I remember my teenage years vividly. The ultimate goal was to push bedtime as late as possible and sleep in until noon on the weekends. My parents’ calls for “lights out” felt like a punishment. Now, as a busy working mom, the tables have turned completely. I find myself looking forward to an early bedtime,
Sleep training is a personal choice and there are many happy thriving families that do not sleep train. My husband and I decided to sleep train our daughter Madi after 11 months of interrupted sleep. What is important to know before you start sleep-training, is that you need a consistent bed-time and nap routine first.
Two years ago for an entire week, Madi has woken up suddenly in the middle of the night from nightmares. She is in tears and terrified of the spooky monsters running around her room. To calm her down, I would end up cuddling her and sleeping with her in her bed. This left me exhausted as
Sleep is important for our overall health, it allows our body and mind to recharge. The amount of sleep that we need changes throughout our lifetime. The National Sleep Foundation has established guidelines for how much sleep babies, toddlers, adolescents and adults should sleep. These are the suggested total sleep requirements by the National Sleep Foundation:
Our bodies have an intrinsic timekeeping system that regulates sleep, wakefulness and other systems such as temperature, appetite and hormone levels. This built-in system is called the circadian rhythm. For most people the circadian rhythm drives wakefulness during the daytime and promotes sleep at nighttime. This is because the biggest environmental contributor to sleep-wake cycles
In my family medicine practice, I often see patients that have trouble sleeping. Particularly difficulty falling asleep. In medicine, this is known as “initial insomnia”. I recommend a proper sleep hygiene routine to all my patients that are suffering from poor quality sleep. But I also talk with them about relaxation techniques for sleep. Trouble
I think most parents have been frustrated at some point in time when it comes to baby sleep. There are many sleep-training methods out there. Choosing “the best” sleep-training method can be confusing. I know when I was sleep-training Madi and George – implementing the sleep-training techniques turned out to be more difficult than I
As a first time mom, I had no idea how to swaddle or why we even swaddle babies. Fortunately, I learned how to swaddle 2.5 years ago with Madi and was ready to swaddle George when he was born! I now explain swaddling to parents as wrapping your baby tightly in the shape of a baby
The safest place for your baby to sleep is on their back. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends “back to sleep for every sleep” for all infants up to 1 year of age to reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). There has been a rising incidence of flat head syndrome since the AAP began
There are many methods of how to sleep train a baby. Modified Extinction, Unmodified extinction, and the Ferber method are all popular method of sleep training that involve systematic ignoring in children. I have tried a few of these methods, and wanted to share my personal experience in my journey on how we sleep trained