Sleep

Marin Mommies presents a guest article by Marin parent coach, infant/toddler sleep researcher, and family therapist Angelique Millette.

With the time change approaching, I have received many e-mails and phone calls from parents asking how they can help their babies and toddlers transition to the new time without upsetting their child’s sleep.

Starting Sunday, March 10, at 2 am, clocks will be set forward one hour—“spring forward.”

You can help your baby/toddler by starting to adjust ahead of the time change. Starting Tuesday night (March 5) begin to put baby down 10 minutes earlier for bed. You can do this by comforting, singing or reading, and starting the bedtime ritual/routine 10 minutes earlier. Do this for the rest of the week, so when the time change does happen, your baby or toddler will have slowly adjusted to the new time.

If your baby or toddler’s bedtime is 7 pm, it will look like this:

• Tuesday: 6:50 pm bedtime
• Wednesday: 6:40 pm bedtime
• Thursday: 6:30 pm bedtime
• Friday: 6:20 pm bedtime
• Saturday: 6:10 pm bedtime
• Sunday: 7 pm bedtime (new time—old time will be 6 pm)

Marin Mommies presents a guest article by infant sleep consultant Sarah Middleton, who offers some tips on how to get your little one back on a regular sleep schedule after the hustle and bustle of the holidays.

I hope your holidays were filled with celebration and hopefully some time catching up on some well deserved sleep.

Often, what can happen is that babies regress during times like the holidays when there is a lot of activity going on and when many of the sleep rules are bent. If your little one seems out of sort, fret not, it is possible to help them sleep well again.

The following are some suggestions for helping them to re-establish good sleeping habits and get back on track.

1. Begin a consistent and regular sleep routine that involves low lights, quiet voices, and simple play. This can be a bath, a massage, or simply reading quietly in his or her room.
2. If you have a little one who is at the age where he or she understands your words well, you can also begin to talk to them about the things that are coming up for the sleep routine, i,e. "First we are going to take a bath, and then we are going to read some books, and then it is night night time."

Getting a good night's sleep for both your baby and you can be one of parenting's biggest challenges. If you're interesting in learning  some great techniques to help your little one—and you—sleep, the Parents Place in San Rafael is offering a one-morning course "Infant Sleep Solutions" for parents of children from birth to 12 months on Friday, December 7, from 10:30 am–12:30 pm.

Participants will discuss baby sleep needs and the best ways to help young ones learn good sleep habits. You'll also cover the importance of a baby schedule, challenges to baby sleep habits (developmental milestones), new SIDS research and guidelines, pros and cons of various sleep methods (Ferber, CIO, low/no-cry methods), infant/child sleep products, and choices: family bed, crib, and room sharing.

Non-crawling babies are welcome.

This class is led by Sarah Middelton, MA, CD PCD (DONA), a mother, infant sleep consultant, and parent coach specializing in the transitions that occur in the first year after the birth of a child. She is also trained as a childbirth educator, and birth and post partum doula (DONA). Sarah has studied with Angelique Millette and uses a variety of sleep methods and tools to help parents of infants with sleep issues.

Mompreneur Sarah Middleton turned her own challenges in the child sleep department into a career as a infant sleep consultant. She's also a birth and post partum doula and chidbirth educator, so helping families is in her nature. To learn more about Sarah and her services, visit her online.

Please tell us a little about yourself. What's your background?

I am a mother of two girls—Mira Luna is almost 4 and Luca Blue is 9 months old. I had them both at home and their birth days are by far the most powerful and wonderful days of my life. I found birth to be such a rite of passage for me, as it required me to surrender, be present, be grateful, and be courageous. I was born and raised in Hawaii and so much of my upbringing there has influenced the way in which I parent. Values like the importance of being active and healthy, and enjoying the outdoors were such cornerstones for me growing up and I try to bring that into my family life now that I am a mother.

Marin parent coach, family therapist, and sleep researcher Angelique Millette has helped countless parents, especially in the area of getting babies, toddlers, and children to get the good night's sleep they need. She is also the creator of the Hands-to-Heart Sleep Swaddle, a combination swaddle and sleep sack that helps babies go to sleep the natural and safe way.

If you're a parent, you're either actively involved in swaddling your baby to try to get her to sleep, or you remember doing it. I always thought it was incredible the way the Marin General maternity staff wrapped up both our kids snug and tight. When we tried it, they'd invariably develop amazing "Houdini Hands" skills and wriggle their way free from the swaddling, no matter how snug and comfy we thought it was.

Traveling with an infant or toddler can be a unique challenge, especially when getting them to sleep. Marin parent coach, infant/toddler sleep researcher, and family therapist Angelique Millette has complied the following list of handy tips for traveling with children.

Angelique works throughout the Bay Area and across the country supporting families and helping them meet life's challenges. You can learn more about her and her services at www.angeliquemillette.com.

It's the summer time and many parents have been calling with questions about traveling with their young ones. I've put together a list of tips and suggestions, many of them tried-and-true, by parents:

Veteran parents will probably remember joking about forgetting to pick up the manual for their new baby when leaving the hospital. Of course there isn't a baby user manual, but the Secrets of a Baby Nurse: How to Have a Happy, Healthy, and SLEEPING Baby from Birth (185 pages, Rising Star, 2011; $17.95), the new book by seasoned maternal-infant nurse and "baby sleep wizard" Marsha Podd, RN, might just be the next best thing! Marsha has over 20 years of experience working with parents and small children, and is the author of numerous articles, including guest posts on Marin Mommies.

In Secrets of a Baby Nurse, Marsha provides new parents with just about everything they need to know about their new baby, especially when it comes to sleep (both yours and the baby's). Her helpful advice and tips are the product of years of experience and plenty of scientific research. It's kind of like having your own personal baby nurse on-call 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I really really wish I had this book when my kids were babies—I don't think my son slept at all until he was three (at least it seemed like it at the time).

This guest article is by Marin infant/toddler sleep researcher and family therapist Angelique Millette.

What do you do if your little one is waking during the night from a bad dream and refuses to go back to sleep? Or what if your little one refuses to go to sleep at bedtime due to a several nights in a row of bad dreams? And what if your child has been waking inconsolable at night but you aren’t sure if you are child is waking due to a nightmare or a night terror? These are common questions parents have when responding to their little one’s nighttime sleep needs.

Nightmares

All children have nightmares at some point, and as long as children are dreaming they may also have nightmares. Interestingly, even infants dream, and according to one landmark study, newborns dream more than at any other time in a young person’s life. Nightmares are bad dreams and can happen at any point in a toddler or child’s life and especially so if a child has just experienced a traumatic event or situation. Several different studies have shown that children may have nightmares following surgery, tooth extraction, and motor vehicle accidents. Nightmares can also begin during periods of developmental phases such as the period between 18–21 months and again right before a child’s third and fourth birthdays. These are periods of individuation, when a child may become more sensitive or emotional as they become more independent.

Are you a mom who has trouble getting enough sleep? You're not alone! In this guest article, Dr. Lisa Brent offers some facts about insomnia and what you can do to combat it and get the rest you need and deserve.

“Sleep when the baby sleeps” is advice many mothers receive when they bring a new baby home. This is a really great idea, but it is not always so easy to do. For many women, sleep does not come easily, even when they are completely exhausted by the daily (and nightly) demands of motherhood.