I always go to the kids when they cry. The one time you don't go may be the one time something is really wrong~~a fever; pain from a tooth; baby caught in the crib. I'm just not willing to take that chance. Sometimes I creep in quietly on my hands and knees to see what the problem is without their noticing!
"When will my baby start sleeping through the night?" the new mom of a two-week-old asked me. Controlling the temptation to say, "You're kidding, right?" I simply replied that all babies are different. True enough, but if you give up expecting that your one-month-old will sleep straight through, then you'll be less upset when you wake up at 2 A.M. Oh, by the way, it's a well-known fact that small babies only sleep for several hours at a stretch during the day~~never at night!
My favorite sport used to be biking. Now, it's sleeping. I honestly believe that the reason babies kick so much during the last three months of pregnancy is to prepare you for nights of continually interrupted sleep.
At a baby shower I listened quietly as a group of new moms described with much anguish their perpetual lack of sleep. Things seemed to be particularly difficult for moms who were breast-feeding or stayed at home, because they felt the onus was on them to care for the baby at night. Suddenly one of the women turned to me and asked, " So, how do you do it?"
Caught. Now, I'd have to admit to being the world's laziest mother. Eventually, I figured out a way to sleep and keep my baby happy. Instead of sitting in a rocking chair and nursing, I started bringing baby into bed with me. I nursed him while lying on one side and then placed a towel on my chest, burped him, and rolled over with him to nurse on the other side. "You can do that?" one of the mothers said. "You bet, I replied. "It works great during the day on the couch, too!" Just make sure that you don't fall asleep nursing your baby.
Heres are nine sections-worth of other helpful bedtime hints to take you from newborns to preschoolers.
