It is amazing how quickly we forget the newborn stage and all the ups and downs that come with it! My children are not *that* old and yet I cannot remember many details of their infancy, or how we handled certain issues. So, I am asking our readers!
1--Do you use a pacifier? If so, for how long? Neither of my first two took a pacifier easily, but E likes to suck on things...a LOT! I don't want my nursing to become her pacifier, but I don't want her to be dependent on a pacifier indefinitely.
2--When did your newborn start sleeping in their bed during the day? Eleanor, of course, is less than a week old and very new, so she sleeps a lot. She falls asleep on me, on her daddy, on the couch, etc, but doesnt really like to rest in her bed during the day. Since her sleep patterns are irregular right now, I am not concerned, but I can't remember when I started putting my othet two in their cribs for rest/naps.
I would love your thoughts, friends!!
9 comments:
We did use a pacifier and nursing was never affected. If we hadn't used a pacifier, I would have become a human pacifier. As it was, my son wanted to nurse every hour 1/2 and took 45 minutes to nurse so I was already feeling very much like that! We noticed that around 13 months he'd become very addicted to it and at about 17 months, I couldn't take it anymore- I didn't want him to be the 3 year old walking around with a pacifier. We had to cut it and tell him it was broken to get him to give it up. He still sleeps with one but he no longer uses it during the day. Next go around, I'll probably do the same technique with cutting it but at about 13 months. (I didn't do it at a year because we'll be transitioning out of the bottle/breast so it might be too much.)
As for daytime sleep in the bed, I wish we'd started putting him down for a nap earlier than we did. I think he was probably six months old before we got in a good crib sleeping nap routine. I think I will start from the beginning trying to swaddle and put the baby in the bed, even if they don't end up really sleeping there, just to give it a try. Most likely the most daytime sleep though will still be in the swing, bouncer or on daddy!
Soothie pacifiers didn't seem to bother nursing. Within a couple months Freeman preferred his thumb, Martha still uses it for going to sleep.
We started putting them in cribs for established nap times at about 2 months, I think.
Both my girls seemed to have a need for non-food sucking and enjoyed a paci. It never interfered with nursing at all and definitely helped soothe them. And we never had much trouble around 13 months when we decided to get rid of it, either. So I'm a fan of pacis!
My oldest loved the paci. The hardest part when they're little babies is putting it back in whenever it falls out, esp. at night. I dealt with it, though, b/c it was so soothing for her. It did not interfere with nursing at all. When she turned one, we only used it for naps and night - no walking around with a paci plugged in. After she turned two, we took it away cold turkey. It was a rough hour the first night, then 30 min. the next, but after that, she was fine.
As far as sleeping, I think by the time they are three months you should try to have them in their crib for naps and night time. It gets much harder after that age, as they remember more and know exactly where they are. This is also the time their naps are more "scheduled" as opposed to just sleeping on and off all day, so it's a good time for routine.
Leah,
Sam never took to a paci- he found his thumb around 1 week and STILL sucks it when he is tired. As for the crib, he has ALWAYS slept in his crib. The first night home from the hospital was in his crib. For me, it made me feel like he was getting better sleep because our dog wasn't around him while he was sleeping and it enabled me to sleep- I rarely can sleep if Sam is in the room with me. Even though I nursed him, I would just go to his room (we lived in the W. Oak apts until he was 8 months old so he never far away at night) whenever I needed to.
At one of my baby showers I received some advice from a lady at my church which proved to be immensely helpful.
With her four children she would let them nap out in the open in the day (swing, bouncy, pack-n-play etc.) so that way they were used to sleeping with lots of hustle and bustle. She recommended only putting them in their crib at night so that they learn to differentiate between naps (where you only sleep for a little while) and night time (where it's quiet and you sleep for a long time).
I heeded that advice with my daughter and it worked WONDERFULLY!
She slept through the night sooner and more consistently than any other baby I've ever heard of. I also never had to adjust my schedule because it was nap time and we needed to be home. She got used to sleeping wherever she was.
I guess it was probably around 8 or 9 months when I started putting her in her crib for naps. It was whenever she reached the stage where she was too interested in everything else going on around us to nap.
Hope that helps!
Our first used a paci b.c the nurses ignored my wishes at the hospital. We tossed it at 6 weeks or so because I hated seeing it in his mouth, lol. #2 & #3 have never had one (and yes, they are "need to suck" kids, but I'd before them nurse all day than chew on plastic, just me & hub's preference though) :)
In the bed - no idea... with my first I had a csection & couldn't carry him up stairs to his room til about 6 weeks, so he napped in my arms mostly til a couple months (kept me resting too). #2, probably about 6 weeks...#3 has yet to sleep in his crib at almost 5 months. He sleeps with us & naps in the swing or sling during the day. We're also not real schedulers, more go with the flow, kind of fam, lol
Just what works best for our little family :)
We used and are using a paci with our four children to the first year, then use it only at naps and bedtime until we take it all together at 14 months. A couple nights of crying for a half hour, and it is gone! We put all of them directly in the crib for naps unless they just happened to fall asleep elsewhere, and we always swaddle, even up to a year with big blankets!
We did use a paci at times, but I think there's some potential virtue in giving even a newborn a chance to grow in the ability to calm herself without external assistance. One of those "looking back" "wish I'd heard that when it was my time" kind of thoughts.... :)
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