Sleep, or lack thereof!Half-hourly wake ups, evenings of screaming, nap refusal, insisting on feeding to sleep but then fussing at the breast, not entertaining the idea of sleeping in a crib, a baby who must have constant movement to sleep...people say sleep deprivation is the worst form of torture for good reason.
We won't promise to make your little one a good sleeper, but we hope some of these ideas might just get you all a few more zzzzzz.... |
Sleep is for wimps...
...so said one high-needs baby to another. Word soon got round that there were much more fun and interesting things to be done.
But you're clearly really tired. So why won't you just go to sleep!
High-needs babies can take a lot more persuasion than the average newborn to go to sleep. While it's common for new parents to find themselves rocking their infants to sleep, parents of high-needs babies can find themselves walking the floors for hours on end well into the second half of the baby's first year. But it's crucial to remember that what worked so well for your tiny three day old might not be so effective in a few months', or even weeks', time. We found ourselves scared to try anything new in case it created havoc, ignoring the fact that things couldn't get much worse than they already were. When we did finally try something, even if it didn't work, we rarely regretted giving it a go. At least we were doing something to try to fix things!
Ah, finally asleep! I'll just put my feet up for five min....WAAAAAH!!!
It's a scientific fact that young babies are just not programmed to sleep for long periods of time. Breastfed babies in particular need to feed often during those early months, and it is perfectly normal for them to 'cluster feed' every half an hour or so (or even more often) during evenings for the first few weeks. Western civilisations are keen to get babies sleeping independently and for long periods of time as soon as possible, but babies are not biologically programmed this way. One of the reasons it's now encouraged to keep babies sleeping in the same room as its parents for the first six months is that he or she will sleep less deeply, and this actually reduces the risk of 'crib death'. So those hourly wakings could actually be a vital protective mechanism kicking in. But if you are finding yourself faced with an eight month old who wakes you every fifteen minutes for some milk, then you might well decide you want to try some new tactics.