Sleep: that magical five-letter word that seems to elude most of us, even on the best of nights. Sometimes you go to bed later than you expected. Maybe you stayed up a few hours later than you should have because you couldn't put down that book you were reading or you needed to finish the level you were playing. Or maybe you tried to go to sleep but were awoken by your own snoring. 🙂
If you snore, chances are you're using an anti-snoring device to help alleviate the disruption to your night. You've probably tried a lot of things like nasal strips and mouth pieces until you settled on the one that worked best for you. Good job!
So maybe things are going great in your world and you've finally got your sleep issues under control. But then, it happens.
You have a baby.
Say good-bye to eight consecutive hours of sleep or being able to go through the whole night without having your dreams interrupted. Having a baby is a total game-changer on many levels; sleep is usually the first thing that gets sacrificed when a baby enters the picture.
If it's the first time a child has become a member of your family, you're going to have a lot of adapting to do. Things can get complicated if your sweet little bundle of joy also has a sleeping issue:
Sleep problems are among the most common complaints that parents have about their young ones.
Needless to say, they can cause a lot of stress in the family. Kids end up tired and parents become exhausted from being up all night with the baby.
Typically, children with sleeping problems do not fall asleep easily and also wake up in the middle of the night. Whether a sleep pattern or habit is abnormal depends on the age of the child.
Sleep patterns in babies take time to develop into a normal sleep cycle (full night-time sleep and awake during the day).
Most newborns sleep an average of 16 hours a day. However, this can be one to two hours at a time, depending on the individual baby.
In fact, most babies do not develop normal sleep patterns until about four to six months of age. Most sleep problems develop when parents react too quickly to a child who is fussy at night, not realizing that baby, if left alone for a while, may indeed fall asleep by herself.
Via: http://www.standard-freeholder.com/2016/05/25/sleep-problems-in-babies-children
Just like you had to change your sleep schedule and routine in order to get the most out of your dream-time, so do babies. Now, you've learned a few tips and tricks to help your little one sleep better which should help everyone in your house sleep better.
See? It wasn't so hard. It's a learning experience for everyone, and that's okay.
