The No-cry Sleep Solution (38 page)

Review and Choose Sleep Solutions

113

Nathaniel, nine months old

What appears to be happening is that your baby moves through her sleep cycle and she awakens fully when she hits her first brief awakening. (Remember this from Chapter 2?) The key to getting your short napper to lengthen her naps is to help her go right back to sleep. This is how it works.

Put your baby down for a nap. Set a timer or keep your eye on the time. About five or ten minutes
before
the usual awakening time, sit outside the bedroom door and listen carefully. (Use this time to read a book, knit, or do some other peaceful, pleasant activity. Or be practical and fold laundry or pay your bills.) The minute your baby makes a sound, go in quickly. You’ll find him in a sleepy, just-about-to-wake-up state. Use whatever technique helps him fall back to sleep—breastfeeding, rocking, or offering a bottle or pacifier. If you’ve caught him quickly enough, he will fall back to sleep. After a week or so of this intervention, your short napper should be taking a much longer snooze without any help from you.

114

The No-Cry Sleep Solution

Help Your Baby Learn How to Fall Asleep

Without Help

This idea may help everyone.

As we discussed in Chapter 2, everyone has night wakings. If your baby is waking
you
up frequently at night, the problem is
not
the awakenings, but that she doesn’t know how to go back to sleep on her own. There are ways to help your baby feel comfortable and secure when she wakes up so that she can go back to sleep without your help.

“My Bed Is a Nice Place!”

This first idea helps your baby learn that her bed is a safe, comfortable place.

Spend some quiet, cuddly time during the day in the place you want your baby to sleep at night. Read, talk, sing, and play. Have two or three of these very pleasant interludes during the day with Baby in her sleeping place. If your baby responds positively, try to get her interested in watching a mobile or playing with a toy as you fade back and sit quietly in a chair beside her and watch.

By following these steps your baby will come to know her crib as a welcoming, safe, and comfortable haven. It will become familiar. She will find comfort in waking there during the night
Mother-Speak

“As you suggested, we played with Dylan in his crib so he could get used to it. He has this really cool mobile that he loves and we let him ‘play’ with it two or three times a day. This has really helped him get used to his crib. I think that’s one of the reasons he is starting to put himself to sleep when he wakes up during the night.”

Alison, mother of five-month-old Dylan