In her book, she mentions about the importance of establishing a feed and sleep routine for the baby. In her routines, she also teaches you how to make transitions from month to month and how much sleep the baby actually needs at different stages. I did not follow her routines to the bone, but I took up the general concepts. While I do not know if it was my baby or the concepts I tried, she managed to sleep through 2 weeks after my confinement lady left. She was only one and a half month old.
The general concepts which I followed include:
1) Giving at least six full feeds a day
[My confinement lady fed on demand and she could be drinking every 2hrly. I changed my baby's drinking pattern by giving her more and she slowly stretched to drink every 3hrly. I also believe that by taking enough in the day, my ger is less likely to wake up for milk in the night. My colleague once told me that if I give my ger formula for the last feed, it will allow her to sleep longer. I do not know if it's really the case but it did not work for my ger. She still woke up at about 6 to 6.30am for her milk...]
2) Give night feeds only on demand
[My ger's last feed will usually be before 12 midnight (which is a NO-NO a/c to Gina Ford). I consider any milk feeds after 12 midnight, a night feed. So you may ask me "What do you mean by on demand?"]
For me, I learnt the meaning of on demand one night when I heard my ger went "Eh... Eh". I quickly woke up, ran to the kitchen to get her bottle of feed and warmed it up. Pulled her out from her bed, stuck the teat in her mouth. Of course, my ger did not put up a struggle. She quietly drank and only took one ounce! It occured to me that the sounds were made by her when she was stiring from her sleep... After this incident, I stopped listening for her "Eh... Ehs...", instead I waited for loud crys which were a confirmation from her that she wants milk. Luckily, I realised it early else I will be creating a "natural alarm clock" in her mind that she needs to be fed when she stirs...
3) Do not do more than necessary during the night feed
(You do not want to wake your little baby up and settling her after you have changed her! So there is no need to change your baby's nappies if it is not super wet or soiled. I invested in a better and more absorbent diaper so that I did not need to change her diaper in the middle of the night. Of course, you should change her diaper during the sixth feed!)
4) Allowing baby the ability to differentiate between night and day
(This is arguable. I did not exactly do anything special. Only after my confinement lady left, did I let my girl sleep in a dark room for her naps. Some people said that the sleep enviornment for day naps and night sleep should be different. But when I was home alone with baby, her sleep enviornment were as what Gina Ford recommends - in a dark quiet room. Sadly, she does not have this luxury at my MIL's place - the quiet part.)
5) Allowing baby to fall asleep on her own and to go back to sleep after stiring
(Perhaps, she had already gotten into the habit, she needed to be patted to sleep. This I "cured" after one month. Most of the time, I would be a "bad mummy", letting her struggle and cry a little so that she can get to sleep on her own. It is not recommended that the baby be allowed to "drink to sleep" when they wake up in the middle of the night unless they are hungry! When the baby stirs, try not to create a habit of patting her or putting her soother back.)
No comments:
Post a Comment