Sleep glorious sleep….

Do you have a tricky sleeper?

Is your child one that is tricky to get to sleep at bedtime? Or they do not want to down for their nap? Or they wake multiple times in the night?

Then give this post a read it should be of some help.

Lets start at the beginning with sleep associations.

Sleep associations are what your child need in order to go to sleep.  Now a simple way to look at it as an adult we all have sleep associations to go to sleep.  A pillow and duvet is a sleep association, some people listen to music whilst others will leave the television on for back ground noise.  Again looking at it from an adults perspective if you woke in the night and your pillow and duvet had been taken away from you would you struggle to get back to sleep? I personally know that if I was left on my mattress with nothing else I would be tossing and turning for the rest of the night.  So now looking at it from your child’s point of view if when they go to sleep they are breastfed to sleep, or have a bottle of milk, or they are rocked or cuddled to sleep when they naturally stir in the night (this is very common for children to wake multiple times in the night) they need that sleep association to get back to sleep. 

Firstly if your child does any of these things and it works for you and your family then stick with it! But if you feel that you are exhausted or wish to change your child’s sleep habitats lets see if we can do that! Many of the families I work 1-1 with are wanting their child to self settle themselves back to sleep if they wake especially if they are up multiples times in the night it means both parent and child and not to forget siblings aren’t getting their quota of sleep. 

I mentioned a few sleep associations earlier but there are many more!

• Being rocked, cuddled, patted

• Breastfed to sleep

• Bottle fed to sleep

• Dummy

• Sleeping in parents’ bed

• Pushed in a pushchair

• Car

• Parent lying next to them or sitting in their bedroom

It is important to note that when discussing breastfed or bottle fed to sleep with a newborn or a young baby who is feeding through the night they are feeding because they are hungry and they are not waking to feed to settle themselves back to sleep.  You want your child in the night when they wake to be able to roll over and self settle them back to sleep without needing any help.

A sleep consultant can help with supporting you in making these changes and I promise a full night’s sleep is in reach.