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 Parenting 101 - Mother
Excerpt from The No-Cry Sleep Solution ~ Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night By Elizabeth Pantley  Stop feeding a sleeping babyI am a follower of the “never let your baby cry” rule, and I took it very seriously. What I didn’t understand, though, is that babies make sounds in their sleep. And these sounds do not mean that baby needs you. Babies moan, grunt, snuffle, whimper, and even cry in their sleep. Babies can even nurse in their sleep. The next step to helping your baby sleep longer is to determine the difference between sleeping noises and awake noises. When she makes a noise: Stop. Listen. Wait. Peek. As you listen attentively to her noises, and watch her, you will learn the difference between sleeping snorts and "I'm waking up and I need you now" noises. “Last night he was nursing and I pulled him off and put my finger under his chin. I was thinking, "This will never work, he’ll be mad!"-- but it worked, he went to sleep! The other trick is working too. When I take him off and then roll over, he thinks I’m asleep then he goes to sleep, too!” Carol, mother of nine-month-old Ben Changing your routine Very often we have a routine we have followed with our babies since birth. The final step before sleep is always nursing or having a bottle. Some babies can continue this pattern and still sleep through the night. Others, though, need to have the final step in their routine changed before they begin to sleep all night. What you’ll want to do is take an objective look at your final steps in putting your baby to sleep and make some changes if necessary. You may want to use massaging, cuddling, or sleepy-time music to help get your baby to fall asleep. Eventually these steps will take over for nursing or bottle-feeding, and then they too will fade away, and your baby will be sleeping longer. “I have changed the way I’m putting Carlene to sleep and it's working! Instead of nursing her down, I just feed her until she is relaxed and then I let her do whatever she wants in the very dim room with me. When she rubs her eyes and looks sleepy I put her in her crib. I stay there and stand next to the crib, and encourage her to sleep. I say, "Shhh, it's night-night time, close your eyes sleepy girl," and I tell her that it's okay to go to sleep. I rub her head or her tummy. She shuts her eyes right when I do this. It’s been a major breakthrough.” …Rene, mother of 7-month-old Carlene Patience, patience, and just a little more patience Take a deep breath and repeat after me, “This too shall pass.” You’re in the middle of it all right now, and it’s hard. Keep in mind that your baby’s seeming inability to fall asleep on his own is not his fault. He’s done things this way since the day he was born, and he’d be perfectly happy to keep things as they are. Your goal to help him feel loved and secure while you help him find ways to fall asleep without you; to not succumb to letting your baby cry it out, is admirable. Be patient, and in no time at all, your baby will be sleeping, and so will you. And your concerns will turn to the next phase in this magnificent, challenging, and ultimately rewarding experience we call parenthood. Excerpted with permission by McGraw-Hill/Contemporary Publishing from The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night by Elizabeth Pantley, copyright 2002 Website: http://www.pantley.com/elizabeth
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