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Sat, 5 Feb 2000 11:40:43 -0800 |
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I'll only address one part of Jan's question - sleeping through the night.
Here's what I tell parents: This is one of the most overrated concepts in
parenting. It's fueled in part, from people who don't know squat about
babies who are trying to make intelligent conversation.
Think about it.
When you're pregnant people ask "When are you due?" and "Are you having a
boy or a girl?"
When you're so pregnant you're uncomfortable and feel like you're going to
burst they ask "When ARE you due?" "Are you STILL pregnant?"
When you have the baby they can ask "What date, time, how long, what
weight, what's the name?"
And then: The baby is anywhere from a week to a couple months old and
people have no idea what to ask [after all babies don't do much the first
few months -eat -sleep -poop] and since it's not polite to ask about poop
and all babies eat the same thing (don't they?) ask "Is baby sleeping
through the night?"
I tell parents: You'll get asked this question way too early and by people
who want to tell you that THEIR grandchild slept thru the night at xyz
days (and of course that means their baby is so much more ADVANCED).
Such baloney.
"sleeping through the night is officially 5 and a half hours at a
stretch - that's it." [since a lot of babies are sleeping 5 hours at a time
by the time the question is brought up at a visit the extra half hour
sounds like what it is - another half hour...] What matters is that you
feel fairly rested when you get up in the morning. If you're staying up
til 11 so you can wake the baby to feed so maybe she'll sleep 'til 5am,
you're missing the whole point. If you're tired by 9:30pm - go to bed.
The baby will wake to eat when she needs to.
AND feeding your baby cereal/formula etc., won't make baby sleep through
the night any sooner. Some kids do it early some at 12 pounds, some not
til kindergarten. If baby is taking 5 hour naps during the day, try to
shift those to night time,
but otherwise do what works best for you and your spouse, and avoid the
early "baby competition'' stuff. Enjoy your baby.
Gail Hertz, MD, IBCLC
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