Saturday, April 9, 2011

No-Cry Sleep Solution

I started reading 'No-Cry Sleep Solutions', not because I am so hung up on getting my daughter to sleep through the night, if she wakes 2-4 times thats fine, but waking every 20-40 mins is probably just as bothersome to her as it can be to me on occasion.

What I love right off the bat is this book reaffirmed what I had been thinking all along, that night wakings were normal.


Babies have sleep cycles just like adults but theirs are much lighter and they shift through them quicker then we do.

 Often we wake and shift a pillow or roll over, same concept, except babies don't know how to just roll over and fall asleep and on top of that a lot of babies who are breastfed, bottle fed or rocked to sleep wake up with an added shock factor. I loved the example she used "You fall asleep in your nice warm bed, comfortable, your favorite pillow, then all of a sudden you wake up on the cold kitchen floor - you couldn't just roll over and fall back to sleep could you, you'd wonder how you got there and you would would want to be back in your cozy bed but be somewhat fearful you'd wake up in the kitchen again" (paraphrasing).

Babies are emotional beings, when left to cry it out they feel abandoned and can't comprehend why you are ignoring their cries.

 Parenting is a 24/7 job not a 12/7 job and its not like any of us were unaware of that. Some babies naturally sleep deeper then others thus having lengthier sleeps, and a lot of parents assume if one baby can sleep like that why can't all babies, but ever babies body functions differently.

I can't imagine how a baby left to cry it out feels, alone, scared, confused ..
They eventually give up in complete despair and sleep fairly well due to exhaustion, this is something biological our body does to help us cope with stressful situations. It has been proven that babies left to cry it out will have to go through that more then once, on a vacation, if they become sick, it ruins their sleeping pattern and thus they have to cry it out again. - Some babies left to cry it out become physically ill from it other babies cry for hours on end for countless nights - how on earth could a parent do that to their child? I'm sorry from my view point, its heartless to say the least.

I hate to sound judgmental, but way to detach yourself from your child emotionally. A lot of parents who allow their children to cry it out say it isn't that bad ... but for who?

Its a lazy excuse for allowing your child to lay there tired, scared screaming until hes too tired to scream, they look around feeling hopeless wondering why no one is coming. As if somehow the only sure fire way to get you baby to sleep is to but them through a great amount of physical distress, sounds selfish to me.

You will spoil her some say, better then feel I'm neglecting her needs emotionally. I want her to know I am there for her no matter what, my job is to meet her emotional and physical needs regardless of the time.

It is our job as parents to nurture them and make them feel safe and loved.

No one truly knows what the effects the cry it out method has on babies since they are all very different and other lifestyle factors will also mold them as people, but crying it out just doesn't seem to be in the child's best interest at all, hence why I bought the book.

Now to just finished reading and hope it give me some more insight and useful strategies to help my daughter sleep better and longer.

Wondering what I will do in the even it doesn't work, well I will keep doing what I'm doing, because thats my job, and she will be a teenager before I know it.

2 comments:

  1. This is very well said! I couldn't agree more! You did a great job writing this, I love that paraphrased quote, I have never thought of it that way before.

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  2. I Also Don't Understand How A Mother Or A Father Can Be Laying In Bed COMFORTABLY Listening To There Child Cry.... In Away I Feel Like Its A Form Of Child Abuse.... Khadijah Slept On My Chest For The First 6 Months Of Her Life, Was The Only Way She Would Sleep Through The Night & Not Wake Up Every 30 Minutes, Was Told That She Would Never Sleep Alone.... Khadijah Is Now 20 Months Old And Sleeps In Her Own Bed In Her Own Room, We Never Hear A Peep From Her Till She Wake Up In The Morning....

    Parenting Is A Lot Of Trial And Error, What May Work For You Does Not Mean That It Will Work For Somebody Else, But Letting Your Child Cry It Out Has Got To Be Traumatizing For A Baby....

    I Love You Blogs Hun.... Keep Them Coming.... And Parenting Is Defiantly A 24/7 Job And Always Will Be

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