I can clearly remember, like most mothers I\u2019m sure, the very moment I gave birth to my first child. I was absolutely buried in feelings of love and gratitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then, about ten to fifteen seconds later, I was equally buried in advice, suggestions, and information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was all thrown at me with the best intentions, but it was overwhelming nonetheless. I can\u2019t imagine the number of times I heard the words, \u201cYou should,\u201d \u201cYou\u2019ll want to,\u201d and \u201cYou\u2019ve got to.\u201d If there\u2019s no such number as a \u201ckajillion,\u201d it should be created specifically in order to measure the number of suggestions a new mother receives in her first year of motherhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of course, those feelings of love and gratitude persist to this day, and so do the recommendations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And that\u2019s coming from an expert, a professional, in the childcare field. I can only imagine the tidal waves of hints and advice that must overwhelm a mother who openly asks for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s no such thing as a casual mom. This gig is full-time, no matter if you\u2019re a stay-at-home-mom, a working mom, or somewhere in between. Your kids are on your mind 24\/7, no matter what else might be going on, so we tend to do a lot of research, and with access to unlimited data via the internet, Barnes & Noble, or your mother-in-law, (the latter having the most to say, by a mile) it\u2019s inevitable that we get some conflicting information. Although when it comes to kids, I think the discussion even eclipses politics for the sheer divisiveness and claiming opinion as fact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So today, I want to focus on my area of expertise, that being sleep, and try to dispel some of the more popular myths I\u2019ve seen in parenting forums, heard from Mom groups I\u2019ve talked with, or had angrily shouted in all caps on my Facebook page.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not likely, except in extreme cases. Unless your little one is sleeping practically all day and up all night, you probably don\u2019t need to concern yourself with the length of their naps. Newborns especially need a ton of sleep. In fact, up until about 6 months, I don\u2019t recommend that your little one be awake for more than about 2 – 21\/2 hours at a time. For newborns, that number is more like 45 minutes to an hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What keeps babies awake at night, more than anything else, is overtiredness. You might think that an exhausted baby is more likely to sack out for a full night than one who slept all day, but it\u2019s actually just the opposite. The reason we refer to it as being \u201covertired\u201d is because baby has missed the \u201ctired\u201d phase and their bodies start to kick back into gear, which keeps them from falling and staying asleep. A baby who has gotten a decent amount of sleep during the day is far less likely to miss the sleep window.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are substantial variations depending on baby\u2019s age and the length of their naps, but up to that 6-month mark, it\u2019s really not uncommon for baby to be sleeping around 5 hours a day outside of nighttime sleep, so if your little one is still within those guidelines, let them snooze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sleeping is natural, absolutely. Everybody wakes up and falls back to sleep multiple times a night, regardless of their age. So no, you can\u2019t teach a child to be sleepy. What can be taught, however, is the ability to fall back to sleep independently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The typical \u201cbad sleeper\u201d of a baby isn\u2019t less in need of sleep, or more prone to waking up. They\u2019ve just learned to depend on outside assistance to get back to sleep when they wake up. Once your little one has figured out how to get to sleep without assistance from outside sources, they start stringing those sleep cycles together effortlessly, and that\u2019s the secret to \u201csleeping through the night\u201d as most parents understand it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The idea that infant physiology is so flawlessly, naturally programmed to regulate a baby\u2019s schedule is, to be blunt, laughable. Nothing against Mother Nature, but she doesn\u2019t provide us with a ready-to-run baby like she does with say, the blue wildebeest. (Seriously? Walking six minutes after birth? Outrunning predators within a day? Our babies are cuter, but clearly not as prepared for battle straight out of the womb.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our babies need extensive care and help in their development, and their sleep cycles are unbelievably erratic if left unregulated. If they miss their natural sleep cycle by as little as a half hour, their cortisol production can increase which causes a surge in energy, and things quickly spiral out of control. So as much as I wish babies could just fall asleep when they\u2019re tired, it simply doesn\u2019t work that way. That\u2019s not to say that you shouldn\u2019t respond to their cues, but you shouldn\u2019t rely exclusively on them either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n