Friday, November 12, 2010

Establishing baby's bedtime

How do I transform baby from left to right?












Night time brings angst to many women when they have to put their babies to bed. Pierced screaming and tears are the worst fears. Teach the baby good sleeping habits.

For the first few weeks of a baby's life, she will wake frequently at night for feeds. It would be unrealistic to expect a newborn to sleep long stretches at night without waking up. Expect interrupted sleep for the first few months of baby's life. It is recommended that a newborn feeds every three hours. (That means the friends who say their kiddos sleep thru the nite at 1 month old are lying thru their teeth?)
Baby Sleeping: Teaching Baby Good Sleeping Habits http://www.suite101.com/content/sleep-training-a183462#ixzz1502G2QvE

My lil' Princess Tiger Lily is all of 6 weeks and a few days old. She still has her daylight and night time all mixed up. She's in deep sleep mode during the day-no matter how she is carried, how much noise, etc; she just sleeps through it all. Then come 10-11pm and she's all bright-eyed and generous with her smiles. She has a feed at 11-ish but only goes into sleep mode at 1 or 2am! And this is taking a toll on her mom. Dad agrees to put her to sleep for the night as long as it is in the 11th hour. Anything beyond and he says he has to work the next day so mom is not relieved of this duty. (and round the clock as it goes 'tick-tock-tick-tock', sunrise, noon, evening, night, twilight. repeat. damn).

And so, like everything else I need answers to, I turn to the trusty Internet (it's now 2.35am btw and I should be using this time for my assignment but then again....NOT). Internet, good old 'westernized' articles say to establish a bedtime routine to help baby establish proper bedtime. Apparently, them ang mohs set their babies down ideally by 7pm (I suppose cos they sleep early too). Over here in Malaysia land, adults generally sleep at 12-ish. So, yes, I, too, am going to try and establish some routine for baby. Generally, the idea is to start the process from 9pm and have her down by 10.30pm. This is the routine that I have come up with. Hope it works!

1. Take her into room, wipe her down and massage her with some baby
lavender lotion.
2. Change her into her pjs (turn on the air-cond)
3. Lay her on the bed and share some together time (chats, kisses, hugs)
4. Give her some alone time to use up her energy
5. Check diaper if it needs changing
6. Nurse her, patting her hair and forehead
7. Put her in her baby cot, hold her hand as she self-sleeps*

* Should no.7 fail, carry her, sing and rock her to sleep.

Will try to follow this procedure check list religiously starting from tomorrow; Friday 12th November 2010 (the start of her 7th week)

Good luck to moi!

3 comments:

J said...

Sounds like a plan!!! Good luck!!!

Elaine said...

Good luck!!

Princess Running Water (soon-to-be Queen) said...

Day 1: Failed! Baby smiled thru the wipe down. Loved it but then cried thru the bedtime lotion massage. Hold her hand as she self-sleeps??? BOLLOCKS! wakakakaka...

At first it looked like it was working as her eyes were closing while nursing but liar la that lil' girl! She outdid the plan. But I'll get her another day!