Mummy and Little Me

I’m delighted to have been asked to be the Mummy and Little Me Sleep and Routine Consultant. To kick off I’ve shared some of my ‘golden rules’ in a first blog post:

  1. Respect the ‘fourth trimester’ of pregnancy when so many changes are happening. Bonding as a family, establishing feeding, baby adapting to life outside the womb, managing all the lifestyle changes that happen when a new baby comes along. During baby’s first 3 months have a gentle routine in mind you are working towards, but be prepared for some days to be rather different than planned!
  2. Babies learn through repetition, familiarity, consistency and will accept change if they feel secure. In a nutshell my methods on how to get your baby to sleep involve reminders of the womb, a little rocking, sssshing and swaddling to get them in the sleep zone, then giving them an opportunity to drift off alone.Going back to resettle may be necessary, but overtime your baby will ‘get it”!
  3. You can have a good routine for your baby while breastfeeding! The feed times may just be a bit more ‘fluid’ for want of a better word. Sleep times are the real anchor points of a good routine.
  4. Always have a Plan B. Plan A will work more and more as your baby settles into a routine, but having a Plan B will save your sanity on those days when your baby hasn’t red the rule book! (Not that there is a rule book)
  5. There has to be give and take. You shouldn’t need to stay home all day everyday to have a good routine, but neither can your baby develop good habits without the stability of time at home in a familiar environment.
  6. Most babies do not need formula milk, or solid foods in order to sleep through the night. As he gets older its having good sleeping habits that will get baby (and you!) through the night.

 

I’ll be blogging on Mummy and Little Me regularly and you can post questions if there is anything you’d like me to include on future posts.

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