RE: [ozmidwifery] Infant Sleep

[Kelly @ BellyBelly]

Title: Infant Sleep

Helen,   I love your comments here, so very true and honest. I was wondering if you could please give me permission to quote what you said, anonymously, to help out a mum having similar sleep issues in my forums? I just couldn’t say it any better! Best Regards, Kelly Zantey Director, www.bellybelly.com.au & www.toys4tikes.com.au Gentle Solutions For Conception, Pregnancy, Birth & Baby Australian Little Tikes Specialists From: owner-ozmidwifery@acegraphics.com.au [mailto:owner-ozmidwifery@acegraphics.com.au] On Behalf Of Helen and Graham Sent: Tuesday, 18 October 2005 8:30 AM To: ozmidwifery@acegraphics.com.au Subject: Re: [ozmidwifery] Infant Sleep   Joe I only have the one child who was fully breastfed for ......years.  I couldn't see anything particularly different in your story to what my son was doing at that age either.  That is meant to be reassuring that you know he is OK.  The worst thing for me was people telling me that It will only be for the first 6 weeks It will only be for the first 3 months It will only be while he is cutting his first teeth He is hungry now and the bm isn't enough (at six months) The first year is the worst Once all of his teeth are in he will sleep better and so on....   I kept passing these so called milestones with 2 step forwards and 1-2 steps back feeling like a failure each time we didn't have an improvement in his sleep.    I think it is like Megan says - if we don't expect too much we won't be disappointed.  I do, however, remember the sleep deprivation which went on for.... years but slowly gets better.  We co-slept and didn't actually use a dummy. We did try different sleeping arrangements and sometimes he would go to sleep in his room but after the first or second wake in the night he went back in with us as I seemed to go back to sleep more quickly that way.    I know I haven't contributed to any "solutions" for you Joe but I just wanted you to know it sounds normal to me from my experience.  It is hard to enjoy this special time when you are sleep deprived and you are getting lots of different advice on the way things should be.    Also as Megan says, surround yourself with people with similar philosophies/experiences to you for support.      Good luck   Helen ----- Original Message ----- From: Megan & Larry To: ozmidwifery Sent: Monday, October 17, 2005 10:46 PM Subject: [ozmidwifery] Infant Sleep   We started co-sleeping with our third child, he was demand fed and boy , that was exactly what we did, 24/7. He slept for 45 mins a few times a day, and about 9hrs a night waking every 1-2 hours and needing rocking or patting often through the night. With a 3yr and 1 1/2 yr old to look after as well, not much room for a day sleep. No wonder I was sooo TIRED. He didn't sleep through a whole night until he was over 2, by which I was pregnant again and going to do it all again. He still needs much less sleep than an average child. Not complaining or bragging, just sharing what is a variation of normal. What helped me at the time was having a couple of friends with similar philosophies who were also doing it much the same as me. Fortunately our next baby was a better sleeper, doesn't feed quite so much, but at 16 mths is still 99% breastfed and wakes at night anything from 1 feed for the night to every hour or so. Sleep deprivation is the cruellest of things, we should wear a big badge warning people of how much sleep we've had so they know in advance not to expect too much. I have come to the conclusion to not expect too much from your baby, then you can't be dissapointed and just let it be what it will be. Good luck with it, Megan (Mum to 4 little boys) __________ NOD32 1.1257 (20051016) Information __________ This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system. http://www.eset.com