links include Baby Sleep Tips Parent Magazine, Child Development, toddler discipline, discipline for kids, Child Development, Child & Divorce, Toddler Separation Anxiety, childhood depression, childhood anxiety, child self esteem, social skills training for child, parenting skills, parenting advice, inspiring parenting & childhood famous quotes, Baby Sleep Tips , parenting toddler time out techniques, early childhood child behavior problem parenting tips with free behavior chart, toddlers arts & crafts, toddlers activity toddlers songs. This free toddlers activity and Parent Child Development guide site has articles about Baby Sleep Tips for positive parenting skills, social skills training for child,toddlers activity positive parenting tips for Toddler Separation Anxiety and childhood depression, parenting advice about childhood anxiety, Child & Divorce, child self esteem, kids sleep problems, including free child development toddlers activity and Parent Child Development resources..
================================================================
