Baby sleep training

Finally everything starts to go on track, I'm not a routine person, but I found that once I get a routine started, I get more prediction on what my day will be like and hence more time to rest and more free time for me to write blogs! There was a time I felt very stressful, as I felt like I was non-stop for the whole day, either changing nappies, cleaning, cooking or feeding.

Just was reading an article on sleep-training, it's quite interesting to find out that there are many methods to train our baby to sleep through the night. The article recommends training babies from 5 months, which is now for my baby. My first baby was sleeping through the night since she was around 3 months, but my second baby wakes up 4 hourly for feed until now.

The Sears Method seems to be more humane, it's called the no-cry method, it's about being flexible to change approaches (eg. cuddling, pacifier, nursing..etc), and being consistent to try one method for a while before changing approach. This method is created by Dr. William Sears who's an advocate of attachment parenting, his book is called The Baby Sleep Book: How to Help Your Baby to Sleep and Have a Restful Night. Other similar method include Secrets of the Baby Whisperer: How to Calm, Connect, and Communicate with Your Baby.

Another method is the Cry It Out, also called the Ferber method which leaves the baby cry for a set period of time, and check to calm after the set period. Highlight is to put babies in the cot awake, and basically leave the baby cry until he/she sleeps on his/her own. His book Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems has strategies to teach babies to have a good night sleep (and most importantly parents won't be overtired with sleep deprivation)

I heard parents from the hospital that says the Cry It Out method really work, and a day care centre manger also said, "Sometimes you'll need to be cruel to be kind." meaning letting the baby cry so they can learn to sleep on their own, which is good for both the baby and the parents. I've tried this at the beginning for my baby, sometimes she cried for about half an hour before falling asleep, which I think she's just too tired and dropped off. But every time when I went to her, she'd give me that sad look on her face whenever she awoke. So I try with the pacifier, and sometimes cuddling her for a while before putting her to the cot. I found that when I bath her before going to bed at night, she'd sleep for longer period. Now I'm getting smiles on her face whenever she sees me when she wakes up! :-)


As for my toddler, she loves watching DVDs, especially the Brainy Baby series, she now can recognise and count from 1-10. I think a reasonable TV time is good for children, those DVDs do the repetition, which is essential in toddler's learning, for us. iQ Toys has the DVDs at a good price. It's funny to see her said 'wee' and nodding her head to me once, she picked it up on the French preview!