The no cry sleep solution book free download

Nevertheless, some polls show that like us, nearly 70 percent of parents do share sleep with their baby either part or all night.

Most parents who do choose to co-sleep are avidly committed to the practice, and they find many benefits to sleep- ing with their babies. Even if you decide that you feel uncomfortable sleeping with your infant, you can look forward to sharing sleep with your older baby if that suits your family. The following safety list and references to co-sleeping are not intended to be construed as permission but are provided as infor- mation for those parents who have researched this issue and have made an informed choice to co-sleep with their baby.

Wherever you choose to have your baby sleep, it is important to take safety precautions. The best choice is to place the mattress on the floor, making sure there are no crevices that your baby can become wedged in.

Make certain your mattress is flat, firm, and smooth. Do not allow your baby to sleep on a soft surface such as a water bed, sofa, pillow-top mattress, or any other flexible surface. Some guardrails designed for older children are not safe for babies because they have spaces that could entrap them. If you find that you are such a deep sleeper and you only wake up when your baby lets out a loud cry, you should seriously consider mov- ing Baby out of your bed, perhaps into a cradle or crib near your bedside.

Imagine your baby crawling out of bed to explore the house as you sleep. Even if he has not done this—yet—you can be certain he eventually will! If Baby rolls toward you, if there is a large dip in the mattress, or if you suspect any other dangerous situations, play it safe and move Baby to a bedside crib or cradle. Use extreme caution when adding pillows or blankets as your baby gets older.

Dress Baby and yourself warmly. A tip for breastfeeding moms: wear an old turtleneck or T-shirt, cut up the middle to the neckline, as an undershirt for extra warmth. For example, placing Baby on a mattress on the floor in a childproof room when you are nearby or listening in with a reliable baby monitor.

How- ever, as a result of the great number of parents who wish to sleep safely with their babies, a number of new inventions are beginning to appear in baby catalogs and stores. You may want to look into some of these nests, wedges, and cradles. When your eyelids threaten to droop before the first chapter is read, this becomes an exercise in futility. How Do We Sleep? We fall asleep, we sleep all night, and then we wake up in the morning.

During the night, we move through a sleep cycle, riding it up and down like a wave. We cycle through light sleep to deep sleep to dreaming all through the night. In between these stages, we briefly come to the surface, without awakening fully. We may fluff a pillow, straighten a blanket, or roll over, but generally we fade right back into sleep with nary a mem- ory of the episode.

And they have discovered that, strangely, this clock is set on a twenty-five-hour day—meaning we must continuously reset it.

We do this mainly with our sleep-wake routines and exposure to light and darkness. This biological clock also has specific times of day that are primed for sleep or wakefulness. This is the cause of jet lag as well as the sleep problems that plague shift workers.

This circadian rhythm affects how alert we feel during various parts of the day. There are natural times for sleep and for wake- fulness. The brain seeks a state of biochemical balance of sleep and wakefulness, and when the scale is heavy toward sleep, we feel tired. This rhythm explains why many people have a midafter- noon slump, and why some cultures routinely incorporate a siesta afternoon nap into the day. The human biological clock has a natural afternoon drop in alertness, followed by a period of wake- ful energy that lasts until later in the evening, when there is an onset of drowsiness.

These patterns change as life stages do. How Do Babies Sleep? A baby is not born with an adult circadian rhythm. As the biological cycle matures, a baby reaches a point when she is mostly awake during the day and mostly asleep dur- ing the night.

Because the biological clock is the primary regulator of daily sleep and wakefulness patterns, it is easy to see why a baby does not sleep through the night—and why this pattern so adversely affects new parents!

Babies move through the same sleep cycles as adults do, but their cycles are shorter and more numerous. There are two reasons why a baby sleeps like a baby. The first is developmental.

Babies grow at an astro- nomical rate during the first two years of life, and their sleep pat- terns reflect biological needs that differ vastly from those of adults. The second reason why a baby sleeps like a baby is survival.

They spend much of their time in lighter sleep. This is most likely so that they can easily awaken in uncomfortable or threatening situations: hunger, wetness, discomfort, or pain. In fact, acclaimed pediatrician Dr. As he matures, so does his sleep cycle; attaining sleep maturity is a biological process. Those Brief Awakenings! Now you know that brief awakenings night wakings are a nor- mal part of human sleep, regardless of age. All babies experience these. The difference with a baby who requires nighttime care every hour or two is that he is involving the parent in all his brief awakening periods.

This conclusion was the lightbulb moment in my own research—and seems so obvious, now that I understand sleep cycles and their physiology. Imagine this. You fall asleep in your nice, warm, comfy bed with your favorite pillow and your soft blanket. When your first night waking occurs, you may change position, pull the covers up, and then fall right back to sleep without ever remembering this happening.

Could you simply turn over and go back to sleep? You would probably wake up startled, worry about how you got there, fret a bit, go back up to bed, get comfortable, and eventually fall asleep—but not too deeply, because you would worry about winding up back on the floor again. This is how it is for a baby who is nursed, rocked, bottlefed, or otherwise parented to sleep. Where am I? I want things the way they were when I fell asleep!

My baby, Coleton, spent much of his first few months in my arms or on my lap, his little head bobbing to the tune of my computer keyboard. From the very moment he was born, he slept beside me, nursing to sleep for every nap and every bedtime. By the time I looked up, he was twelve months old, firmly and totally entrenched in a breastfeeding-to-sleep association. This sleep association philosophy is explained in nearly every book on babies and sleep. When the association is described, no gentle solutions are ever given.

And what is the new association? Not a very pleasant alternative. Learn Basic Sleep Facts 47 Chapter 4 explains the myriad alternatives to crying it out, ways to slowly and lovingly help your baby create new falling-to-sleep associations. For the best results from this book, please follow all the steps in order.

Learning about these basic facts is an important step. What Is a Sleep Problem? During the first year of life, a baby wakes up frequently during the night. As you have now learned, this is not a problem. It is a bio- logical fact. We parents want and need our long stretches of sleep to function at our best in our busy lives. Table 2. If your baby is not getting close to the amount of sleep on this chart, he may be chron- ically overtired—and this will affect the quality and length of both his nap and nighttime sleep.

Instead, they may be clingy, hyperactive, whiny, or fussy. They may also resist sleep, not under- standing that sleep is what they really need. We have all heard about those three-month-old babies who sleep ten to twelve straight hours every night, without waking to eat. Why these babies sleep so soundly is a mystery. But, when we hear about these amazing babies, we assume all babies can and should do this, and we become very discouraged when our five month old, eight month old, or twelve month old is still waking up twice a night for feeding.

To my surprise, sleep specialists—even the toughest cry-it-out advocates—agree that up to twelve months of age, some children truly are hungry after sleeping for about four hours.

They recom- mend that if your child wakes up hungry, you should promptly respond by feeding her. Sears says that even an eighteen-month-old child may need a before-bed feeding to set aside his hunger until morning. Of course, it can be difficult to know if your baby is hun- gry or just looking to use nursing or a bottle for comfort. As you follow the steps in this book, your baby will begin to wake up less often just for comfort and your company, and it will become more obvious when he is waking up because he is hungry.

This is a biological process. If your doctor gives you the go-ahead to feed your baby solids, you can experiment with this. So it stands to reason that if your baby has slept about four hours, wakes, and appears hungry, you should consider feeding him. This is especially important if your baby is younger than four months old.

Maybe he will then sleep another four hours instead of waking frequently from hunger! Also, some babies go through growth spurts when they are eating more during the day, and they may eat more at night, too. What Are Realistic Expectations? Most babies awaken two to three times a night up to six months, and once or twice a night up to one year; some awaken once a night from one to two years old.

A baby is considered to be sleep- ing through the night when she sleeps five consecutive hours, typ- ically from midnight to a. The difficult aspect of this is that if you put your baby down to sleep at p. Just about the time you head for bed, your baby has already slept four or five hours and may be ready for your attention. The good news is that, if your baby is biologically ready, you can encourage progress toward that five-hour milestone; once your baby reaches it, you can take steps to lengthen this nighttime stretch.

This book will tell you how. William C. Dement, M. I doubt that a regu- lar pattern of sleeping and being awake can ever be imposed on infants immediately after birth or that anyone should even try. Their biolog- ical clocks seem to need to mature before they can keep track of the time of day. Once you understand how much sleep your child needs, the most important strategy for improving his or her sleep is to set a daily rou- tine and stick to it.

According to Dr. Dement, setting a routine and developing healthy bedtime cues and nighttime associations will allow your baby to drift off to sleep. The No-Cry Sleep Solution will help you create such a routine, customized for your baby and your family. Now that you have learned some important basic sleep facts, you will use this knowledge as a foundation for developing your sleep plan.

The first step, as outlined in the next chapter, will be to create sleep logs that will give you a clear picture of how your baby is sleeping now. Once you identify the issues that are preventing your baby from sleeping, we will move along to the solutions for helping your baby sleep—peacefully and happily— without your constant nighttime attention. There are blank forms for your use at the end of this chapter.

This is a very important step and one that you should not skip in your haste to get started on the sleep solutions. This is really very simple to do. Begin by choosing a day to do your sleep logs. Knowing exactly how long it takes your baby to fall asleep, where and how he falls asleep, and when and how long he naps will all be important information.

On the same day that you complete your nap log you will also do your prebedtime routine log. Beginning about an hour or two before bedtime, write down everything you do in the prebed- time routine log on page At each step you will note the time, what activities your baby is engaged in, and the levels of three things: 1. Activity: active, moderate, or calm 2. Noise: loud, moderate, or quiet 3. Light: bright, dim, or dark Your log will help you take a fresh look at your nighttime rou- tine or lack thereof!

You may find, like I did, that your evenings are not what you would call a calm, quiet, settling routine for your baby! The easiest way is to put a pile of scrap paper and a pencil next to your bed not a pen, since in the dark a pencil is more reliable. Place these where you can easily reach them when you wake up during the night. Make sure you can see a clock from where you awaken.

Each time your baby wakes up, write down the time. Note how he woke you up snort, cry, movement. Make a quick note of what you do then—for instance, if you change the baby, write that down. If you are co-sleeping and get out of bed, write that down. If you nurse or give a bottle or pacifier, write that down, too. Make a note of how long your baby is awake, or what time he falls back to sleep. In the morning, immediately transfer your notes to your night- waking log on page 61 or create one on paper or in your com- puter so that they make sense.

Do this as soon as possible after waking so that everything is fresh in your mind. If you wish, you can use exact times, such as 1 hour 27 minutes. The overall difference is minimal, so you can choose whichever way is most comfortable for you. This is what my summary looked like: Asleep time: p. Awake time: a. If this is not your own book, you can photocopy the log pages or simply write the information on blank sheets of paper. When you have completed this groundwork, move on to Chap- ter 4.

Wonderful ideas, and blissful sleep, lie just ahead. I promise! Review Table 2. Do you have a formal nap routine? Do you have a formal, consistent bedtime routine? Is the hour prior to bedtime mostly peaceful, quiet, and dimly lit? Does your bedtime routine help both you and your baby relax and get sleepy? Any other observations about your current bedtime routine? I would strongly suggest that you use all of the suggestions that you think make sense for you and your baby.

Stick with them long enough for them to have an impact—at least two or three weeks. This is not a quick-fix plan, but it is a plan that will work. It is a plan that will enable you to help your baby sleep better. You just need to choose your solutions, organize your plan, make a commitment, and stick with it. The ideas in this section are separated into two parts. The first is especially for newborns, the second part is for babies who are more than four months old.

The ideas are clearly described in both sections. In the older babies section, the ideas are coded for five different types of babies to make it easy for you to choose from them. Then, just transfer the information to the personal sleep plan, which begins on page This will consolidate all your ideas in one place for easier reference. Pre- pared with your solutions, you can then begin to follow your per- sonal plan.

The sooner you get started, the better! Congratulations on the birth of your new baby. This is a glo- rious time in your life. Whether this is your first baby or your fifth, you will find this a time of recovery, adjustment, sometimes confusion and frustration, but—most wonderfully—of falling in love. Newborn babies do not have sleep problems, but their parents do.

Newborns sleep when they are tired, and wake when they are ready. The things that you do during the first few months will set a pattern for the next year or two or more. You can take steps during the next few months that will help your baby sleep better. You can do this in a gentle, loving way that requires no crying, stress, and rigid rules.

Applying some general ideas over the next few months can set the stage for better sleep for the years to follow. I advise you to read through the section on older babies that follows this one, because you will learn a lot from those ideas; do keep in mind, however, that babies younger than four months old have very different needs than older babies.

When your baby reaches four months of age, you can begin using those ideas for older babies. However, if you read, under- stand, and apply the following tips for newborns while your baby is still indeed a newborn, you may not need this book when your baby is four months old. I am so happy that my baby is already sleeping six straight hours! My friends call it a miracle! Remembering back to when my first child was born, I was amazed at how many people felt compelled to share their advice.

She was napping at the time, and we were chatting. Angela awoke with a cry, and I popped up to get her. The more knowl- edge you have the less likely that other people will make you doubt your parenting skills. My mission, and that of the other esteemed and informed par- ent educators who share the bookshelves with me, is to present the facts as we know them, so you can choose your approach from the proactive strength of knowledge and not the reactive weak- ness of ignorance.

At the very least, he did manage to shock me speechless. So, your best defense is knowledge. It really is power, as they say. The more you know, the more easily you will develop your own philosophies about child rearing. When you have your facts straight, and when you have a parenting plan, you will be able to respond with confidence to those who are well- meaning but offering contrary or incorrect advice.

Review and Choose Sleep Solutions 67 So, your first step is to get smart! Know what you are doing, and know why you are doing it. There are a number of outstanding books about babies in the marketplace. I suggest that you read a baby book or two and build your store of knowledge. Choose your books wisely; ask for recommendations from friends who share your parenting beliefs, and find authors who have philoso- phies that match your own way of thinking.

As you read, keep in mind that no author will parallel your beliefs percent, so you must learn to take from each one the ideas that work best for your family. Workman Publishing, In my book, I will help you learn about babies and sleep. The best place to start, of course, is at the beginning.

His waking-sleeping pattern mainly revolves around his stomach. A very important point to understand about newborn babies is that they have very, very tiny tummies. New babies grow rap- idly, their diet is liquid, and they digest it quickly. Formula digests quickly, and breast milk digests even more rapidly.

Newborns need to be fed every two to four hours— and sometimes more. During those early months, your baby will have tremendous growth spurts that affect not only daytime but nighttime feeding as well, sometimes pushing that two- to four- hour schedule to one to two hours around the clock. Had I not known that this sometimes happens, and that it is necessary for the wild growth babies sometimes experience, I might have tried to enforce a schedule.

Instead, I simply accepted my role in life then: a binky with legs. Some newborns will sleep four or five hours straight, leaving their parents to worry if they should wake them for a feeding. What you must understand is that, for a new baby, a five-hour stretch the one I mentioned earlier is a full night.

Many but nowhere near all babies at this age can sleep uninterrupted from midnight to 5 a. Not that they always do. A far cry from what you may have thought sleeping through the night meant! If your baby is already sleeping through the night, enjoy the heady privilege of bragging rights next time the old childbirth education group meets. This book is full of ideas that will help you work with your baby to encourage that pattern sooner than later.

Where Baby Wants to Sleep Where does your baby feel the most comfortable and secure? In your arms. Where is your baby most at peace? If given the choice, where would your new baby tell you she wants to sleep?

In your arms, of course! There is nothing—absolutely nothing—as endearing and won- derful as a newborn baby falling asleep in your arms or at your breast. I know that I found it nearly impossible to put my sleep- ing Coleton down. Maybe because having this fourth baby at age forty-one, I knew he was my last baby and that he would grow up all too soon. Or, maybe not, given that I also did this with my first baby, Angela, fourteen years ago. Come to think of it, I did it with Vanessa and David, too.

Whatever the reason, I can tell you that I became an expert at typing with one hand. Oh, you thought you were the only one to do that? Smart baby!

This very natural and all-consuming connection would work perfectly in a perfect world—where mothers do nothing but care for their babies that entire first year or two of life. A world in which someone else tends the home, makes the meals, provides the means to pay the bills—while Mommy and baby spend their days enjoying each other and doing those nourishing, bonding things nature intended.

Alas, such a world no longer exists, if it ever did. Contemporary life, with its demands, does not provide such privilege. We mothers have much to do, and we must strike a balance between instinct and practicality.

A Forward-Thinking Suggestion So, as difficult as it may be, I hope you will learn from my mis- take. When your baby is asleep, put him down in his bed. Do enjoy this treat once in a while.

For those of you who choose to co-sleep with your baby, the idea to sometimes put your baby down alone for sleep is extremely important. Babies need much more sleep than adults do. Mommy also has to take daytime naps, whether she wants to or not! The idea is to enjoy the co-sleeping times with your baby, but teach him that he can sleep by himself, too. We spent the afternoon together—had manicures and then went out for lunch. When Angela and I returned home from our outing, the two of us sat with baby Coleton while he entertained us by making faces and noises.

How fleeting each phase, and how I wish I could bottle and save each of them to view and treasure. So my advice to put your baby down to sleep is so eas- ily passed out from where I sit. So, allow me to amend my advice just a bit, please.

I traced the outline of his nose, I smelled his hair. If you can, and when you can, put your baby down so that she learns she is able to sleep alone, as well as in your arms. Falling Asleep at the Breast or Bottle It is very natural for a newborn to fall asleep while sucking at the breast, on a bottle, or with a pacifier.

As a matter of fact, some newborn babies do this so naturally, and so often, that mothers become concerned that they never eat enough.

When a baby always falls asleep this way, he learns to associ- ate sucking with falling asleep; over time, he cannot fall asleep any other way. A large percentage of parents who are struggling with older babies who cannot fall or stay asleep are fighting this natural and powerful sucking-to-sleep association.

Therefore, if you want your baby to be able to fall asleep with- out your help, it is essential that you sometimes let your newborn baby suck until she is sleepy, but not totally asleep. As often as you can, remove the breast, bottle, or pacifier and let her finish falling asleep without something in her mouth.

When you do this, your baby may resist, root, and fuss to regain the nipple. If you do this often enough, she will eventually learn how to fall asleep without sucking.

Der erfahrene Kinderarzt Dr. Oje, ich wachse! Authors: Hetty van de Rijt, Frans X. Plooij, Xaviera Plooij. Die renommierten Entwicklungspsychologen Dr. Hetty van de Rijt und Dr. Frans X. Plooij fanden heraus, dass jedes Baby in den ersten 14 Monaten.

Your Rating:. Your Comment:. Read Online Download. Add a review Your Rating: Your Comment:. You are responding to her calls for you and you are reassuring her. You are also showing her that going to bed and sleeping is fine. When you are finding it hard, it helps to remember your long term parenting goals: to show your child that you will always be there for her. Proving that to your baby starts early.

When can you expect your child to sleep through the night? The thing is, there is […]. This week I want to touch briefly on that and explain exactly what I mean and […]. Why sleep train?

Why no cry? How does the no cry sleep solution work? If your baby wakes, try these tips for soothing her back to sleep: Use your voice to calm her down and hopefully soothe her back to sleep. She has been listening to you for nine months already, so your tones are likely to be a source of great comfort to her.

Pick her up.