Getting Your Baby To Sleep

Here are some basics steps you can try. 
("Love, Patience and Practice" are the main steps in being a parent.-- -CJ Krebs
Help your infant develop good sleep habits: 
Your baby doesn't pay attention to whether it is day and night. But, when your baby is a few weeks old, you can start teaching them the difference between morning, night, nap time and beddy-bye-time. During the day keep daytime noises at their normal level, wake your baby when it's time for her feedings, play with her and talk to her. At night turn down the lights, the noise, and your voice when talking to her during her feedings and changes.  When your baby is about 1-2 mos. old, put her to bed when she is shows signs of sleepiness but is still awake. Let her fall asleep on her own, You may rock and/or sing to her just while she is awake. Keep a semi-scheduled bedtime routine. When it's bedtime, show your baby it's time to settle down by performing the same steps every night.
Here are some simple bedtime routine steps to try: 

• Start with a bath or just washing her hands and face.
• Change diaper and put pj's.
• Singing a quiet lullaby is soothing to the baby when it is a familiar voice.
• While you prepare your baby for bed, if you prefer not to sing, put in a tape/cd of baby-friendly sounds on low volume and leave it on after you leave the room.
• Cuddle and rock your baby before you lay her down to bed. Try to make it short and put your baby in her crib while she is still awake. 

Tricks to help your baby sleep:
For the first 2-3 months your baby needs to wake up to eat, but some babies jerk themselves and wake up before they are ready to eat. Try wrapping your baby snuggly in a receiving blanket before putting her down for bed. It makes newborns feel secure and ready for bed. Try a pacifier. The sucking is soothing to some babies, but not all. If you encounter too many problems with the pacifier getting lost, or waking baby when it falls out - you should wean her from it. Leave one special toy in the crib for your baby to look at, talk to and hold onto. Too many toys can be a distraction.
Sleeping tricks to avoid:

• Putting rice cereal in her bottle at night to make her feel full, does not promote sleep.
• Rocking your baby is very soothing and can put your baby to sleep.  But if you rock to put her to sleep, she'll want you to rock her every time she wakes up - even at 4 a.m. (See above notes for tips on rocking your child)
• Letting your baby fall asleep with a bottle or nursing before bed is not a good habit to make. When your baby wakes up at night, she'll expect you to feed her.

A Little Reminder:
Encourage good sleep habits by creating a consistent sleep routine that ends before your baby falls asleep, put her to bed awake, and make sure that a favorite toy will be there for her at night when she wakes up.

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How Long Should You Breastfeed?

Unfortunately, the question "how long should a mother nurse her baby?" does not have an easy answer. Advice given by people, whether it's doctors, a breastfeeding counselor or your mother, it is confusing and contradictory. Everyone you talk to has different advice for you. Combine this with the fact that every mom & baby are different, and you have good reason to be wondering what is the best thing to do.
Breastfeeding is by far the best way to feed your baby. Even many manufacturers of baby formula are saying this! Breast milk is the perfect food for your baby's development for the first year or more. It contains antibodies which may protect your baby against some infections. Breastfeeding also helps reduce the risk of allergies in infants who have a family history of asthma, food allergy, or eczema. It is easily digested and contains just the right amount of fat, protein, carbohydrate, vitamins and minerals. It is inexpensive and require no special equipment or preparation. Breastmilk changes as your baby grows and is the only food needed for the first 4 to 6 months.
So does that mean you should only breastfeed for the first 4 to 6 months and then stop? Wean your baby at one year? Yes? No?  Maybe?
There are so many factors involved along with so many pressures from others. Some will pressure you to breastfeed into the second year and beyond. Others will argue that your baby should be weaned to a bottle after a couple of months. Some will say you have to wean before you return to work. Others will tell you that going back to work doesn't mean you have to wean. Who's right?
Most proponents of breastfeeding and many of the experts recommend breastfeeding for the first year or longer. While I totally agree with this in principle, I say you should breastfeed for as long as you feel it is the best thing for you and your baby. This is something only you can decide.
  

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How the Science of Sound Helps Your Unborn and Newborn Baby

The transition from the womb to the real world is a very challenging time period for our children.  Leaving the womb (where every need and comfort is satisfied on a round-the-clock basis) to a world where the baby must rely upon others to provide her wants and needs, is an abrupt and shocking experience.  Some babies adjust well, while others do not.

How can you give your newborn infant a head start in life, even before she's born?   All you have to do is. . . .listen.   THE "IN UTERO" EXPERIENCE In utero, beginning at about 7 months, babies have the ability to receive stimulus from the outside world.  It is known that the fetus at this stage has already formed the abilities to see, hear and feel.   This is no new age view or old wives' tale.  In 500 BCE, Confucius stated a clear belief that we can influence a child's behavior through the stimulation we give our children in utero.  Dating back to even before Confucius, people believed that children in the womb are able to receive stimulus from the world outside of the womb. Through the ages, gestation rituals were developed, including dancing and music, to stimulate the growing fetus.  In 1924, Albrecht Peiper, a Leipzig University pediatrician, confirmed prenatal response to outside stimuli by observing a baby kicking when a car horn was sounded. To this day, science continues to validate the influence of the external world upon the fetus.  Most notably, current research shows that by conditioning our babies during pregnancy to soothing sounds that can be replicated after birth, we can transfer the comfortable feelings of the womb to our newborns in the postnatal world.   SOUNDS THAT SOOTHE, BEFORE AND AFTER BIRTH  There are three distinct sounds that are known to instill a sense of calm in even the fussiest baby: music, white noise and sounds of nature.  * The Power of Music *  Thomas Verny, M.D., author of The Secret Life of the Unborn Child (Dell, 1994) said in his book, "Musicologists seem to agree that rhythms, similar to the mother's heartbeat, have the most calming effect" on babies in utero.  Others suggest the recognized power of the lullaby can be acquired by speaking softly and rhythmically to your baby. A lullaby is defined as "A soothing song with which to lull a child to sleep."  According to Giselle Whitwell in her article, The Importance of Prenatal Sound and Music : "The elements of music, namely tonal pitch, timbre, intensity and rhythm, are also elements used in speaking a language. For this reason, music prepares the ear, body and brain to listen to, integrate and produce language sounds."  In essence, playing lullabies during pregnancy can help provide your baby with her first language lessons, as well as promote a sense of calm in both mother and fetus.  * The Soothing Sh-h-h-h of White Noise * Many scientists and physicians, including Dr. Harvey Karp, an expert in treating colicky babies and author of "The Happiest Baby on the Block" , suggest that there are things that parents can do to help your baby "feel like they are back home in the comfort of the womb."  In stories appearing on ABC's Good Morning America and in Newsweek, Dr. Karp has suggested that parents can use white noise in the bedroom at the same volume as the crying baby to help quiet the unhappy baby.  As noted on Pure White Noise.com , white noise is not a noise at all; it's a sound frequency known to have a calming effect on both children and adults. Examples of white noise include the sound of ocean waves gently caressing the shore, a rain shower, a waterfall, or the wind blowing through the trees.  Why white noise for the newborn? As quoted in a June, 2002 issue of People Magazine, Karp notes that "Fetuses are barraged by sensory input, from the whoosh of blood through the mother's arteries to the rocking of her every move.  "Inside the uterus, the baby is tightly confined and hears a constant sound that's a little louder than a vacuum cleaner." Such stimuli, he theorizes, trigger a "calming reflex" that keeps fetuses from acting up.  For many babies, especially crying babies with colic, the monotony of an external noise is especially soothing. (How often have you gotten drowsy with the gentle sound of a motor running?) That's why many pediatricians like Dr. Karp recommend white noise as part of a baby's sleep regimen.  * The Comforting Rhythms of Nature *  The abrupt transition from the womb to the real world for a newborn can also be eased by familiar sounds such as a mother's heartbeat. It has been noted often that playing recordings of a heartbeat can comfort and calm a newborn baby.  Other sounds of nature, such as the gentle yet rhythmic sound of the ocean surf, or the running water sound of a babbling brook, can help calm infants or help them fall asleep safely and naturally.   A TRIAD OF SOUND TO HELP RELAX BOTH PARENT AND BABY  Between song, familiar sounds from the womb and white noise, there are many options available to comfort our babies. Soothing sounds such as these all have a calming affect over infants. The good news is that as parents, we can take advantage of the spellbinding power of sound to comfort our children.  There are many sources of nature sounds, white noise and lullabies in the marketplace. However, there's a doctor- approved resource that combines the best of all three sound elements into ear-pleasing recordings: http://SleepLullabies.com  By combining rhythmic lullaby music and traditional nursery rhymes with soothing nature sounds and the beneficial sounds of white noise, SleepLullabies.com has developed specially blended musical recordings that help comfort crying, fussy babies and infants with colic.  Available in both instrumental and vocal formats on CD and audio tape, SleepLullabies.com lullaby music is played in the neonatal and pediatric units of many major hospitals to calm and soothe newborns. Why not do the same at home?  As a reminder, The Yale-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut recommends that "If you can't find ways to console your baby, call your doctor. There could be medical reasons for your baby's fussiness."  Even adding this music to the bedtime ritual enriches the bonding experience between parent and child, as well as creates a tranquil mood for relaxation and sleep.  Before or after birth, sound has shown itself to be a very powerful force in the lives of our young. Whether stimulating the growth of the fetus or calming and quieting our newborn, specific sounds will deliver positive results to babies and parents alike.  About the Author:

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