The No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley - Book Report/Review Example

The No Cry Sleep Solution by Elizabeth Pantley - Babies and Sleep Elizabeth Pantley’s book “The No-Cry Sleep Solution” contains great details about the sleeping issues of babies. Younger babies which are four months old have very different sleep patterns and they need more sleep than older babies. This paper will analyze newborn baby's early sleep patterns and will help you develop a good understanding when it comes to your baby and their sleep. Everyone has an opinion about how you should handle sleep issues of a new born baby. The danger to a new parent is that these tidbits of misguided advice despite its well intentioned can really have a deep negative effect on our parenting skills. The more knowledge you have the more people will trust your parenting skills. You have to keep your facts straight and you should be able to respond with confidence to those who are offering incorrect advice. So the first step is to get smart and know what you are doing and know why you are doing it. You should read books and magazines and attend classes or support groups, these things will help a lot. Child Development and Sleep During the early stages of baby’s life, he or she sleeps when he or she is tired or really wants to sleep. But do you think that it’s really that simple? You can not force a baby to sleep when he or she doesn't want to sleep and you can do little to wake him up when he or she is sleeping soundly. One of the most important things to understand about newborn babies is that they have very small tummies. Newborns grow very quickly most of their diet is liquid, and it digests very quickly. Top feed digests quickly but the breast milk digests even more rapidly. Babies need to be fed every two to four hours and sometimes more which varies from baby to baby. During the early months of developing, your baby will have tremendous growth spurts that affect not only daytime, but also nighttime feeding as well. Babies should start sleeping through the night at about two months of age. The important point is that you must understand that for a new baby a four hour stretch sleep is a full night. Most of the babies at this age can sleep uninterrupted from midnight to 6 a.m. which is not always the case. A far cry from what you may have thought sleeping through the night meant. Here we pause while the shock sinks in for those of you who have a baby who sleeps through the night but didn't know it. Scientific explanation of "sleeping through the night" is four hours, but majority of people wouldn't consider that to be a full night sleep for ourselves and our children. Some of these babies will suddenly begin waking and it's often a full year or even two until your little one will settle into a mature every night sleep pattern. It is very normal and natural for a newborn baby to fall asleep while sucking at the breast, bottle or a pacifier. When this happens with a baby everyday he or she learns to associate this sucking habit with falling asleep. Over the passage of time he or she cannot fall asleep any other way. Many sleep experts refer to this as a negative sleep association. But I completely disagree to this. I believe that this habit is the most positive, natural, pleasant sleep association any baby can have. It is very important to understand that if you want your baby to be able to fall asleep without your help then you should sometimes let your newborn baby suck until the baby becomes sleepy, when you can remove the breast or pacifier from his or her mouth and let him or her finish falling asleep without something in his mouth. Repeat this process for a week or so. When you do this regularly your baby may resist and fuss to regain the nipple. There is nothing wrong in it, it's perfectly fine to give him or her back the breast or pacifier. Start the process again after a few minutes delay. If you do this practice consistently, your baby will eventually learn how to fall asleep without this habit. Many pediatricians believe and recommend that parents should not let a newborn sleep longer than two to three hours without feeding. The majority of newborn babies wake far more frequently than that. In exceptional cases babies can go longer. Almost all the babies wake up during the night. When this happens then this is a time when you need to focus your instincts. You should try hard to learn how to read your baby's mind. Babies make many sounds while they are asleep. It can be grunts to whimpers to outright cries but all these noises don't always signal awakening. These sounds can be called as sleeping noises, and the baby is nearly or totally asleep during these episodes. In the book the writer reflects on her own experience.” I remember when my first baby, Angela, was a newborn. Her cry awakened me many times, yet she was asleep in my arms before I even made it from cradle to rocking chair” You baby need a lot of attention from you. You should listen and watch your baby very carefully. You should learn and understand to differentiate between sleeping sounds and hungry sounds. If the baby is awake and hungry you will have to feed him or her as quickly as possible. Newborn babies need to sleep about fifteen to seventeen hours every day, and this sleep is evenly distributed over five to six sleep periods. You can help your baby distinguish between nighttime sleep and daytime sleep, and thus help him or her sleep longer period of time especially at night. You should begin by having your baby take daytime naps in a room which is lit and where he or she can hear the noises of the day. Try to make the night time sleep dark and quiet. You can also help your baby differentiate day naps from night sleep by using a bath at night and a change into sleeping pajamas to recognize the difference between the two. Another way to encourage good sleep is to get familiar with your baby's sleep signals. A baby on her own cannot put herself to sleep, nor can a baby understand her own sleeping signs. Therefore a baby who is encouraged to stay awake when her body wants sleep is typically not a happy baby. And over the passage of time this pattern develops into sleep deprivation, which further complicates your baby's developing sleep maturity. I have never heard from any parent that he or she loves getting up throughout the night to take care of a baby's needs. It's a fact that your baby will be waking you up therefore you should make yourself as comfortable as possible. The No Cry Sleep solution is a great book which contains great details about the sleeping patterns of new born babies. It helps parents to develop a good understanding when it comes to babies and their sleep. References: Pantley, Elizabeth. (2005). The No-cry sleep solution for toddlers and preschoolers. McGraw-Hill Professional Read More