Sleeping
“Is your baby sleeping through the night?” is a frequent question, This sounds as though sleeping through the night is a desirable goal for all babies, and sleep training is one way to achieve it. If a mother replies: “No, he wakes up every night several times,” she can appear to have failed to reach this desirable goal. But human milk is efficiently digested. Breastfed babies usually get hungry at night and need to wake up to feed. This means that when the mother breastfeeds at night, she has not failed. She has succeeded in satisfying the essential needs of her baby.
“Why don’t you leave your baby to cry?” is another common question, sometimes followed by the words: “You should go out of earshot. He’ll soon stop crying if he knows you’re not coming.” Some people today consider it beneficial for babies to soothe themselves, rather than to be comforted by their mothers. However, this value might sound alien to a breastfeeding mother. She longs to pick her baby up because she believes that a distressed baby needs to be comforted. “The comfort and security extended by your loving arms is never wasted,” states THE WOMANLY ART OF BREASTFEEDING.
If you are considering sharing sleep with your baby, consider reading these books:
• The Science of Sharing Sleep by Lee T. Gettler and James J. McKenna. An internationally recognized research team responds to public misinformation about cosleeping and bedsharing.
• The Solace of the Family Bed by Sarah J. Buckley, MD. A renowned doctor reassures parents that infant night waking is normal. And it’s safe to sleep with your kids.
There are other ways to help your child learn how to sleep, or be comforted through the night without using the “cry it out” method. Please consider these books when deciding how to proceed.
• The No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley
Remember, good sleep comes and goes for all of us. As babies grow their sleep habits change to get better and worse, based on things like teething, new foods, growth spurts, and cyclical sleep regression. As one mother put it when talking about her 18 month old son, “”My expectations for his sleep habits are low, so when I sleep for 4 hours straight, it is something to celebrate, and if he doesn’t, it isn’t a major disappointment.