Dear Debbie,
I am expecting twins in May and I am very fortunate to have my husband stay home for 2 weeks and my mother coming to visit. Do I really need a doula to help me? Casey Hi Casey, First of all...congratulations! As a mother of twins myself, I can understand first hand how difficult it is to have 2 babies at the same time. It is great that you are going to have your husbands and mothers help when the babies come home. After all, this is what postpartum support is about. Making sure that mom and dad have someone supporting, helping and guiding them. With twins it makes it a bit more difficult because there are 2 babies. Sometimes, they can be completely off schedule from each other and sometimes you may have both babies cranky and upset at the same time so to have 2 pairs of hands at the beginning is crucial. You may also find that although the 3 of you are doing great in the day time, that overnights seem to be a challenge. This would be agreat way to let the doula help. While grandma and dad get some sleep, your night doula can help you nurse so that it cuts the time that you are awake in half or if you are offering a bottle, the doula will gladly feed and soothe babie swhile you get some rest yourself. The doula will also teach you all the tricks and tips you need to learn with twins such as handling both babies at the same time, nursing at the same time and even how to soothe them when they are both fussy. So to answer your question, it is very different for every family. The main concern is that you have the support. Some families feel that grandma and dad supporting may be enough where other families feel that they may quickly get exhausted and need the extra support. The goal of the doula is to work herself out of a job so she wants to come in on a short term basis, get your family established with a great routine and teach you tools that will help you care for your babies with more confidence. I hope this helped. Debbie
0 Comments
Hi Tracy,
At some point you will notice some changes in your babys sleep patterns. A few things may happen: They may stuggle to fall asleep at nap or bed time, they make wake up early from their nap or morning time or they just may sleep more restlessly. The transition from 3 naps to 2 naps usually happens somewhere between 8 and 12 months. The transition from 2 naps to 1 naps may happen between 12-18 months. If you start to notice that your baby consistantly struggles with falling asleep or making it through their nap or bedtime and they are within this age range, they probably need to be on the next schedule. This is not something that will just happen once. It is something that will happen every day or most days for a week. If you feel that your baby does definatley need to reduce the amount of naps, the best way to do this is to start by reducing the length of the nap you are eliminating. Reduce it by half an hour each day so that it is completely gone by the 3rd or 4th day. Good luck! Debbie Hi Debbie, I have a question: - How do you decide that your baby is ready to make a change from 3 naps to 2 naps or 2 naps to 1 nap? I know that skipping one of the naps once doesn’t seem like enough . . . Do most babies start to do this more and more often leading up to the time that they are ready? - Once you have decided that they are ready, do you just move straight to the new schedule or is there some type on transition schedule to ease them into it? Thanks for your time, Tracy Hi LIsa,
Its always best to try and stay as close to the routine as possible. However, sometimes that is not possible. If you know that baby won't have a proper opportunity to nap, you can always let him sleep a bit longer the previous sleep. For example, if you know he may miss his afternoon nap, offer his morning nap a bit later and let him sleep a bit longer. If regardless of what you have tried, he still missed some of his sleep for the day, offer him a small catnap or put him to bed a tiny bit earlier and as soon as you can get him back on track with his routine and schedule. Debbie Hi Debbie, The nap and bedtime scheduling with our baby is going great. My main issue is that sometimes we'll have a bunch of social outings to go to at once, which really disrupt our baby's routine. Last week, for example, we had 3 family functions to attend all close together. Most weeks are "normal" and Luca's routine stays very consistent with no interruptions. But how should we deal when these types of interruptions happen, as they inevitably will? (Especially when they happen all at once!!) Our baby usually needs a good solid week to return to napping like normal, after these types of things happen, and I'm wondering if there is any way to lessen the pain! On the days that we do have events, we try to travel during his afternoon nap, but this doesn't help things as he never sleeps in the car during that time. He stays awake, and then by the time we reach our destination, he's still awake, and then we're at the event and he's getting stimulated by family members and new environment, and despite our best efforts, he doesn't sleep until we are in the car on the way home. This makes for one over-stimulated, exhausted, cranky baby. Would it make sense to let his morning nap go longer on those days? I always stick to the schedule as much as I can, but would it be ok to stray a bit more to make sure that he does get enough sleep? What's better to do- try to not mess too much with the schedule, even though that means way less sleep, OR alter the schedule even more on those days in order to get as much sleep as possible, when we have the opportunity! Let me know what would be the best thing to do! Thanks! Lisa Hi Debbie, Hope all is well. Emanuel is teething and im assuming thats reason he is waking up again at nights. What do i do in this situation? do i still let him cry knowing that he might be in pain? Please advise
Thank you Angelique~ HI Angelique If baby is teething, you can offer some paid relief at night. You can choose traditional medication such as tylenol and advil or you can use more homepathic meds like Camilla from Boiron. During the day, let him chew on lots of teething toys. A great solution is a wet facecloth, tossed in the freezer. Let him chew on this and this will help grind down the gums faster and relieve some paid. In terms of sleep training, its best to still push through as teething can happen until he is 2 years old and longer. Hi Emmie,
Yes, any change in diet could change your baby's output consistancy and frequency. Some babys react by pooping more often and some react by pooping less often. Either way, as long as your baby is pooping that is great. If your baby hasn't pooped for over 5 days or your babys poop becomes very hard (sometimes balls stuck together), it is important you see your doctor. If your baby shows any distress or pain when they are passing a bowl movement also see your doctor. If your baby has had very liquidy poops, also see your doctor. These are signs of dehydration or bacteria and often need to be treated. However, if your babys poops are slightly firmer or looser, their is usually no cause for worry. Adding a little extra water in your babys diet will help. This is a great opportunity to offer water in a sippy cup with the solid meals to help wash down food and teach your baby drinking from a cup. In any case, follow your instincts. If you feel there is a problem or a concern, play it safe...visit your doctor. Hi Debbie, We started solids about 1.5 months ago and all is going well. Recently, possibly aligning with the introduction of meat, my babies poo has changed. Firmer (ie formed but still mushy like play-do), but only a little bit at a time, every few hours! This is making for many more poopy diaper changes. We do give a little water. Is this normal? Thanks, Emmie Hello Momma C,
As you know, babies sleep habits can change quite drastically over the first few months. However, they should be progressing into the right direction as time goes by. It is very hard to determine "normal" sleep habits for a 6 week old because their are so many variables such as bottle vs breast, quantity of feeds, etc. However, the sleep and feed habits we try to aim for are eating every 2.5-3 hrs and sleeping right after for approximately 2 hrs. Then baby should be awake for about 1 hr which will include her feed time. Some babies can handle a longer wake period and some can not so you will have to see how hard it is for your baby to stay awake that hour and adjust accordingly. Feeds should usually take place at 7am, 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm and 10pm with 1 feed overnight. As she gets older, that 1 feed overnight should push later and later into the morning until is disappears. When she wakes in her nap time its important to understand that she is not waking because she is done sleeping. She is most likely waking out of a sleep cycle. You can shush, pat and jiggle her back to sleep. This will help her learn how to self soothe rather then her just being rocked or fed back to sleep. It may take some time at the beginning but she will learn how to self soothe quite quickly. During our consultations, we take into consideration her feeds, sleep and wake intervals, breastfeeding issues, scheduling, self soothing tricks, room atmosphere and so much more. It is a very customized approach. However, the biggest tips I can offer without a consultation is the use of swaddling and a white noise machine for every nap and overnight. Use these throughout the entire nap and overnight. This will help greatly. Hope this helps for now. Hi Debbie, I was referred to you by a friend who has used your services and was pleased with the results. My daughter is 5 1/2 weeks old and does not seem to want to sleep much during the day. This started about a week or so ago. She used to sleep most of the day when we brought her home - pretty standard for newborns and now she will usually fall asleep after feeding (which is every 2.5 to 3 hrs) but rarely stays sleeping for very long. She stirs after 10 or 20 minutes and I'll have to soothe her back to sleep a number of times (pat her, rock her, give her a pacifier, etc.). This basically means she never really has a solid nap all day. On the 'plus' side, when it comes to night time, she tends to be so tired after cat-napping all day that she will usually sleep for 4-5 hours. Nice for mommy as I can get a few hours rest but I was hoping you could shed some light of what would be the norm for a month old daytime sleeping. I know around 6 weeks, babies can go through a growth spurt which would change their feeding/sleeping pattern. Not sure if this might be the reason for this change. Any advice would be helpful. The Woombie Swaddler is the most innovative swaddler on the market. It is the no brainer swaddler that works every time for every baby. I love the concept and I have found that even the most clever little houdini is not able to unswaddle himself. Swaddling is known to help babies soothe better and not wake up as often. Swaddling is the most effective from newborn to age 4 months and usually should be stopped once baby shows signs of rolling over as it does pose a safety risk. Some parents think their babies don't like to be swaddled when in fact all babies not only like swaddling but it is actually what they have been used to for 9 months. Often just swaddling your baby in a great swaddler will help promote better sleep habits.
For more information on the woombie check out www.thewoombie.com. SIDS is one of the biggest fears that every new parent has. Because of the uncertainty that surrounds SIDS parents feel helpless as to what its about, what they should do and what they shouldn't do. Almost every action that a parent does that revolves around baby's sleep is driven by the fears of SIDS.
I have discovered an amazing FREE online course on the American Academy of Pediatrics by Pedialink. This is a fantastic course for childcare providers, parents, doulas and any one that is responsible for the care of a newborn baby. Its a great course as it also includes several videos and test questions. You can even print a certificate for yourself at the end. It truly is an eye opener and will help you understand more about SIDS, the causes and how you can help decrease the chances of SIDS. http://www.healthychildcare.org/sids.html Have you heard that Precious Moments Babeez is one of the major sponsors linked with the Babeebloomz Bump 2 Toddler Show. Uniting families with professionals, resources and vendors within their own community. This show will be spectacular and will prove to be the leader in the baby and family themed showcase industry. Have alook at what they are planning so far. Tickets will be on sale in February however if you want to reserve a booth for your company now is the time.
Check it out www.bump2toddlershow.com Did you know that a baby's sleep cycle is approximately 45-60 minutes long. Why is this important to understand? When you bring your little bundle home and they seem to stir around the 45 minute mark of their sleep, they may be simply coming out of their sleep cycle. If you spend a few minutes observing and intervene and help when your baby seems to need you by shushing and gently rocking him, you may be able to help him get back into the next sleep cycle and get another 45 minutes of sleep. Try and see if it works. You may be pleasantly surprised!
|
This is a great place to ask your questions. Anything from prenatal to preschool. From feeding to sleeping...ask away!
|