What is Sleeping Through the Night?



What is sleeping through the night?  In researching the Internet, I found most people are content with five to six hours of solid sleep and consider that "sleeping through the night."    That is good for a six week old, but in my experience, I consider sleeping through the night a gradual process that takes 10 - 12 weeks.  By the end of that time, the child can be sleeping 12 hours straight.

You may be saying, WHAT!  Are you kidding me?  No, this is completely possible.  If you enjoy getting up with your child every three hours or even once or twice a night, you may want to go on to the next blogger. If however, you are sleep deprived and just want to be able to sleep through the entire night you may want to give me a call. 

If you have a toddler who is getting up multiple times during the night or even one time during the night, you have a child who is in need of a little intervention.  You are being played.
 
Now, perhaps I have offended you.  "My child does not have the ability to 'play' me.  Or, I would never intentionally allow my child to manipulate me in any manner.  In that case, I would suggest that you do not understand the mind of a child.

 Habits (getting up multiple times or not taking naps) are encouraged by you, perhaps not consciously.  Dr. Bruce Lipton states that in the first 7 years of a child's life everything seen, heard and felt by a child is accepted in their mind as truth.  The first seven years molds all of our subconscious thinking.  As we grow into adults, we operate on 99% subconscious and 1% conscious thinking.*

Every time your child acted in a specific manner and you bowed to that behavior you are telling them this is acceptable in your eyes.   And this begins at birth.  It takes a baby three times of having a behavior repeated to develop that behavior as normal. When you come home from the hospital and feed your child and then allow your child to sleep on your chest and you do this three times in a row, it is now the accepted way for your child to go to sleep.  When the fourth time you feed them and then decide to take a shower, you lay them in their crib, they will cry because they do not know how to sleep without you holding them on your chest.  

This behavior continues throughout their formidable years. The first time they wake up early from their nap and you rush into get them instead of allowing them to find their way back to sleep or soothing them back to sleep, you have begun the 'habit' of them waking early or foregoing their nap entirely.  

I understand the advantages of attachment parenting, but I also understand the need for personal space in the bedroom.There comes a time when it is time to move the child into their own bed, and this can be very traumatic. The trauma usually comes more from the parent than the child.  Children love independence and although there may be a little protesting when the big move occurs it can be overcome with consistency and patience.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Out of the Box

Image
I have been sleep training and conditioning infants for sleep for over 20 years.  Imagine my surprise when I went to a class put on by Summer Hartman and realized I could be doing so much more. What I learned: There are different scenarios for each situation. We can help everyone with just a little "Out of the Box" thinking. Look for the 'not so obvious.' I sleep train or sleep condition children up to the age of two years. Let's spend a little time today on the difference between sleep conditioning and sleep training. Sleep Conditioning is a method by which you will start with a child at birth and monitor their sleep, eat and awake time in a routine that is beneficial to the infant and easy on the parent.  As you do this in a proper manner, the child will begin to sleep longer at night.  Once the child is consuming a certain amount of milk per daytime hours, you can begin expecting the child to sleep through the night. Sleep Training is ...
Read more

Sleep Training Questions

Image
I received a call from a parent with a 15 month old who was not sleeping through the night.  The parents were getting up with him four and five times a night.  They were either feeding him or putting a pacifier in his mouth.  At times they had to rock him back to sleep. My first set of questions are : What is your daytime routine like?  Describe your child's naps.  Is there a nighttime bedtime and a routine?  My second set of questions are :  What does his room look like?  I like to see a picture or short video of the baby's room because it gives me a chance to see things that may be missed with mom's explanation of the room details.  Room details are so important.  Is there some kind of reflection of light that is not obvious during the day that may be keeping your baby awake at night?  Is it completely dark in the room?  Is a sound machine being use? What is being used to encourage sleep?   My third set of q...
Read more