Cozysleeps

🌙Ramadan Mubarak! May this holy month bring you peace, prosperity, and endless blessings. ✨️

🌙 Night Light or No Night Light? 🤔

A soft, warm-toned night light or red light can be helpful for nighttime feeds and diaper changes, but too much light may disrupt your baby's sleep. Only use night lights for feeding or diapers changes. Keep it dim and avoid blue or white lights! ✨

Do you use a night light for your little one? Let me know in the comments! ⬇️

It's flu season, and it is pretty much unavoidable to some degree. So here are my tips around sleep and illness.

▪︎ Firstly, we always want to make sure we continue to keep things consistent to see if your baby actually needs more support or if they are happy to go down as usual.

▪︎ If they are upset while being unwell and need more support, you can absolutely provide them with the comfort they need. You can give a cuddle and then put baby down, place your hand on them in the cot, stroking their face, offer pain relief, sip of water, etc. and just see how they go with that.

▪︎ If they then continue to cry, you can offer them a cuddle or help them to sleep. If they fall asleep on you unexpectedly, just roll with it to let them sleep, then transfer to their crib.

▪︎ Some babies may need a cuddle to calm down, and then they will go back to sleep right after that. If you need to completely help them to sleep and have contact sleep, it's completely understandable. Then, for the next nap or sleep, you can see if they are happy enough to go down as usual.

▪︎ Babies who are unwell may need to go down for their nap or bedtime a little earlier, so try to shorten their usual wake window and allow them to have longer naps. This is important as their little bodies recover faster when they sleep.

▪︎ Remember to always make sure they are going down for their naps and bedtime comfortable and pain-free. Try to keep feeds as normal, but keep in mind that many babies will go off their solids and will only tolerate small but frequent feeds.

▪︎ Some fresh air and a little sunshine go a long way to help with their recovery.

▪︎ If they wake up in the night, you can give them a moment, then go in and see what type of support you need to offer and how they are doing.

Most importantly, please don't stress about habits. Support is number one. You can get sleep back on track once they have fully recovered.

If you need help getting sleep back on track, please reach out, and let's chat about how I can help.

Is your little one fighting their last nap and going to bed overtired from a very long wake window? Here are a few tips to try.

Which one works best for your baby's sleep? Solid before milk, or milk before solids??

Whilst your baby is 9 months old or less, it is advised to do milk first and then solids. After 9 months, if your baby is not tolerating solids well and prefers milk, you can then move to solids first then milk.

In terms of sleep, if your baby is tolerating solids well then try and keep the milk first and solids after. This is particularly great because it keeps milk away from nap times and prevents your baby from being drowsy during their feeds which breaks the feed to sleep association.

Having milk at bedtime can become a sleep association and will not encourage your little one to self settle.

If your little one is not tolerating solids too well, then keep the solids first but make
sure the milk feed is a given 30 minutes before their sleep to allow enough time between their milk feed and sleep time.

Finally, always make sure your little one is alert at all times during this milk feed to maintain their sleep pressure (appetite for sleep).

Babies fall sick often especially when they attend daycares, kids play areas or have an older siblings in school. Falling sick is pretty much unavoidable but on a positive note, it does help babies build up their immunity.

Here are my tips on sleep and illness:

Firstly we always want to make sure we continue to keep everything fairly normal, from their daytime schedule to their night routine and self settling technique. Observe if your baby needs a little more support or if they're happy to go down as usual. Try not to treat anything differently and give your baby the opportunity to self settle.

If they are upset, struggling and need your support, you can give a cuddle, reassure them, then place them back down in their crib. You can offer your hand for comfort, stroke their face, offer some pain relief and sips of water. You might have to give an extra feed overnight if your baby is having a fever because there might be a risk of the baby getting dehydrated.

Also, if your baby continues to cry and won't settle with your touch, you can help them to sleep. If they fall asleep on you unexpectedly just roll with it to let them sleep. Wait 10 minutes then transfer baby to their crib.

When babies are unwell they usually need a slightly shorter wake window and an increase in their nap duration. A well rested baby has a better chance at full and quick recovery so always try to prioritize sleep during illness even if it means them having some of their sleep as a contact nap.

It important to note that many babies will go off their solids and only tolerate small but frequent milk feeds.

Finally, try not to stress about habits, an extra feed or longer cuddles will go a long way in getting your little one back to health.

Allow up to 2 weeks after full recovery for sleep to go back to normal. If you find that you are still struggling, please reach out and we can work together to get your little one's sleep sorted 💕

Sleep pressure in babies refers to the natural buildup of the need for sleep over time. It is influenced by factors such as the length of time since their last nap or bedtime, as well as the baby's age and individual sleep needs. As sleep pressure increases, babies become more likely to fall asleep and stay asleep. Understanding and managing sleep pressure can help you create a conducive sleep environment and establish healthy sleep habits for your little ones. Here are a few tips on what you need to do to get your little one sleeping for longer ✨️

Split nights are so frustrating. A split night is when your baby wakes up for long hours in the middle of the night happy, full of energy and refuses to go back to sleep.

Generally, these split nights are caused by poor balance of sleep in the day. It might be either because they are having too much sleep in the day which tends to happen when they are due to drop a nap, or can also be caused by too little daytime sleep, where your baby might be having very short naps and long wake windows.

Adjust their wake windows and overall day sleep. Also, try to keep the environment low stimulation and try not to intervene in the
hope that they just get bored and tired and fall back asleep.

If you are having issues with split nights, I'll love to help. Please send me a DM and let's chat about how I can help.

 

The night weaning topic is a very common concern for many parents. There are no set timelines as to when your baby should wean off their night feeds as every baby is different.

Never feel pressured to drop a feed if this is something that you and your baby still enjoy doing. Only night wean when you are both ready to make that change.

Remember to check with your pediatrician first to ensure that it is ok to drop one or all-night feeds. They are best placed to make that decision as they have records of your baby’s growth charts.

If you are concerned about your milk supply dropping as a result of night weaning, then you may need to pump at night before you go to bed and again during the night to keep up your milk supply.

Did you find this post helpful? Comment below if you are considering night weaning. Which approach do you think will work best for your baby?

There are few common causes of False starts. Here are a few tips on how to troubleshoot these causes and get sleep back on track.

*** For more personalised guidance feel free to reach out ***





 

Sleep routines are one of the most important part of your child's sleep. Multiple studies have shown that having a consistent sleep routine improves your child's ability to fall asleep and improves their sleep duration.

There are many areas to look at (including providing an ideal sleep environment) when improving sleep and each one adds a layer to improving sleep quality.

When did you introduce sleep routines with your little one? And what does your sleep routine look like?