The No-cry Sleep Solution (42 page)

Review and Choose Sleep Solutions

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great choices. Pick something that
you
will enjoy listening to night after night, too. (Using a tape player with an automatic repeat function is helpful for keeping the music going as long as you need it to play.)

Tapes that play sounds of nature are widely available and very lovely. They may work nicely, as well as small sound-generating or white-noise devices and clocks you may have seen in stores.

The nature sounds (raindrops, a babbling brook, or running water) often are similar to your heartbeat and fluids rushing in and out of the placenta, which is what your baby heard in utero.

(Remember those sounds from when you listened to your baby’s heartbeat with the Doppler stethoscope?) A ticking clock or bubbling fish tank are also wonderful white-noise options.

Mother-Speak

“I went out today and bought a small aquarium and the hum-ming noise does seem to relax Chloe and help her to sleep. I didn’t buy any fish though. Who has time to take care of fish when you’re half asleep all day?”

Tanya, mother of thirteen-month-old Chloe

You can find some suitable tapes and CDs made especially for babies or others that are made for adults to listen to when they want to relax. Whichever you pick, listen to it first and ask yourself, “Does this relax me? Would it make me feel sleepy if I listened to it in bed?”

If you put your baby to sleep in a noisy, active house full of people, keeping the tape running (auto rewind) will help mask baby-waking noises like dishes clanking, people talking and laughing, TV, or dogs barking. This can also help transition your sleeping baby from a noisy daytime house to which he’s become accustomed subconsciously to one of absolute nighttime quiet.

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The No-Cry Sleep Solution

Once your baby is familiar with your key words, calming noise, or music, you can use them to help your baby fall back to sleep when he wakes up in the middle of the night. Simply soothe him by saying your key words or playing the music (very quietly) during the calming and falling asleep time. If he wakes and cries, repeat this process.

If your baby gets used to his sleep-time sounds you can take the tape with you if you will be away from home for nap- or bedtime. The familiarity of these sounds will help your baby sleep in an unfamiliar environment.

Eventually your baby will rely on this technique less and less to fall and stay asleep. You can help this process along by lower-ing the volume a small amount every night until you finally don’t turn the music or sounds on at all.

Change Your Baby’s Sleep Association

This idea may help frequent breastfeeders, frequent night-

time bottle-feeders, and pacifier users.

Your baby has learned to associate sucking (having your nipple or his bottle or pacifier in his mouth) with sleeping. I have heard a number of sleep experts refer to this as a “negative sleep association.” I certainly disagree, and so would my baby. It is probably the most positive, natural, pleasant sleep association a baby can have.

Frequent Breastfeeders

The problem with the association of breastfeeding to sleep is not the association but our busy lives. If you had nothing whatsoever to do besides take care of your baby, this would be a very pleasant way to pass your days until she naturally outgrew the need.

However, in our world, few parents have the luxury of putting everything else in their lives on hold until their baby gets older.

With this in mind, I will give you a number of ideas so that you