I admit it, some nights I’m so beyond tired that when I put my wee one to sleep I’m barely keeping it together. Come to find out, I could be contributing to her poor sleep habits. Nothing like being able to blame myself for yet another thing my child does (or doesn’t do, as the case may be). URGH.
According to a new study, the emotional availability of the parent at bedtime greatly impacts an infant’s sleep pattern throughout the night.
The study just published by the American Psychological Association found that an infant reacts (positively or negatively) to the mom’s emotional state when going to sleep. Part of me says, “well, duh!” but another part of me thinks that they may be on to something good here. Good to know at least. Good to experiment with, I should specify.
The upshot of the study: the more emotionally available you are at bedtime, the more your tyke sleeps. So, turn down the lights, turn on the sound machine and turn up the positive emotions…
photo credit: peasap
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{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Do you have any suggestions/books for a 7 month old who is breastfed and doesn’t sleep through the night? My doctor recommended the CIO method but this goes against my beliefs.
Hi – I feel for you, I really do. We are on the other end of that situation right now. Our 6 1/2 month old has been a terrible sleeper up till now, usually waking every other hour to nurse herself back to sleep. Truly, as much as I love breastfeeding (and I do now, despite my rocky start), it was wearing me down mentally and physically. I’m sure you know! Sleep training has saved me, my family, my child…we are such different people and the world seems so, well, handleable now.
I don’t think you’ll like the method we used. Ferber. Yes, cry it out. It’s one of the hardest things ever to listen to and I thought I’d break. But, I read Dr. Ferber’s book Solve Your Child’s Sleep Problem, and it gave me the strength to follow through. I’ll sum it up because I think you’re not quite in to this solution, but it really does work. Basically, you have to change baby’s sleep associations. My daughter associated falling asleep with nursing so every time she woke up she needed the boob to go back down again. Every time. So, what I did was nurse her till she was good and full but drowsy rather than zonked out. This is actually harder to do than you think because babies naturally fall asleep at the breast. I often jostled the little one awake some as I put her in her crib. Then, I timed my response to her crying. At first I went in to soothe her at 1 minute. Then 3. Then 5 minutes. Then 10.
The first night it took 30 minutes for her to stop crying and to fall asleep. The second night it was about 15. Then the third night maybe (maybe) 2 minutes. Now, she may whimper a tiny bit as I lay her down but hardly even that. When she wakes in the middle of the night she will talk a bit, but go right back to sleep. 3 nights!
Now, I know you asked about non-cry it out methods, so I’ll get you some info on that. But, I will say that while it goes against my parenting beliefs to let a crying child lay there crying, I needed something that worked because I was at my wits end and this WORKS! It truly works.
As for non-CIO: I’ve heard the No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley works well. And, my sister swears by Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Baby though I believe that has a CIO method as well.
I do hope you find something that works for you because, believe me when I say, I feel your pain! Let me know what you decide and how it works!!!
Any suggestions for a 27 month old boy that does NOT sleep in a crib (he’s in a double bed cause he was climbing out of his crib at 14 months)??