I wrote about this on my personal blog.

http://www.ilovemonsters.blogspot.com/

It’s long winded–amazing how much new moms can blather on about sleep! It’s fascinating, if you’re one of us.

I heard about your blog on Mainstream Parenting Resources. I also have a new blog with some other folks called Rational Moms.

http://www.rationalmoms.com/

I’m very interested this whole AP thing–I have some major issues with Sears. So I was looking at your articles on this in preparation for my own post.

Thanks for the great blog.

http://ifindmyselfamother.wordpress.com/

thanks!
Susanna

thanks,
Susanna

However, I just had my son the first week of October (full-term, nearly 7 pounds), and he is nearly the same as my daughter. He is also a nightowl and he’s still only sporadically sleeping more than a 4-hour stretch, which he only does once a day. As a matter of fact, he’s an absolutely average baby in every way, except he’s a crappy sleeper. This leads me to believe that, at least in this family, this is just their personalities and that no matter how many babies I have at any gestational age, they will all be crappy sleepers. Period.

For the record, my daughter does sleep through the night on a regular basis these days. Rather well, in fact, so it does get better. I’m counting on it for this baby and biding my time. It’s hard when you’re in the trenches of that first year (and you’ve really got to give preemies at least a whole year), but the sleep stuff generally improves over time.

Thanks, Dr. Heather, for the ABCs of sleep post. I sent it to my husband so we could commiserate and feel reassured we were doing all right.

I recently saw a study that evaluated preemies in the NICU. They found that the babies would sort of “flail about” until a part of their body met up with the side of the isolette. As soon as there was that physical sense of containment, the babies’ heart rate went down, body movements got more smooth and controlled — basically, signs of regulation improved. Ergo — preemies need more swaddling/holding etc. It helps their immature systems of regulation.

It’s also interesting in relation to the discussion we’ve been having about Attachment Parenting, and why I’m a little reluctant to be a full-on supporter of that approach (much after 6-9 months of age or so). As you had said, “kangaroo care” is helpful for preemies, who need that extra body contact to help support their immature neurological systems. But over time, they develop the capacity to regulate themselves a lot better. Our parenting approach has to continually change and develop as our babies change and develop.

Have a great new year!!

My son, who was born at 33 weeks didn’t have trouble sleeping. He has congenital heart defects which caused him to have little or no energy, so all he really wanted to do was sleep. BUT, he was so, so small that the doctor’s insisted he be fed every three hours, round the clock until his first heart surgery. It was either that or tube feeds, which we wanted to avoid. So, this is where the taking shifts thing comes in. Starting at 9:00 PM, my husband and I would take turns. If I did 9:00, he did midnight, then I did 3:00 AM. The next night, we switched. It was hard. Really hard. But, we did it until he was 13 months old.

I think that age is a factor for sure. I think preemies have a harder time with everything!

Just my two cents on bedtime: I scoffed at the experts that suggested a bedtime routine. I mean, how can you expect to do the same things in the same order EVERY night??? But we tried it anyway. I left out the bath, figuring I didn’t want to make a good night’s sleep dependent on something we might want to do at another time of day or might have to leave out if we were away from home. But we worked in feeding and snuggling and singing and rocking. And by gosh over time, it made ALL the difference! The rocking was our final piece of the evening, and we used it wherever we were, even if we had to rock without a chair. They came to know that rocking came before sleeping. As they got older, I worried about the feeding part, even though I tried not to nurse them to sleep after 6 months or so (didn’t always succeed either!). But somehow we found a natural break in the pattern, dropped the feeding and never looked back.

I now have a 6.5 and a 9-year-old who have gone to bed without a major fuss for most of their lives. We also are lucky that past the age of 3, both have routinely slept through the night with only a very few exceptions. My friends have freaked out before when I told them that our kids are in bed by 8:30! A friend of mine used to let her kids that were 5 and 2 stay up until 10:00 or later, partly because dad worked and didn’t get to see them until 6:00. But they were tired, the kids were tired, and they never got any time alone. As kindergarten approached, she decided to change their bedtime to 8:00 and I never saw a happier mommy! :0)

I watch the people on SuperNanny and thank my lucky stars that I stumbled onto the right approach early! I think all you can do is gather all the ideas, pick what you think works best for you, try it and be willing to adapt when your child’s routine inevitably changes.