Essential Tips For Sleep Success!

Transcription

1 Sleepy Lambs Sleep Academy Essential Tips For Sleep Success! Even if You're Not Sleep "Training"

2 Table of Contents Introduction Work as a Team! 3. More Tips! 4. Make a Full Commitment! 5. Be Realistic 6. Make Sleep a Priority! 7. Beware of Intermittent Reinforcement 8. More Tips For Success! 9. Understanding Tears 10. Have Confidence! 11. Join Us!

3 Introduction Hiya! I'm so glad you're here! I've put together these key elements for improving sleep, even if you have no interest in sleep training. Frequently, by implementing these tools, you can see a great improvement in sleep! I truly hope this helps your family sleep better soon! Let me know how it works for you! Mary Foster Founder & Sleep Specialist Sleepy Lambs Sleep Consulting

4 Work as a Team! If you're co-parenting, it's essential to work together and support each other to be successful. You both want what's best for your little one so communicating well as you approach parenting can make an enormous difference. Your little one can sense if you're not on the same wavelength and it can be unsettling and make it harder to settle down and sleep. TIP! Be sure to have a good discussion about your plan and philosophy during the day when everything is calm. The worst time to have this debate is at bedtime, the middle of the night, or if your little one is upset.

5 More Tips! Be Clear On Your Goals Look at the sleep challenges your little one is having and decide precisely what your goals are. Identify the challenges and know what realistic (and ageappropriate) outcome you're expecting. Keep a Detailed Log It may seem challenging, but there's a method to the madness. By recording wake, sleep, feeding times, behaviours, how long it takes to fall asleep etc., it's easy to identify the exact needs of your child when it comes to sleep based on trends. It's also a great way to determine a schedule based on your little one's needs. The app Baby Connect app is brilliant. Turn the Monitor Down (or Off!) It's incredible how many noises little ones can make in their sleep. They can cry out, yet be completely asleep. If your room is nearby and you feel confident you would hear your little one if s/he needs you, try turning down the monitor if you feel comfortable. Often those little noises disrupt your sleep more than theirs.

6 Make a Full Commitment! Committing is essential. If you're unsure or wavering about the changes you're making, it's probably best to wait until you're ready to make a full commitment. Commitment helps with consistency, which is essential to better sleep and parenting! Little ones thrive on it!

7 Be Realistic Each baby and child is different! Your friend may have a baby who slept 12 hours straight at two weeks old, so you think that your little one should too? Your friend may be lucky with sleep, but sleep challenges aren't a reflection of your child or your parenting skills. There's a common misconception that you have a "good" baby if she sleeps well and your baby isn't as "good" if she doesn't! Babies aren't good or bad. They are little people, born with their temperament. Some babies who sleep better than others, just as some babies eat better than others. Be realistic with your expectations and look at age-appropriate sleep. You're setting yourself up for unnecessary stress if you're expecting more than age-appropriate sleep for your child.

8 Make Sleep a Priority! Honour the needs of your child! If your little one wasn't eating or drinking properly, you would likely address it, right? Sleep isn't optional or a bonus! It's essential for the proper growth and development of your child. Aim to make it a priority with your schedules as much as possible to honour your child's sleep needs and you may see an improvement!

9 Beware of Intermittent Reinforcement Little ones THRIVE on consistency. They love routine and knowing what comes up next. It's calming to them. A lack of consistency makes the learning process much more difficult for your child. If he doesn't know what to expect from you, it will increase your sleep challenges, not improve them. Intermittent reinforcement can cause failure with your sleep goals, full stop. It's why it's essential that you're committed and ready to go if you're making changes. There are times when intermittent reinforcement is necessary. If your little one becomes ill or circumstances change, then you'll have no choice but to be inconsistent, but hopefully, you'll be able to get back on track ASAP.

10 More Tips For Success! Stick With Your Approach When you pick an approach, success isn't usually immediate. It can take weeks or even months for it to work (depending on the method you choose and your child's age and temperament). Give any new approach a few weeks to work, if you can. Change is difficult, and it takes time. IF you're choosing a traditional sleep training approach (timed checks, gradual retreat), it should work within a week and more likely a few days. If sleep isn't improving at that point, there's a likely a reason, so best to resolve the issue before continuing. Sleep "training" should never last several weeks or months. Parent Your Child's Temperament Every child is born with their unique temperament. It's likely completely different from your other children. Sleep training techniques should always take your child's temperament into account or else the method could make the situation worse, not better.

11 Understanding Tears Everyone hates hearing their baby cry. Absolutely everyone. Your little one cries for a million reasons - hunger, disappointment, anger, frustration, pain, protest, attention, or even emotional release like adults do sometimes. Learn your child's cries. It will help if you understand why they are crying and allow you to respond to their needs more appropriately and faster. If your child is well fed, not ill or in pain, the tears may be protest cries when making changes to habits. Many parents interpret tears as always being a bad thing, which isn't the case at all. It's a method of communication that can be difficult to understand. Please note that this doesn't mean that you need to leave your baby alone to cry AT ALL, but tears can come with any little change, even if you're completely present and loving.

12 Have Confidence! Focusing on improving your child's sleep can reap unlimited benefits, especially health, behavioural and developmental. Although there is a chance that your child will outgrow their sleep challenges eventually, there are many, many others who don't and still struggle with sleep through adulthood. Symptoms of sleep deprivation can mimic symptoms of ADHD, create more tantrums and other behavioural challenges - all caused by insufficient or poor quality sleep. Sleep deficits are linked to poorer physical health and obesity. The sooner you decide to move forward; the more likely your child will learn the skill of sleep that will last a lifetime. Be selfish! As a parent, if you're getting more sleep, you're a better parent, partner, friend, more productive and more fun. You owe it to your child to be healthy and at your best!

13 Join Us! I'd like to invite you to join our free, private sleep group on Facebook for more sleep support from experts and other parents. See you there! Mary xx Click to Join Sleepy Lambs #Sleeptips Community