Baby Sleep Sleep Sleep....

Talking about baby sleep these days makes me want to poke out my eye! LOL! Why? Because that is one of the first things people ask you. When I first entered the world again after being on maternity leave, I would take the question in stride. But I soon realized that whatever I said he was doing would change in the days following. How he sleeps is a moving target and really depends on multiple factors. It depends on how he is feeling (e.g. whether he has a cold or just had shots) and also depends on how many naps he had during the day (e.g. the more naps the better he sleeps at night).

When people ask me now, I just want to stare blankly at them. And let’s not even talk about the ones who insist he should be sleeping through the night (you know who you are!). And then those that say that the reason he won’t sleep is because we won’t let him “cry it out”.

There are so many debates on sleep and sleep training. There are essentially two sides to the sleep training debate (really 3). There are the people who think that the child should “cry it out” and learn to self soothe and then there are the ones who would never let their child cry. Then there are the folks in the middle…who allow some crying but also provide some comfort to the child. I honestly won’t go into this debate because I feel like what a person chooses for their child is a personal decision and each child is so different. I will say that books and websites make it seem so easy.

(Someone just stopped by my office while I was typing this and asked me if he was sleeping through the night ::blank stare:: LOL!! ) This person has three kids and this was her very first question to me first thing in the morning. :/

I could really rant about this topic all day and might even blog about it again...but let me leave you with some advice. So much is going on in a little ones life around this time. They are learning and taking in so much. You want to make a parent feel good? Ask about something other than sleep. I’ll even give you some sample questions to ask.

1.       How is the little one doing?

2.       What is s/he doing that is new? (parent love this question..it does not assume that they have to have met some arbitrary milestone)

3.       What are some of their favorite toys?

4.       What’s their favorite thing to do? (See none of these questions assume anything because children are so different)