Sleep Solutions

Can you remember back to when your kids were born...what techniques did you use to coax them to sleep?

Right now mama rocks Remy and sings from the hymnal...I know she probably doesn't mind if I sing the same song but it gives me a little variety at least. (right now I'm on pg 33....we'll see how long it takes me to work through the 785 pages.)

Papa prefers to swaddle Remy and make her feel like she is still in the womb and he walks the house back and forth with little bitty baby steps. He also claims that this is a good workout for his upper legs.

I'm halfway through reading a book by Cathryn Tobin entitled Lull-a-Baby. So far it's just talked about what not to do to get your child to sleep and what bad habits can develop by the patterns you use early on. I'm interested to get to the part about what to do to get them to sleep....maybe then we'll all be snoozing.

Here's some tidbits so far:

Myth #1: My baby wakes up because of gas. The most common reason older babies wake up and stay up is that they lack the self-calming tools necessary to manage night awakenings.

Myth #2: My baby wakes up because he's hungry. Like adults, babies eat for reasons other than hunger. A baby will nurse because it's the only way he knows how to get back to sleep.

Myth #3: My baby is a poor sleeper. We inadvertently train our babies to be poor sleepers by not equipping them with the skills they need to fall asleep.

Myth #4: Rice cereal before bedtime will help my baby sleep longer. Hunger is typically not the cause of sleep problems after 3 to 4 months of age.

Myth #5: Crying damages a baby's psyche. I've known babies who were raised on attachment parenting principles and those allowed to cry it out. Can I tell them apart by their intellectual, psychological, or emotional states? Absolutely not!

Myth #6: It's easier to sleep-train an older baby. The longer a habit is reinforced, the harder it is to break.

Myth #7: Teething disrupts sleep. This may be true at times, but teething is blamed for way too many sleep problems.

Myth #8: Poor sleep habits improve eventually. Without their parents' help, the vast majority of babies will sleep worse, not better, over time. Sleep problems don't magically disappear. Consider the 2004 Sleep in America Poll, which found that two-thirds of children from infancy to age 10 experience frequent sleep problems.

Myth #9: Babies will get the sleep they need. If only! Babies resist sleep like similarly charged magnets resist each other. Parents need to insure a baby gets enough sleep.

Myth #10: There's no harm in getting up with my baby as long as I'm willing to do it. If you enable unhealthy sleep habits, you run the risk of your child developing long-standing sleep problems that will persist into the preschool years.