I happened upon an article where a woman (and husband) was against cry-it-out and specifically, The Ferber Method, but ended up doing it anyway because it was what worked. In that article, Confessions of a Ferberizer, she said that, in the end, her son stopped wanting to be rocked or cuddle. She did not seem to regret doing cry-it-out, I don't think, but reading the article reminded me that many of us wonder whether doing cry-it-out will change our child's personality, so I thought I'd reflect
sleep
Baby, Sleep, Pillows
In this post, I'll talk about baby sleep pillows. When should you give a pillow to your baby? When can you give a pillow to your little one? What kind of pillow do you give your baby? What type of pillows can help with nursing? When can you give your baby a pillow to sleep on? The NICHHD recommends that you avoid pillows completely, for babies one year of age and younger. They also recommend never placing a baby on a pillow to sleep and never add pillows to the crib, either.
10 Tips to Help Your Newborn Baby Sleep
When you bring your brand new baby home, no one tells you that "sleep like a baby" may not happen, or that if it does, it may only last a short time. This article will give you 10 great tips to help your newborn sleep better. Before I get to the 10 tips to help your newborn sleep, I thought I should note that it can be dangerous for a new newborn baby to sleep all night. They really do need to eat at least every 3 hours in those early days so they can grow well and thrive. Addtionally, it
Newborn Sleep Patterns Guide + Free e-Book
Newborn sleep patterns vary significantly in the early days, but many new parents want to know when they can put their baby on a schedule and what to expect. This guide will teach you about your newborn's sleep patterns and how they will change over time. Newborn Day / Night Confusion When your child was in the womb, movements during the day lulled her to sleep. When you rested at night, you may have noticed that she perked up. She may have started kicking or doing acrobatics when you
Sleep Training (From No Cry to Cry) Series – Part 1 – Bedtime Routines
Today I will start a series of posts outlining the variety of sleep training methods that I recommend. I will post them in order (as I interpret them) from no (or very little) crying to the most (potential) crying. There are many variations of these methods, so I am only going to highlight the main gist of each method. Every parent can add tweaks here and there to accommodate their unique style and situation. At the end of the series, I will tell my story of my first son and, eventually, my
Baby Sleep Needs by Age
I am working on a sleep training series where I will outline the various methods, from no-cry to cry, but I don't think it makes sense to write that until I have written out how much sleep we can expect our babies and toddlers to get. If our expectations are too high, we could be trying to sleep our children too often (yes I'm using "sleep" as a verb!) and it will become frustrating for everyone. If our expectations are too low, we might not sleep our children often enough, they may become
Why sleep more? And, how much?
In my last post, I discussed Harvard's findings that less sleep could be linked to obesity, so we know at least one reason you and your baby should get enough sleep. Let's explore other reasons as stated by Harvard Health. Learning and memory Have you ever tried to learn something new when you are tired? It's hard! Well, the old saying goes that "we learn something new every day". Babies and toddlers are learning new things probably every minute (I might be exaggerating...I didn't look it
Don’t Sleep, Be Fat…Maybe
Time Magazine reported that a Harvard study (https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/obesity-prevention-source/obesity-causes/sleep-and-obesity/) concluded that too little sleep in babies and toddlers might be linked to obesity. And, they said TV viewing heightened the effect. No surprise there. At first I was skeptical about this study of the link between sleep and obesity. After all, we are also living in a fast food era, watch hours of television, sit behind a computer for hours blogging, tweeting, and
Sleep Associations – Is Rocking Your Baby Harmful?
Is it a bad idea to rock your baby? It depends. It is never a bad idea to cuddle your baby and give him/her lots of love and affection! It's only when rocking your baby becomes something you can't keep up with that it is a problem. Let's take a step back and let me explain what a sleep association is. What is your sleep association? How do you fall asleep? What kind of routine do you do before you go to sleep each night? Do you watch TV? Talk to your partner? Do you read a book? Do you sleep