The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night

Author:Elizabeth Pantley; William Sears
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: &NEW, Infants & Toddlers, Newborn Infants, Health & Fitness, Psychology, Parent And Child, Infants (Newborn), Infants (Newborn) - Sleep, General, Child Development, Parenting, Sleep, Sleep & Sleep Disorders, Life Stages, Child Rearing, Family & Relationships, Sleep Disorders in Children
ISBN: 9780071381390
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Published: 2002-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

Review and Choose Sleep Solutions

143

Rebecca, ten months old; Carolyn, three years old; Patrick, five years old; Thomas, ten months old willing and able to help for a week or so, you might want to ask that person to sleep near your baby in your stead.

If your baby is younger than about eighteen months, set up a crib, cradle, or mattress right next to the helper’s bed, as it’s never a good idea for someone other than Mom to sleep right next to a tiny baby; only Mom has that “mother’s instinct” that prevents rolling over on the baby. This should be a person your baby is very close to and comfortable with. If possible, have him or her start this process with naps for a few days first. (If not, that’s OK—start right in with bedtime.)

When Baby awakens, have your helper rock, walk with, hum to the baby—anything that helps her go back to sleep. Try to avoid using a bottle, as you’ll just substitute one “sleeping crutch”

for another. If your helper uses a pacifier to calm baby, keep in mind that at some point down the road you’ll probably have to 144

The No-Cry Sleep Solution

Mother-Speak

“I found it virtually impossible to soothe my daughter back to sleep without the breast. She would just get agitated and angry. Our answer was to have Daddy go to her when she woke up to resettle her. The first few nights she was quite irri-tated that it was Daddy and not Mommy coming to her beck and call. But, by the end of the week, she was totally in love with her Daddy. My husband still says that helping to night wean her (though he was sleep deprived at the time) was one of the most important ways he has ever bonded with his little girl. I noticed that closeness in their relationship immediately, and it still hasn’t gone away, even though we’re long past that time.”

Deirdre, mother of nineteen-month-old Violet deal with weaning from the pacifier. Many parents find that they are comfortable with that scenario.

Tell your helper that it isn’t “do or die.” In other words, if baby starts to cry and gets upset, or if your helper is losing patience, tell him or her that it’s OK to bring the baby to you. And try again with the next waking. When Baby comes to you (notice I said “when,” not “if ”), follow the ideas in the section called Help Your Baby to Fall Back to Sleep on His Own While You Continue to Breastfeed and Co-Sleep starting on page 130.

Help Baby to Fall Back to Sleep in Her Crib

This idea may help crib sleepers.

It’s likely that every time your baby is crying or calling out to you during the night you are doing something to help him to fall back to sleep. To gradually get Baby to go back to sleep without your

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