Every baby fights sleep at one point or another.
There’s no
overcoming it. A baby who has
slept peacefully for months can suddenly hate the
very onset of drowsiness at naptime. With a newborn again I’ve been scouring
the internet for tips on winning the fight over sleep. Here is what I’ve found:
Schedule
Getting baby on a set schedule can help limit their fussiness
later in the day. Even if you don’t want the entire day to be scheduled, having
set nap times and bedtimes will help reduce how much baby fights sleep. Rather
than trying to set this schedule yourself, try first paying attention to
whether your baby is on her own schedule, however rigid it may be. For two or
three days note what times baby eats, sleeps, and what times they begin to get fussy
and fight sleep. There are several apps that can help you keep track.
Sleep routine – start about 45 before sleep
After you determine what times your baby prefers sleeping
you can work with your little one on developing a routine. Starting about 45
minutes before nap/bed time, develop a routine that will help baby get to
sleep quicker and easier. During this time limit the amount of stimulation
to prevent baby from getting overly tired and drowsy. Every baby is different
so go off of what your baby appears to like when they’re tired. For my little
one, our routine consists of a diaper change, a bottle, then snuggling up for
about twenty minutes before falling asleep.
Sustained stimulation
Sustained stimulation is a useful tool in calming babies who
are fighting sleep. Sustained stimulation can be music, white noise, steady
motion, or the sound of a heartbeat. White noise can be particularly useful at
very young ages. White noise can be static, the sound of water, or even a
vacuum or hair dryer. The sound shouldn’t be too loud or too low. Steady motion
can be anything from rocking them, them swinging, or patting them softly. As
for the heartbeat, there are many products available today that make heartbeat
sounds for infants, reminding them of the security of the womb. When I had my
first daughter my grandmother gave her a blanket that when pressed in a
specific spot would make a heartbeat sound, my daughter loved it and it always
helped her fall asleep. There are many products on the market today with a number of options available including the Homemedics SoundSpa, which gives the options of a heartbeat, white noise, ocean, and lullaby.
Reversal of day and night
If your baby is still fighting sleep, they may have their
days and nights mixed up. This is very common in newborns. To help correct this
issue try ensuring that during their day time naps the room is lit and don’t
overly limit noise. Our first instinct when our babies are going to sleep is to
turn off the lights and make sure there’s not a peep of sound in the whole
house. But by doing this baby can’t tell the difference between night and day.
By keeping some light in the room and letting the day to day noises occur, baby
will eventually figure out the difference. At night time make sure baby sleeps
in a separate area than for naps, such as the crib, and darken the room.
A Reassuring hand
Sometimes babies just need to know you’re there. At times
when my daughter is fighting sleep rather than laying her down and walking away
I will place my hand gently around her waist. She usually calms down within a
matter of minutes and drifts to sleep.
Visualization
There have been many mommies swear that visualization helps
in calming their fussy baby. These visualization techniques usually involve
holding your child and breathing in and out slowly. On inhaling imagine that
you are breathing in your baby’s frustration (sometimes envisioned as a red
mist). On exhaling, imagine that you are breathing out calmness, which is
covering your baby (sometimes envisioned as a blue mist). It may sound strange,
but I’ve heard mothers swear that it works.
I'm sure that many of you have seen the pictures and heard the warnings of strings getting wrapped around babies toes, creating a tourniquet effect and causing the toes to swell, sometimes even breaking the skin. If you haven't, simply Google "string on baby toes" and you'll have a number of gruesome images to choose from. I had seen these before but since my little one doesn't hardly wear socks I hadn't paid much mind to it. Until yesterday. Our two month old wasn't herself. She's been sleeping through the night but that morning had woken up at 4 am. She didn't finish her normal 4 ounces and it was difficult getting her back to sleep. She was awake again at 6 am and again didn't finish her bottle, just cried and cried. We tried giving her a bath and gave her some gas drops thinking maybe her tummy was hurting her. After her bath we put a new outfit on her and she took a long nap. But later that day when she woke up she was still crying and just completely inconsolable. That's when my husband noticed her foot looked a little funny. Evidently one of my long hairs had gotten wrapped around several of her toes and they were swollen so much that the hair was barely even visible. It took quite a bit of effort but we finally managed to get the hair off with a pair of tweezers. Thankfully the skin wasn't broken and one day later even though you can still see the marks she's back to her old self. So just to pass on the warning to others with infants at home, if your baby is crying and not themselves, remove their clothing and socks and check those little precious toes well. I would have never thought something so frail as a single strand of hair could have caused my baby so much pain. 
