If your baby is fighting your soothing efforts your baby might just be asking you to lay her down to sleep. Avoid over soothing!

What a great idea Alanna, one of our current child sleep consultants students had. She posted this on her FB page and asked her followers to re-post the pic on their wall and if they do they will be entered into a contest to win a 3 day package of emails. Brilliant!!!!! Alanna of http://www.facebook.com/goodnightsleepsite.

WASHINGTON —
A new study suggests that if mom is depressed, she’s more likely to wake her baby up in the middle of the night, even if the baby is fine. Experts say if that happens occasionally, it’s not a problem.

But if it happens often, it can lead to developmental issues.

In the study, published in the journal Child Development, researchers at Pennsylvania State University observed 45 families over the course of a week. The children ranged in age from 1 month to 2 years. Moms were asked questions about a variety of issues from how they were doing emotionally to the baby’s sleep patterns.

Cameras were also installed to watch how the moms interacted with their babies in the middle of the night.

Here’s what they found: Moms who had higher levels of symptoms of depression were more likely to respond to minor sounds, wake their baby up and nurse them (even if they weren’t hungry) or pick their sleeping child up and put them in bed with them.

It can be a vicious cycle.

“The more sleep you lose, the more likely you are to feel depressed,” says lead author Douglas M. Teti, a professor of human development, psychology and pediatrics at Pennsylvania State University.

But before you blame the moms, Teti is quick to point out there are many other things at play, including family dynamics.

“What happens at night with the baby is a function of other things,” he says. Martial strife may be one of the issues. If things aren’t great with dad, “moms may want the contact comfort and the emotional security,” says Teti.

But for that comfort and security, other things may be sacrificed.

Studies have found children who consistently don’t get a good night’s sleep have a harder time regulating their emotions.

And moms (and dads for that matter) who don’t get a good night’s rest may be less sensitive to their child’s needs and they may not set proper limits.

A consistent lack of sleep can make it hard for kids to bond with their parents – and the wider world.

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8pm EST. If you haven’t already emailed me to let me know if you will be attending please do, thanks and see you ladies tonight!!!!!

We started this week on our third round of workshop students. Looking forward to sharing the wonderful world of sleep consulting with this great group of women!!!!

So proud of my graduates:  Jennifer Metter, Kerrin Edmonds, and Dr. Sasha Carr

Grappling with sleep issues on (and after) a big trip

March 27, 2012

by Matt Villano

On (and after) our most recent trip to British Columbia, sleep was a big issue for yours truly and the gang.

© Matt Villano

We’ve been home from our most recent vacation for about 72 hours now, which means our little girls are suffering from what I like to call the post-trip Sleep Slog.

R, the baby, is totally off her game. Predictable 40-minute naps have devolved into random two-hour benders. Even worse: she has been awakening for her first feeding around 11:30 p.m., only five hours after she goes down for the night (previously she’d hold out until at least 2 or 2:30 a.m.).

L, our toddler, has it even worse, resisting naps all together, then fighting bedtime by jumping out of bed an average of 11 times per night. She’s also waking up at ungodly hours—the first morning it was 4 a.m., yesterday it was 4:30.

(Sadly, I am neither joking nor exaggerating.)

Unfortunately these troubles are par for the course; we travel a lot, and whenever we get home, it takes a while for the girls to get back into the swing of things. Add to this the troubles they usually have sleeping on the road in a different room and under different environmental conditions, and…well, let’s just say we grown Villanos have brewed through a lot of coffee around here lately.

Determined to get to the bottom of this phenomenon, I reached out to a number of sleep experts for their take on what I (and therefore you, dear readers) can do to avoid this debacle the next time around. Here’s some advice:

• Stick to the schedule. Kids are creatures of habit, which means that keeping them in step with their biological sleep rhythms is key. If they’re itching to stay up later than usual, make a concerted effort to get bedtime back to normal. “Most parents mistakenly believe that if their child is up late he or she can make it up by sleeping in the next morning, or take a long nap later on,” says Jennifer Metter, a certified family sleep consultant in California.  “Unfortunately that is rarely the case.”
• Stick to the set-up. Metter added that parents always should aim for sleeping arrangements that tactically mirror those at home. In other words, unless you co-sleep at home, avoid sharing a king-sized hotel bed with your kids. If options are limited, request a cot for your toddler, or fashion a makeshift “bed” out of couch cushions. If there’s no way around a co-sleeping arrangement, arrange pillows strategically to preserve the spirit of separate sleeping quarters.
• Pay attention to details. Try your best to recreate a comfortable sleep environment, too. If your child relies on a sound machine in his bedroom at home, shell out a few bucks for a white-noise app for your Smartphone (I use BlackBerry, and swear by this one from TMSoft) and use it on the road. Dr. Sasha Carr, a psychologist and sleep expert in New York City, suggests that parents also consider bringing an improvised room-darkening kit by using a dark bedsheet with big hairclips for temporary curtains.
• Bring totems. Most kids have special blankets, stuffed animals or other totems in which they find ultimate comfort. For my daughter, (as much as I wish it were an Ansel Adams photograph or Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass”) it’s Minnie Mouse. Kerrin Edmonds, another family sleep consultant in California, says it’s important to bring these items with you when you hit the road. “Things may be different, but at least they’ll have that one familiar thing to take to bed with them,” she notes.

The bottom line: On the road, the whole sleep thing ain’t easy. No matter how well you plan ahead, no matter how diligent you try to be, after a vacation your children will experience some degree of adjustment. To deal with this, Edmonds preached that parents should practice patience. “As long we expect it, re-adjusting won’t be bad, just like Daylight savings,” she said. “As soon as you’re home, jump right back into your normal schedule and supplement with early bedtimes until you have caught up on your children’s sleep debt.”

One more week until we start our 3rd round of our Introductory Workshop.  We have such an amazing group of women and so psyched to get this class started!!!!!!!

Congrats to all the February workshop students who will be continuing on to the certification course.   In just three short months you will become FSI Certified Child Sleep Consultants.  We are so pleased to have you all on board and be part of the FSI family!!!!!!

For any of the graduated Certified Child Sleep Consultants, this will be our monthly chat (for about an hour) where we can discuss cases that you are working on, business challenges/ideas etc. Please contact me directly if you would like to join us for this session. Please check out the calendar for date and times.