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Pediatric Sleep Training: The ABCs of Baby Sleep

Pediatric Sleep Training: The ABCs of Newborn and Infant Sleep

The journey into parenthood is often a sleep-deprived adventure, filled with tender moments and the soft melodies of baby sleep. As new parents, understanding the nuances between newborn and infant sleep becomes crucial for creating a peaceful bedtime routine to optimize baby’s night sleep.

In this blog post, I will unravel the intricacies of baby sleep, exploring the differences between newborn sleep and infant sleep, while shedding light on the crucial role of pediatric sleep training in the pursuit of a good night’s rest.

Understanding Newborn Sleep:

1. Unpredictable Sleep Patterns:

Newborn sleep is erratic and unpredictable. With sleep cycles as short as 30-40 minutes, new parents often find themselves navigating a landscape of round-the-clock feedings and comforting.

2. Short Sleep Stages:

Newborns experience brief sleep stages, including both REM (Rapid Eye Movement) and non-REM sleep. Recognizing these stages becomes essential in responding to a baby’s sleepy cues effectively.

3. Night and Day Confusion:

Distinguishing between night and day can be a challenge for newborns, contributing to irregular sleep routines. Establishing a day-night rhythm early on is key to promoting healthier sleep habits.

Transitioning to Infant Sleep:

1. Consolidation of Sleep Patterns:

As infants grow, their sleep patterns tend to consolidate. Longer periods of nighttime sleep emerge, offering new parents a more predictable routine.

2. Introduction of Sleep Training:

Infant sleep often introduces the concept of sleep training. Techniques such as the Ferber method or gradual extinction may be explored to encourage self-soothing and establish consistent sleep habits.

3. Coping with Sleep Deprivation:

New parents often grapple with sleep deprivation, especially during the newborn phase. As infants transition to more predictable sleep patterns, the burden of sleep deprivation tends to ease, providing parents with much-needed relief.

The Role of Sleep Training:

1. Seeking Guidance from Pediatric Sleep Consultants:

Pediatric sleep consultants or sleep coaches, like myself are invaluable resources for new parents navigating the complexities of infant sleep. I offer personalized advice, addressing the unique needs of each baby while offering extended support throughout the process. Click SLEEP SUPPORT OPTIONS for more.

2. Tailoring Sleep Training to Individual Needs:

Understanding that every baby is unique, sleep training approaches should be tailored to match the temperament and preferences of the infant, but also the family dynamics and . Sleep training is multifaceted, therefore, one-size-for-all is simply not possible here.

3. What really is sleep training?

Sleep training is simply a process of helping a baby to sleep well. Large focus of sleep training are sleep training methods to improve child’s sleep. All of them boil down ultimately to one goal – teaching a baby independent sleep. Most methods can be divided into 2 approaches: to let the baby cry it out or, the ones I advocate, comfort a baby, within a reasonable amount of time, with the intention of letting them fall asleep on their own in the end. 

In the realm of baby sleep, deciphering the differences between newborn and infant sleep is a journey filled with discovery and challenges. As new parents navigate the sleep cycles, the introduction of sleep training, and the potential for sleep deprivation, seeking guidance from pediatric sleep consultants and adopting personalized sleep training approaches can pave the way for a more restful and harmonious sleep experience for both baby and parents.

I promise there is more light, and sleep!, at the end of this tunnel.

To the balance your family deserves,

Ola

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Baby Sleep: Early Morning Wakings

Tips on how to deal child's early morning wakings.

Early morning wakings are very common sleep troubles parents encounter and they also can be the most difficult to resolve. An early waking or early rising is anything before 10h from bedtime that considered an early morning waking. It may take a few weeks to see improvement – especially when a baby has just started sleeping through the night and may just sleep the bare minimum 10h, and also what type of an early riser you have.

The Cheerful Early Riser characteristics: This baby wakes up very early but is rested and refreshed. Baby has slept at least 10hrs of overnight sleep and takes decent naps. Although, they wake up too early for your liking, they meet their daily requirement for sleep.

What can you do?

  • Use 100% blackout shades
  • Limit light and noise after dinner
  • Limiting naps may help
  • You can try moving bedtime to see if it could change baby’s wake up time by shifting a daytime schedule by 15-min increments each day until you reach new bedtime. It may take 1-2 weeks to adjust.

Small percentage of babies are “larks” – they wake up early in the morning, cheerful and refreshed and get tired early in the evening. They wake up at he same time every morning, no matter what time they go to bed. Whether your child is a lark is genetically determined and true “larks” are very hard to change.

TYPE 2 of an early riser: The Tired, Cranky Early Riser and here is their characteristics: This baby sleeps less than 10hrs/night or naps poorly, or both! Baby doesn’t wake up refreshed in the morning and is tired for majority of the day. This baby doesn’t meet their daily sleep needs and could benefit from more sleep. Reasons they wake up are: hunger, external factors (light, noise), discomfort, over-tiredness, habitual waking, anticipation/excitement.

The first 3 are self-explanatory. Let me briefly explain the last three.

OVERTIREDNESS. Yes, overtiredness can cause early morning wakings! If baby isn’t getting the proper amount of sleep and are put to bed late it can cause early rising. It is one of most common sleep myths – later to bed, baby will sleep in. The exact opposite is true!

What can you do?

  • Stick to age-appropriate wake windows and daytime schedule. BE CONSISTENT.

HABITUAL WAKING. Sleep is the lightest towards the morning. We cycle more through the light sleep stages in preparation for the morning waking. Also, the sleep pressure is lower in the wee hours. So it is especially hard for the baby to fall asleep in the early morning, especially when they don’t know how to go to sleep on their own. It is very easy for this to become a habit while you are trying to cope with these early morning wakings

What can you do?

  • It is very important to teach a baby it is not time to wake up yet – they will learn eventually. Treat this just as you would treat the in-the-middle-of-the-night waking.
  • If baby is fussing for about 10 minutes, it is ok to go in and give them a gentle reminder using a key phrase like “it’s sleep time”, then leave.
  • If you have done the steps above, it’s been over 25 minutes or it’s around the desired wake time, chances are your baby will not got back to sleep. Pick them up, make a big deal out of the morning (so they do not think you came because they were fussing), and start your morning routine. Your baby may want to go to sleep an hours after they woke up which would be the extension of their night sleep. It is important to wait with that nap for at least 2 hours from the time they woke up or until 9am (depending on their overall daytime schedule).

EXCITED ANTICIPATOR. If baby enjoys whatever it is parent is doing after they wake up, they may start waking up early excited for this. Whether it’s cuddling, going to parents’ bed, rocking or feeding – a parent may be unwittingly creating a situation a baby is waking up for.

What can you do?

  • Make mornings less exciting – it isn’t as mean as it sounds! Instead of doing whatever your baby might have been waking up for, start with something less exciting: diaper change, taking jammies off, getting dressed for the day. You can compare it to days you go to work and days off – when it’s work day you can ignore your alarm clock 10 time. However, on a day off you either wake up early excited or have no problems waking up for what you planned 🙂
  • Same as with the habitual waker, you would go in with a sleep reminder/treat it as a night waking. Do not go in too often – it may too stimulating and turn into a game.

Seeing improvement in the early morning wakings can take a few weeks BUT it can be very successful if parents remain consistent!

Tips on how to deal child's early morning wakings.