Baby sleep and parenting books!

I  have had a lot of conversations with my new mums’ and in mothers’ group recently about whether I can recommend any specific parenting books, especially ones about baby sleep and behavior.The simple answer is no – BABY’S CAN’T READ, and they are shit at following the books directions…

Sleep and settling are the biggest concerns for any parent! Which is completely understandable. However, most of these parenting books lead us to believe that are a specific set of rules and regulations on how to manage you baby’s’ sleep and behavior. Rules that state for example

– your baby should sleep through the night

– they shouldn’t cat nap

– they shouldn’t take scheduled naps

– in a pram, car seat, baby carrier, on the breast or in your arms but nap in their COT ONLY.

– they should ONLY feed every three hours

– baby should self-settle and you should not assist them to sleep.

And so many more…..And when we are sleep deprived and emotional and new at this parenting gig, we take these books as gospel, and gosh forbid if my baby isn’t doing all of the above, he or she is broken!

This leads our new parents to feel like a failure, we start stressing that we are doing all the right things, we need to go out and by a different cot or bassinet cause this one isn’t like the book recommended, or ‘Sarah’ down the street has a ‘XYZ’ cot and her baby sleeps from dusk till dawn.

Here is what I can suggest!

-Hold your baby when he cries, feed him when he fusses – even if its only one hour post his last feed.

-Wear your baby in a baby wrap/carrier if he sleeps GREAT!!!

Go out for a walk with your pram in the beautiful sunshine and if your babe sleeps PERFECT!

-If your baby goes to bed at 7pm (or whenever the hell you can get them to sleep) go to bed too. That first stretch of sleep will be the longest!

So take advantage of it, when your baby sleeps during the day, so should you

– forget the washing, forget the dishes

– who cares if there is dust.

-Respond to your baby, follow their cues

– love them.

-Enjoy this time with your baby there will never be too many cuddles given, and who cares what you need to do to get them to sleep, this time is short, it will pass.

-Surrender to this moment in time!

-Some days will be better than others.

Embrace the ever-changing behavior of your baby and suddenly you will have an incredibly settled and content baby and mother!!