Just when it becomes impossible to get enough, we discover that sleep cures everything.

Post from: Babylune

The research, published in the journal Sleep, offers a number of simple tips to help new mothers get more rest.
Learn to recognize when your baby is tired. Rubbing the eyes and ears is common even in the youngest infants.

Learn relaxation and deep breathing exercises to you fall back to sleep quickly after feedings

Going to bed with the baby and the morning nap when the infant does.

Keep daytime play bright, bouncy and active. Evening play should be calm and quiet. Many fathers love to come home and play actively with their babies after a day away, but jumping and tickling are better activities for early morning before work. Evening play should consist of bath time, stories and lullabies.

Swaddle your baby or use a sleep sack so that babies feel safe and secure even when they aren’t being cuddled.

Post from: Babylune

About a week ago, the baby and I had a few rough night while she cut her first tooth. The same day I wrote my blog entry on the topic, Weary Parent posted these tips for getting a good night’s sleep. It was, I thought, a psychic friends moment. SP knew what I was going to post and what I needed to hear from the blogphere.

I have since found that the sleep obsession goes channel-deep here at B5. The Play Library has been calming themselves after all that TMX Elmo fuss of a few weeks ago and nodding off with lullabies. The Weary Parent has cuddled up with some reading about what your sleep position says about your personality. Inside Motherhood posted about some things people do in bed besides sleep! Widow’s Quest has lit up a virtual nightlight for those who need comfort during life’s worst moments.

Post from: Babylune

These days, the phrase, “if I don’t sleep, I’ll die,” describes my current state (knock wood). I hate that younger version of myself. The one who thought she had everything under control. The one who thought sleeplessness, somehow, enhanced her creativity. The one who had no children and thought sleep was recreational.

Post from: Babylune

True, I can no longer tell you what “enough” sleep is. I guess I need 9 or 10 hours and I probably get 6 or 7 every night. The baby waking isn’t so much as issue now. It’s more my own thoughts about tasks left undone that keep me awake.

You may also have guessed that, since having the baby, I am obsessed with my weight.

True, but this is purely because I know I’ve gained, my back actually hurts from the extra load on my belly, and I am not doing what I know I need to do about it. Like, watching what I eat and exercising vigorously four times a week.

A few days ago, I put a ridiculous question to my friends:

If you could go to sleep and wake up weighing exactly what you think you want to weigh, would life be perfect?

And, if the catch was that going to sleep and waking up thin actually meant being in a coma for a year, would you still do it?

Even if no one dyed your hair while you were under and everyone who came to visit would see your roots?

Only one friend, whose child is grown, said that she would do it. The rest of us didn’t want to miss a year of our children’s lives. One wise single friend, however, said that she would not do it because you’d start gaining it back the moment you woke up. It would be a temporary loss, like the stomach-flu diet.

In my defense, I read far too many books by Marian Keyes

And yet, it turns out that sleeping IS good for your weight. According to a study reported in The Scotsman, women who get less than 5 hours sleep a night are more likely to become overweight or obese.

• Professor Sanjay Patel, of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, who was the lead author of a report presented to the American Thoracic Society International Conference yesterday, said: “There have been a number of studies that have shown that at one point in time, people who sleep less weigh more, but this is one of the first to show reduced sleep increases the risk of gaining weight over time.”
• Prof Patel said the researchers had not established a causal link between getting less sleep and putting on weight. “We don’t have an answer from this study about why reduced sleep causes weight gain, but there are some possibilities that deserve further study,” he said. “Sleeping less may effect changes in a person’s basal metabolic rate – the number of calories you burn when you rest.

All the more reason to follow the good old rule of “sleep when the baby sleeps.”

Post from: Babylune