Click the book to read more about The No-Cry Sleep Solution by
Elizabeth Pantley
Does it takes forever for your baby to fall asleep?
Does he or she
only fall asleep if you breastfeed, give a bottle or pacifier, rock, carry,
swing, take a ride in the car, or perform other elaborate rituals? Does your
baby wake up frequently throughout the night? Are your sleep issues further
complicated because your baby won’t nap easily, or takes very short naps?
Do you ever feel like Leesa, mother of
9-month-old Kyra who said, "I am truly distressed, as the lack of sleep
is starting to affect all aspects of my life. I feel as though I can't carry on
an intelligent conversation. I am extremely unorganized and don't have the
energy to even attempt reorganization. I love this child more than anything in
the world, and I don’t want to make her cry, but I'm near tears myself thinking
about going to bed every night. Sometimes I think, ‘What’s the point? I'll just
be up in an hour anyway.’"
As your sleep
issues cast lengthening shadows over your life, you may begin to live purely for
the moment. Your sleep-deprived, foggy brain may focus so intently on sleep that
you can’t think beyond the next few hours of rest. You may have one – or many –
people telling you that you should just let your baby cry to sleep. You are
probably frustrated and confused. What you lack is perspective. To gain
that perspective, ask yourself these questions:
§Where will I be five years from now?
§How will I look back on this time?
§Will I be proud of how I handled my baby’s
sleep routines, or will I regret my actions?
§How will the things I do with my baby today
affect the person he will become in the future?
Once you have some
perspective about your baby’s current sleep issues, it is important to be
realistic in determining your goals and to be honest in assessing the
situation's effect on your life. Some people can handle two night wakings
easily, while others find that the effect of even one night waking is just too
much to handle. The key is to evaluate whether your baby’s sleep schedule is a
problem in your eyes, or just in those of the people around you.
Begin today by
contemplating these questions:
Am I content with the way things
are, or am I becoming resentful, angry, or frustrated?
Is my baby’s nighttime routine
negatively affecting my marriage, my job, or my relationships with my other
children?
Is my baby happy, healthy, and
seemingly well rested?
Am I happy, healthy, and well
rested?
What is a reasonable expectation
for my baby at his/her age?
What naptime and bedtime
situation would I consider “acceptable”?
What naptime and bedtime
situation would I consider “pure bliss”?
Why do I want to change my baby’s
sleep patterns? Is it truly what’s best for me and my baby, or am I doing
this to meet someone else’s expectations?
Am I willing to be patient and
make a gradual, gentle change for my baby if that means no crying?
Once you answer
these questions, you will have a better understanding of not only what is
happening with regard to your baby’s sleep, but what approach you will feel most
comfortable using to help your baby sleep better.
In addition to my
two-year-old son Coleton, I have three older children, and they have afforded me
the perspective I lacked the first time around. My children have taught me how
very quickly babyhood passes. I struggle now to remember the difficulties of
those first couple years, so fleeting are they. And I am proud that I didn’t
cave in to the pressures of others around us to do what they felt was
right; instead I followed my heart as I gently nurtured all of my babies. That
time is long gone for us, but those memories remain. And now, all four of them
sleep through the night. And so do I.
Excerpted with permission by
McGraw-Hill/Contemporary Publishing from The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle
Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night by Elizabeth Pantley,
copyright 2002 Website:
http://www.pantley.com/elizabeth
