Sleep And Babies

First of all, I would like to thank God for the makers of the electric swing. I held Alessia while she napped for the first four months of her life. Her doctor then suggested that I try a swing. Magic! She took four, half-naps a day for about two months in this swing. At first we thought Olivia would be different. She didn't sleep much during the day her first month, but we could put her down for a two to three hour stretch of sleep in the middle of the day. Then all that changed. Swaddled, not swaddled, with a binky, or without, she started waking up screaming five minutes after being put down. So, at just over a month, we're back to a swinging, sleeping baby in the living room.

 

Second, I would like to thank Alessia (and Adam, the real hero of this story) for learning how to fall asleep on her own. For some months Adam has been in charge of Alessia's bedtime, in anticipation of Olivia's arrival. Alessia is often very wired at bedtime and would chat and squirm after finishing her bottle, while Adam tried to gently rock her to sleep. So he got into the habit of gently putting her in her crib, where she would talk to herself and squirm for a short while before crying for him. Sometimes this process was repeated several times before she succumbed to sleep while being rocked. Right before Olivia was born, Adam and I were discussing how difficult Alessia was at bedtime, while she burbled in her crib. Suddenly we realized it was very quiet. When we peeked in her room, there she was asleep in her crib. Joy! In the past two weeks she has fallen asleep at night on her own more nights than not and has even managed it twice at nap time, when I am sitting with her and Olivia starts crying. I'm proud of her. The baby is slowly slipping away and she is becoming an amazing little toddler.

Postato con Blogsy