co-sleep and mixed up nights
Hi-
I have an 8 week old and we kindof just started co-sleeping naturally. Now, she won't sleep in the cradle, and that's fine. Her favortite position is lying on top of me, chest to chest, but I have woken up to her sliding off me! Scary! So, I decided to kindof cradle her in my arm on the side and sleep that way, but sometimes I wake up and her face is in my side. Scary! Sooo...my question is, what are the best positions for co-sleeping? Do I need a special pillow or something? She is smaller than most babies (preemie now just 6 lbs.).
Also, she wakes about every hour at night to sleep (last night with the arm hold I actually got two 2 hour stretches of sleep!) and sleeps for like 3 hours at a time during the day. Does she have her days and nights mixed up? Did I encourage that somehow? How do I fix it? I feel bad waking a baby, so I have not done that.
Ideas, suggestions??:yawning: I'm delirious.
^_^:
Congrats and welcome!
My preemie came home and started cosleeping with us at about 4lbs 8oz so I understand your concerns!
Ds always slept between me and the edge of the bed, never Dh and I. I used seperate blankets than Ds and kept my arm between him and my pillow. Because the dip in our bed would cause him to roll towards me, I did two things: (1) I positioned him at an angle with his feet towards me and his head toward the edge so no rolling, (2) I used one of those sleep positioners with soft foam wedges that velcro onto fabric. This also helped the sliding factor.
As for confusing days and nights--I can't tell from your description if that's actually a problem. Sleeping longer streches during the day than at night doesn't mean there's a mix up. Its more if the baby is awake/alert mostly at night and not at all during the day. Are you keeping it dim and then dark in the evenings or are all the lights on after dinner? Do you turn on lots of lights for nighttime feeding or diaper changing? Our technique was to just let the room go dark naturally and then use dim/nightlights. We were told and also experienced that some preemies are extra sensitive to light and will go to sleep during day time or in very bright settings to avoid the brightness. When we wanted to encourage/support Ds being alert we made sure to dim the lights in the room a little.
ETA: Certainly don't wake your sleeping baby--they need all they can get. Its a myth that keeping a baby awake will help them sleep longer later. I only woke Ds if I he needed to eat as I was concerned about maintaining his blood sugar levels.
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I have an 8 week old and we kindof just started co-sleeping naturally. Now, she won't sleep in the cradle, and that's fine. Her favortite position is lying on top of me, chest to chest, but I have woken up to her sliding off me! Scary! So, I decided to kindof cradle her in my arm on the side and sleep that way, but sometimes I wake up and her face is in my side. Scary! Sooo...my question is, what are the best positions for co-sleeping? Do I need a special pillow or something? She is smaller than most babies (preemie now just 6 lbs.).
Also, she wakes about every hour at night to sleep (last night with the arm hold I actually got two 2 hour stretches of sleep!) and sleeps for like 3 hours at a time during the day. Does she have her days and nights mixed up? Did I encourage that somehow? How do I fix it? I feel bad waking a baby, so I have not done that.
Ideas, suggestions??:yawning: I'm delirious.
^_^:
Congrats and welcome!
My preemie came home and started cosleeping with us at about 4lbs 8oz so I understand your concerns!
Ds always slept between me and the edge of the bed, never Dh and I. I used seperate blankets than Ds and kept my arm between him and my pillow. Because the dip in our bed would cause him to roll towards me, I did two things: (1) I positioned him at an angle with his feet towards me and his head toward the edge so no rolling, (2) I used one of those sleep positioners with soft foam wedges that velcro onto fabric. This also helped the sliding factor.
As for confusing days and nights--I can't tell from your description if that's actually a problem. Sleeping longer streches during the day than at night doesn't mean there's a mix up. Its more if the baby is awake/alert mostly at night and not at all during the day. Are you keeping it dim and then dark in the evenings or are all the lights on after dinner? Do you turn on lots of lights for nighttime feeding or diaper changing? Our technique was to just let the room go dark naturally and then use dim/nightlights. We were told and also experienced that some preemies are extra sensitive to light and will go to sleep during day time or in very bright settings to avoid the brightness. When we wanted to encourage/support Ds being alert we made sure to dim the lights in the room a little.
ETA: Certainly don't wake your sleeping baby--they need all they can get. Its a myth that keeping a baby awake will help them sleep longer later. I only woke Ds if I he needed to eat as I was concerned about maintaining his blood sugar levels.
More Topical: