Help with My Newborn’s Sleeping Schedule
I remember these days with my child, sleeping in the recliner and watching awful TV at 4:00 am because he wouldn’t sleep. They were the worst!
We started totally overemphasizing ‘day’ and ‘night’. Although it was February, when it was daytime, we would open up all the curtains and turn on all the lights in the house, simulating daytime the best we could. When it was nighttime, we’d do the opposite and turn out all the lights, turn down the tv or even turn it off, and try to recreate night. We would do something similar at nap time.
Despite what others may tell you, you can start initiating some sort of schedule. It won’t be written in stone and you will need to be flexible, but you definitely can begin. Again, you are teaching your child routines/patterns, and the expectation they have of these routines will help lessen their anxiety because they know what to expect.
Someone on this board gave great advice about a ‘schedule’. Basically it goes something like eat, play, sleep. When your baby wakes, feed her then play with her but no more than 2 hours of wakefulness. Then start your nap time soothing routine. I will also suggest you read “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child” by Dr. Marc Weissbluth, as it would be a good starting point.
Although it might not seem like it is working at first, get going on your bedtime/nap time routines. This will totally help in the long run because when you start up the routine at later ages, the child will have associated the actions with going to sleep. Decide what your bedtime/nap time routine will be and stick to it. It took a while for our baby to catch on, but we are now totally reaping the benefits because for naps he goes in his crib wide awake and falls asleep on his own without a fuss. At night, after the bedtime routine and the bottle he doesn’t even want to cuddle for long(yes, that makes me sad but his need to sleep is more important than my selfish want to cuddle my baby) because he wants to get in his bed, roll over, crawl to his ‘sleeping spot’ and go to sleep.
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