Did you know that by the time your child is 12 weeks or 12 pounds they should be sleeping 12 hours at night without waking?
1. Is you baby only sleeping for 2 or 3 hours at a time?
2. Is your child fussy and cranky when awake?
3. Did you know by 4 months most babies are sleep deprived?
4. Do you have to rock, swing sleep or chest sleep your baby to get them to sleep?
5. Does your baby have to sleep with you?
6. Does your baby seem tired and sleepy during the day?
7. Does your baby go to bed normally after 7 PM?
8. Do you sleep your child in front of the TV or anywhere other than their own bed?
9. Does your baby self soothe and/or entertain him/her self well?
10. Does your child take good naps during the day waking refreshed and happy?
Sleep training is available with any Newborn Care Specialist you hire. We use gentle techniques that start at birth. If you have an older baby, we will evaluate their schedule and start with breaking old habits. With an older child there may be some crying as they adjust and break these habits.
For more information contact your Newborn Care Specialist or Exclusively Baby Nurses
Please be aware of people who claim to be able to train your newborn baby ( 0 - 6 weeks minumum) to sleep by putting them in bed at 11 PM and not going in until 6 AM. This is very dangerous. Talk to your pediatrition. Check with the Newborn Care Specialist Association. These people may have years of experience but they are not certified by the Newborn Care Association. Please do your research before hiring someone who would abuse your child like this.
The Importance of Sleep
by Professor Avi Sadeh
Body Maturation
Sleep is a basic physiological need required for physical recovery, reinvigoration, body growth, brain maturation, learning and memory. Chronic and sustained sleep deprivation can lead to exhaustion, physical damage to body tissues, dysfunction of the immune system, severe stress and even death.
The growth hormone, the one responsible for a baby's physical growth, is secreted mostly during the deep stages of a baby's sleep. A severe sleep disorder could, therefore, lead to insufficient secretion of this hormone and to compromised body maturation.
Brain Growth
When a baby suddenly becomes active during sleep -- her breathing becomes uneven, her eyes dart from side to side, and she smiles and grimaces – it means she is in a unique stage of sleep -- Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. This stage is associated with dreaming. Babies spend as much as 50 percent of their sleep in REM sleep, which is very important for brain maturation, learning and development. A baby is born with about 30 percent of her full brain size, and during the first 3 years, the brain grows very rapidly -- to almost its full adult size. It is believed that REM sleep is an essential stage that facilitates brain growth, which is why babies spend so much time of their infancy in this unique sleep stage. We also know that during REM sleep, the brain “digests” and stores all the information that bombards a baby during the wakeful hours. Disruptions to their REM sleep could lead to the compromised learning of all the smart things we teach our babies when they are awake and alert.
Time to Sleep
When babies don't get enough sleep, or if their sleep is disrupted, they tend to be very agitated, nervous, hyperactive, and difficult to manage or soothe. Most parents experience these situations when their baby reaches the time she needs to go to sleep. These signs present important information for parents, telling them when their baby is ready for sleep. Many parents know that when they miss their baby's sleep time, it could become much harder for her to calm down and fall asleep. This is because their baby, like an adult, has an internal biological clock that makes it easy to fall asleep at certain times, and difficult to fall asleep at others. Keeping to a regular schedule and a relatively constant bedtime helps the baby (and her parents) to regulate the biological clock and develop healthy sleep patterns.