subject: You need to sleep. Your baby as well! [print this page] You need to sleepYou need to sleep. Your baby as well!
The hardest part when raising a new born is getting the sleep you need. Because of your dedication as a parent you wake up immediately after you hear him crying (sometimes up to 10 times a night).
Now most of the people are solving this particular problem using their instincts: the baby is crying so I need to put him back to sleep. There are a few wrong things regarding this attitude.
As a parent you must know by now that babies are simply accumulating the new information about his small surrounding world at a very high rate. The rate stimulates their brain to be even more active than a college student's brain.
The only bad thing about this is that they do not know when to stop accumulating information because they do not have yet implemented a certain routine like we do. Not knowing how to manage their information flux will certainly lead them to being more irritated, more stressed and this will bring in less sleep (for both of you).
Here's a little secret: at first they do not see or distinguish very well the surroundings, they might not be able to reproduce in a correct manner words but they can hear pretty well. This is the thing that draws their attention. They will LISTEN and follow the directions you give them by using a method based on sounds.
I do not have to tell you that you can't sleep (not only during the nights but also during the days), even with the help of your husband getting sleep while raising a baby is a luxury. You definitely need some help. You can find it here. Enjoy your sleep!
