Tag Archives: sleep training

Sleep Training Part 2: Sleeping Through The Night

(Excerpted from Sleep Training Part 1) To SKIP this section and go straight to Part 2, Click Here

Sleep Training isn’t new. The formal rules/guidelines are rather new, but I asked my mom what she did with my brother and me, and she said she didn’t train us to sleep. She had me in my nursery room, they didn’t have a monitor, and she closed my door and closed their bedroom door. She said “Yeah you probably cried, but you were fine.” ha!

Some parents choose not to formally sleep train and to let their baby grow into their own natural rhythms of sleeping and needing comfort through parental intervention. That’s completely fine and each and every family goes about the topic of sleeping at their own approach. After hearing some horror stories of non-sleep trained babies, we decided before Jia was born that we would read up, take notes, and train Jia.

So what’s “Sleep Training”? Continue reading “Sleep Training Part 2: Sleeping Through The Night” »

Sleep Training Part 1: Weaning from Night Feedings

“Awww, how cute. Is she sleeping through the night?” Seems like I got this question 1 out of every 3 strangers we met. For me, I didn’t mind it too much. That’s because when she was little, she wasn’t expected to (not yet) and when she was older, she slept for about 5 hours at a time so I wasn’t complaining. However, it doesn’t help me from feeling like I’m jinxing ourselves for that night. If you’re a new parent, I’m sure you have gotten this question a fair number of times.

This post is mostly for new parents who have heard about “sleep training,” but don’t know the details, parents who are having restless nights, those sleeping in few-hour increments, those who have babies who cry a lot when put to bed, and those who are anticipating the need to sleep train to get those delicious-sounding 12-hour stretches with baby sleeping soundly.

If you’ve already weaned from night feedings and need to know the next step, or have already read this post, read Part 2: Sleeping Through the Night.

So what’s “Sleep Training”? Continue reading “Sleep Training Part 1: Weaning from Night Feedings” »

Your Snoozin Sprout

Whether or not you plan to (or currently) “sleep train” your baby, new parents and parents-to-be are familiar with wondering if their baby will be a “good sleeper,” or if they will be up all night long. It seems as though the instant you bring your baby home, strangers and family members start to ask “ohhh is she sleeping through the night yet?”

For some, it’s nothing more than an innocent question, but for others it can be obnoxious. Tired parents will sense a notion of judgment or eagerness to hear of the parent’s failure to being able to keep their baby asleep, or they just dread hearing the question because it reminds them of how little sleep they are actually getting.

Good sleeper or not, there’s one thing that I think we can all agree on – that newborns sleep differently than young infants, and young infants sleep differently than older babies. When Jia was sleeping in our living room in her crib, Jeff and I tiptoed around our 1-bedroom condo like you wouldn’t believe. For a handful of weeks I was living on-edge after 8:30 PM. I dreaded bedtime. Whether it was the dogs barking at something they heard outside our window, needing to take a quick trip to the fridge, opening and closing our squeaking front door (thank you WD-40) or wondering if the dropping of the shampoo bottle in the shower was enough to rouse her from her light sleep, I was going nuts.

Nowadays, in her own room sleeping 11-11.5 hours straight, I still wonder: how come our friends’ toddler needs the clanking of pots and pans or loudly opening and closing dresser drawers to wake up, whereas sometimes it seems Jia can sleep through an army passing by her door but other nights her sleep will be disturbed by Jeff blowing his nose next door?

We started talking about this and I became curious – how are sleep patterns and brain waves different for infants and toddlers, and when do they change?

Continue reading “Your Snoozin Sprout” »

For Crying Out Loud…!

Crying. Screaming. Tears. Red-faced. Sweaty. It can drive a newor even an experienced parent crazy, left feeling exhausted, overwhelmed, confused, and fed up.

We have been really lucky – Jia really was never much of a crier. The only time we really experienced much crying with her was in the early days when she was trying to teach us what she needed – to be fed. After that, around 3 months old (like the photo above), she only cried when she was in an unfamiliar place and someone else wanted to try holding her, or if we were in the car. Yep, the “drive the baby around the block to stop their crying” didn’t work for us at all. She’d be a happy smiley baby and the second you got in the car, you better hope you didn’t hit the red light on your 1/2 mile drive to Target.

Anyway, we attribute our happy hardly-crying baby to white noise and swaddling, which we started literally from the day she was born. Jia was swaddled basically the whole time we were in the hospital and when she cried, Jeff immediately placed her on her side and shushed then jiggled her and she became serene. Immediately. I wanted to share with you what tips for white noise and swaddling we swear by. Continue reading “For Crying Out Loud…!” »

Why “Little Sproutings” was Planted

One Friday this past July my husband Jeff, our nearly 5 month old daughter Jia, and I were driving to Brooklyn, NY to attend a friend’s wedding. We started talking about my friend who has two little girls, one the same age as Jia and the other almost two years old. She and I would message back and forth on Facebook, taking turns between asking for advice and answering the other one’s questions about babies and being a mom. Most recently, she’d asked how I weaned Jia off of nighttime feedings, how often Jia nurses in the daytime/at what intervals, and how I structure her nap times. She lightheartedly referred to me as “mommy extraordinaire” and was slightly embarrassed at sounding like a first-time mommy. Mommy Extraordinaire? I felt flattered but couldn’t help but laughed to myself. I told her that I am far from extraordinary; however, I give lots of credit to my many mamma friends for the great advice that has helped me through my formative months as a new mom.

As Jeff and I continued up the never-ending NJ Turnpike, we talked about how I should start a blog – a discussion area – as a resource to other moms with similar concerns that I have had as a new mom (for example, key foods that I have had in the cupboard throughout Jia’s intolerance to soy and dairy, how Jia sleep trained, my quest for the least poo-accident-prone cloth diapering system, baby items that I couldn’t live without, or items that I wish I’d had when Jia was a newborn that would have made my life much easier!), tying in my knowledge as a healthcare provider (we all know you should vaccinate your kids, so what’s the deal with the resurgence of whooping cough and measles?).

Jeff thought my perspective would be unique. My experiences working in public health and as a nurse would allow me to reach an audience at more of an educational level, while at the same time I am a new and (at times) struggling mom who is also learning. Every baby is both special and unique, and parenting styles vary from family to family.

I am in no way a pediatric expert or even a near-perfect mom. I just hope that my experiences, both good and bad, along with the legwork I have put in to researching various topics and products, will be helpful to someone one way or another. If my readers are able to learn from my mistakes or benefit from my input, then I’ll be paying it forward!

A big big hug to my husband who gave me the encouragement and support to get this thing going, and to Brooker for helping me get started! Many huge thanks to my Mom, Mother-in-Law Joyce, Armita C., Berry T., Crystal A., Cynthia T., Debbie H., Desiree C., Erin C., Erin M., Heather W., Katie T., Kelly D., Lee G., Mary M., Megan K., Megan W., Patty F., Sam K., and all the other mommies out there who have helped me along the way!