UrbanMommies » Sleep Consultant

Sleeping through the Night

Jill — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:55:06 +0000

Q – When should my baby be sleeping through the night?

A – It really depends which definition of sleeping through the night you are trying to achieve as sleeping through the night means different things to different people. A baby can sleep longer stretches of sleep based on their age and weight. On average though by 4 – 6 months the majority of babies can sleep 11 – 12 hours with one night feed and some can do 11 – 12 hours without any night feeds. There are a few variables that have to be considered to determine a child’s capabilities.

Dawnn Whittaker is a baby and child sleep consultant and lives in Langley, BC. She provides sleep solutions for families throughout North America on an individual basis. Her approach is to first asses the sleep pattern and then put together a sleep plan that reflects the parenting style and supports them through the transition. Contact her at www.cheekychops.ca or 778-552-0069.

10 Months and Sleepless

Jill — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:34:20 +0000

Q – My baby is 10 months old and I am still up every 3 hours all night. I think I need to get some sleep in order to function properly during the day. How can I get my baby to sleep?

A – The way that your baby falls asleep is probably the way that your baby has to return to sleep during their night wakings. So you would want to start making changes at bedtime and then again do the same thing at all night wakings. You will have to teach your baby to fall asleep without props so that they can learn to return to sleep when they next wake up. The type of method that you could use would depend on a couple of factors but the underlying key in any method is for them to go into their crib aware – sleepy but awake.

Gentle Sleep Solutions

Jill — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 17:28:57 +0000

Q – What are some gentle methods I can use to encourage sleep if I don’t feel comfortable letting the baby cry?

A – It’s very hard to train a baby to fall asleep by themselves without some crying as very often you are changing what the baby knows. As an example if the baby is used to being nursed to sleep and you would like to teach them how to fall asleep by themselves they will cry on the first night whether you are in or out of the room as they are naturally responding to the changes that you have made of not nursing them.

You do not have to leave your baby to cry – but your baby will cry but you do not have to leave them. If you decide to make changes put your baby to bed as normal without the props that you use and stay with your baby – you can stay in the room and sit in a chair next to the crib and just gently talk or whisper to your baby whilst they are in their crib and shhh them or touch them gently – letting them know that you are there. You will have to stay with them until they are asleep but if you make a decision to make a change then you should follow through and not give in after 15 – 30 minutes as you will confuse them.

Daylight Savings – Spring Ahead

admin — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 22:28:23 +0000

During the time changes that happen twice a year – children’s sleeping patterns often get thrown off – here are some tips to help with the springtime changes when the clocks go forward by one hour. This article is written based on a baby or child who goes to bed at 7pm and wakes at 7am.

APPROACH 1) – Cold turkey

On the evening of the time change – put your baby/child to bed at the normal time (7pm) and before you go to bed move all of your clocks forward by one hour.

Set your alarm clock or your child’s alarm clock if they use one to their normal wake up time (7am for example). Initially their body will think that it is 6am so they may be a little slow to start and a little groggy as they have missed out on one hours worth of sleep. It can sometimes take a day or two – but then they will be fine. If you didn’t wake up your child at the normal time then they would probably sleep in until 8am.

Stay on the new time all day – don’t make adjustments for the time change or try and compensate for the lost hour – keep all naps according to the new time and at the regular normal time.

Keep all meals/feeds on the new time and at the regular normal time.

Put your child to bed at their normal bedtime on the Sunday evening (7pm) even though it may feel like 6pm to them, expect them to take a little longer to fall asleep on the first night but once again don’t try to compensate – keep everything on the new time.

APROACH 2) – Gradual

You can do a gradual approach 2 ways –

1) On the Saturday night that the clocks are going to change – put your child to bed 30 minutes earlier than normal bedtime (6.30pm) and then 30 minutes earlier the next night (6.30pm new time)

2) On the Thursday night on the build up to the time change make small changes of 15 minutes earlier each night. (6.45pm/6.30pm/6.15pm/6.00pm) – then the 6pm will be 7pm once the clocks have gone forward.

Along with the time changes come longer lighter days and shorter nights – or so it appears. You may be tempted to put your baby or child to bed later as it feels unnatural to put them to bed so early when it is so light out. Don’t give into this temptation, keep your normal bedtime as young children still need the same amount of sleep and if you get into the habit of moving bedtime later they will become overtired – if light in a child’s room is an issue – then invest in some black out blinds to help block out the extra light.

My 3 month old is not sleeping at night, help!

admin — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 18:59:45 +0000

Q – Hello, I am hoping you can help me with problems my baby is having with sleeping. She is a happy 3 month old. When she was about 2 months she would not nap during the day without me holding her, so I started to put her down in her bassinet when I noticed she was getting tired (eye rubbing, yawning) the same way as I would at night. I would rock for about 5 min until sleepy. As soon as I started doing this it worked like a dream and her night time sleeping improved. She would sleep about 5-6 hours straight before waking up. Now that she is 3 months things have changed and I don’t know why. She won’t sleep more than 1/2 hour to an hour at a stretch during the day and is waking every 3 hours or less during the night. Our nighttime routine includes a bath, breastfeeding, and a story if she can stay awake. After her bedtime routine I rock her for a few minutes, until her eyes are starting to close and then put her in her bed. She is quite easy to put down initially but she will wake after 1/2 hour to 1 hour of sleeping soundly. From this point on it will take another 2 hours for her to actually get to sleep. She will wake about every 10 – 15 mins crying, I go in and settle her down without picking her up (stoking her hair and patting her), and this will continue over and over again for 2 more hours Is she too young to have her own self-soothing techniques? I am not comfortable with letting her “cry-it-out” though I do let her cry for a few minutes. Once she is actually asleep getting her back to sleep throughout the night is relatively easy, but she is still waking so often which I can’t understand. I usually end up nursing her when she wakes or I’ve been trying not to everytime and give her the pacifier. I hate using the pacifier to get her back to sleep since she is still feeling the need to suck in order to get to sleep. By 3 months she should be sleeping longer not less right? Please help with any suggestions.

A – I hear lots of complaints from parents about babies who slept better until they hit the 3 month mark – here are a few reasons why that happens as well as what you should keep doing and not doing. A healthy 3 month old has the ability to sleep for 11-12 hours with 1 – 2 feeds within that 12 hours – (provided that they are a good weight). Bottle fed babies would need approx 1 – 2 feeds in there still and a breastfeed baby would need 2 maybe 3 feeds in there still. A 3-month-old baby should also be taking 3 naps a day for a total of 3.5 – 4 hours in total with the first two naps of the day being longer and a third brief nap in the afternoon. As a newborn your baby would of entered REM (light sleep) immediately after falling asleep – but by 3 months of age this changes and they enter NON REM (deep sleep) first they can transition from awake to deep sleep within a few minutes. At this time it is normal for babies to wake up several times a night – with the first arousal taking place around an hour after falling asleep and the remaining in the second part of the night – but only they can help themselves get back to sleep if the conditions in which they wake up are the same as those that they fell asleep in. Also by 3 months of age a babies awake window has gotten slightly longer with the most wakeful period being in the late afternoon and diurnal patterns are also being to form (sleep / wakefulness). First of all – stick with your pre bedtime routine – this is lets your baby know what comes next and is a nice end to the day. Carry on going into see you baby and stroking her head but not so frequently and increase the time in between your visits – start to pull yourself further away so that she is not relying on you to help her fall back to sleep. An over tired baby will cry more at bedtime and can wake more during the night than a well rested baby – 8pm is quite late for a 3 month old – so work on bringing bedtime forward to 7pm or earlier if it works for you. If you set a bedtime of 7pm then you also need to have a wake up time so that there is an end to nighttime for your baby. A baby going to bed at 7pn will have an awake window between 6 – 7am. You many also benefit from using some white noise – which will mask other external noises from interfering with your babies sleep at both nighttime and naptime. She is old enough to be able to self soothe – but it will be more difficult for her with a soother as a soother will stick support the sucking which is highly soothing to all babies. With a soother though – (not with all children but with a high percentage) the soother pops out of the mouth frequently and then you have to keep getting up to put it back in again. You would have to remove the soother at some point so it would be better to remove it now whilst you are spending so much time assisting her with better sleep habits. Remove the pacifier and don’t give in to your urge to breastfeed her back to sleep – it would be easier and you know that this would work but it is only a short term solution.

How long should my newborn be sleeping?

admin — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 19:21:51 +0000

A -A newborn encompasses up to 4 weeks of age. Most newborn babies are very sleepy and are just making their transition from that lovely warm cozy womb environment to the outside world. They vary on the amount of time that they spend asleep due to temperament but on average you would expect a newborn to sleep for approx. 16 – 18 hours per 24 hours. Newborn babies are not born with circadian rhythms, have shorter sleep cycles, do not sleep as deeply and will transition between sleep cycles more frequently than an adult. A newborn will also gain their sleep in chunks as their little tummies still require frequent feedings. It is also perfectly normal for newborns to move around, flinch, cry out briefly, and pull faces all whilst being asleep – hold off if you see this happening, as sometimes interfering to prevent them from waking up is actually the cause.

Feeding a Baby while Sleeping

admin — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 05:39:41 +0000

Q – I feed my baby all through the night while he sleeps. Is this a bad idea?

A - Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to this. At present your son has only one way to soothe himself to sleep and that is by feeding. Now he has to learn other ways. You will probably have to feed him and then try to put him down when he is almost asleep and let him cry a bit. Let him cry for 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes you go in and console him while not feeding him and then try again. Keep this up until he falls asleep. I know this is exhausting and can make for a few long nights but it will work usually over the course of 2-3 nights. I have been through this myself and have yet to discover an easier way but I also know that by leaving it alone the problem only becomes worse as the baby gets older.