sleep tips Archives

How To Get A Baby To Sleep

2015/05 By Lauren B. Stevens Leave a Comment

With a new baby in your life, sleep may be a distant memory. Babies tend to sleep in short spurts and stay awake in short spurts. While you might find getting your baby to sleep to be a challenge, it’s also an immense hurdle for your little one, who might need some help from you in developing a sleep routine and learning to relax and drift off to sleep.

Here, leading pediatric sleep consultants offer their tried and true tips for how to get a baby to sleep in any situation. Contributors include Rebecca Nazzal of Dream Big Sleep Consulting, Jennifer Schindele of Gift of Sleep Consulting, Ronee Welch of Sleeptastic Solutions, Visa Shanmugan of Sound Sleepers, Violet Ginnone of Sleep Baby Sleep, Tamiko Kelly of Sleep Well. Wake Happy, Janelle Jeffery of Sleepytime and Teresa Stewart of Stewart Family Solutions.

Their tips will show you how to get a baby to sleep at night and nap time — even if naps occasionally need to happen in a stroller. They also offer advice for handling a baby’s sleep routine when traveling by plane and car. As with all things parenting-related, consistency is key, they say.

[Read more…]

5 Things to Know About a Sleeping Baby

2015/04 By Lauren B. Stevens Leave a Comment

You’ve read the books, gathered tips and tricks and your sleeping baby is snoozing like a champ! Now what? These 5 tips will keep your little one sleeping soundly.

Learn to Swaddle
Though you likely wouldn’t be happy in a blanket burrito, your baby is. Swaddles are a wonderful way to help newborns feel safe and comforted, and can also aid greatly with getting your baby to fall and stay asleep. You can choose to purchase a specially made swaddle, making it easier to tuck your baby in, or use a receiving blanket to wrap your baby up.From a physiological perspective, swaddles help keep the Moro reflex — also known as the startle reflex, when babies react to bright light or noise by stretching and retracting their arms, often waking themselves up in the process — to a minimum. Jennifer Schindele, a certified pediatric sleep consultant and owner of Gift of Sleep Consulting, reminds parents to swaddle their baby safely, “keeping in mind that the hips should remain loose within the swaddle while keeping it tighter around the arms.” She recommends transitioning your infant away from the swaddle and into a sleep sack or wearable blanket when your baby is around 3 months old.
Keep the Room Cool
Though it might be tempting to crank up the heat when you put your baby to bed, keep your baby’s room temperature between 65 and 72 degrees, recommends Teresa Stewart, the owner of Family Solutions and the director of parenting education for the International Maternity and Parenting Institute. She explains, “Basically, cooler is always better than warmer. Not only does [a cooler room] reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and suffocation, it also helps the baby sleep better.”Stewart suggests that parents add a fan to the nursery if they feel the room is too hot. To remind yourself to turn down the heat, remember the rhyme “cool and comfy, and not warm and stuffy,” as Schindele says. In addition, be mindful of what your baby is wearing to sleep in. Parents should use “cotton or muslin for swaddling,” says Stewart, “since those are light and breathable materials. We don’t want a baby to become too warm while swaddled.”

WAHM Mondays: Gift of Sleep Consulting

2014/02 By Lauren B. Stevens 2 Comments

I’ve referred to this woman as our Sleep Guru & Sleep Goddess, but really she is a lifesaver. As a result of her work, I regained my sanity [and Declan began sleeping through the night]. It is my pleasure to introduce this week’s featured work-at-home-mom, Jennifer Schindele, from Gift of Sleep Consulting.

Fostering healthy sleep habits for your baby or child is extremely important for their overall health and well being. The path to developing healthy soothing skills can start very shortly after birth and the best way to begin reinforcing these very important skills is the environment in which your baby learns how to sleep independently (with the help of some Rock Star self soothing skills). Promoting healthy sleep for infants and small children has become my passion and goal for every family I come in contact with, including The Median Mommy! Here are some great tips and insights about creating the perfect sleeping environment for your baby.

Encouraging healthy sleep habits: The temperature of the room does matter! Did you know that most little ones prefer to sleep in a room that is on the cool side rather than warm? Studies have shown that a too warm sleep environment can actually be very detrimental to infant sleep. Just like for most of us grownups, a too warm sleeping environment can make it very difficult for your child to go to sleep. It is also suggested that it may be one of the contributors to SIDS. I recommend to all of my clients whether their child is a newborn or well into their preschool years to make sure their little one’s room temperature falls somewhere between 68 and 72 degrees Fahrenheit. Also, the clothing your little one is dressed in for bed should be right along the same lines of what you would wear to bed. And a great addition to a baby or toddler’s bed is a baby sleep sack instead of a blanket (see last week’s post regarding my love for this wonderful invention). Remember cool and comfy and not warm and stuffy.

Mistakes to Avoid When Feeding Your Newborn at Night

Encouraging healthy sleep habits: Although a bedding set is super cute, it can also be super dangerous. I encourage all of my clients of infants to remove all items from their child’s crib that are non essential for safe and healthy sleep. This includes, crib quits, blankets, bumpers that are not breathable and see through as well as pillows and stuffed animals. Although a “Lovey” can be introduced around 7 months of age. All your baby needs in their crib for safe sleep is a mattress, sheet, secure swaddle (up until 3 months) or a sleep sack. That’s it!

Encouraging healthy sleep habit: The darker the better. A very dark room during all sleep periods (daytime naps included) actually helps your little one want to sleep. If the nursery or bedroom is too bright via natural sunlight streaming through an uncovered window or blinds, your little one will find it much harder to settle to sleep. As sunlight hits our skin and is absorbed, our body naturally releases chemicals to cue our bodies to be awake. The more we can do as parents to block light from getting in the room the better to stop this from happening. Also, darkness is a fantastic clue or indicator that one should be sleeping and with help and consistency, your baby can begin to pick up on this clue. A dark room = sweet dreams for little ones if you want to get your baby to sleep through the night.

Encouraging healthy sleep habit: White noise, the soothing static lulling your little one to sleep. Using some sort of white noise in your baby or toddler’s room can help them sleep longer and more soundly by blocking out environmental noise. You would be surprised at how the slightest outside noise can arouse a baby in a light sleep state. A favorite among many of my clients is a box fan or portable white noise machine. I’ve seen some pretty expensive models sold in baby stores but have to admit that if you can find one that is under $30.00 and can easily be taken with you on family vacations or overnight trips you’ll be all set. Oh and if it can also be battery operated…BONUS. You never know when you will lose power during a pretty noisy thunder storm.

In closing, if your little one is having trouble falling or staying asleep, please be sure you have evaluated their sleep space for the tips above and make adjustments where necessary. As always, I welcome your questions or comments concerning this week’s topic.

Jennifer Schindele is a Certified Child Sleep Consultant and President and Founder of Gift of Sleep Consulting –http://giftofsleepconsulting.com/; –located in Philadelphia, PA. Jennifer’s mission is to help parents give the gift of sleep to both their children and in turn, themselves. Her mission is executed by personalizing a step-by-step program to gently help teach the child to independently fall asleep, and stay asleep, the whole night through (and nap peacefully during the day).