Yesterday I practically shouted from the rooftops about how my husband settled my 15-month-old back to sleep in the night. After three nurslings and seven-and-a-half years of mothering, this toddler sleep thing remains much of a mystery to me. All I know for sure is that I am not willing to let my child cry-it-out.
So what bits of sleep advice can be gleaned from my experience? I have come to these five conclusions:
1. Do what works for you. If co-sleeping and nursing your baby back to sleep help you both get a better night’s rest, then do it!
2. If something …read more

Okay, fine, it’s not exactly media-worthy, but it is Big News in our house. News worthy of Capital Letters. You see, my husband has been able to settle my 15-month-old back to sleep THREE TIMES over the last several nights!
My husband is a great father and very good with the kids, so it should not be quite so newsworthy, except my other daughters refused to be settled back to sleep by anyone other than me (and my mum-mums) until they were over two-and-a-half years old! So the fact that my husband was able to settle our third daughter at the …read more

Now I have no idea whether there is such an “official” thing as a “13-month sleep regression” — a general tendency for babies to wake more frequently at night when they turn about 13 months old, but I am too tired to look into it. My toddler just turned 14 months old and the last month has been a challenge in the (lack of) sleep department. I noticed other mothers mentioning that their toddlers were night-waking more often too, and I am not surprised. There must be a few different factors playing into it.In my case I think …read more

Today was a big day for my little 11.5-month-old nursling. She couldn’t be torn away from the excitement of the day for a silly thing like napping, so her usual three naps were reduced to two. That meant by dinner time she was nearly ready for bed. We celebrated the 4th of July holiday with a backyard barbecue of shrimp and salmon, fresh pineapple slices, and grilled vegetables. As a special treat for dessert we made an improvised strawberry smoothie from pureed and whole frozen strawberries from our u-pick adventure earlier in the year, along with more pineapple and some …read more

Your child has been sound asleep for an hour or so but suddenly starts screaming and crying. You try everything you can think of to soothe him, going down your list: needs to nurse, hot, cold, feverish, wet, in pain. Nothing you do seems to help, and what’s worse, your child does not even seem to know you are there, trying to help.
hat’s what happened to me last night when my 11-month-old had her first ever night terror. Night terrors are episodes of intense crying and fear in children who are sleeping and are difficult to arouse. I will leave …read more

The last several nights have been doozies thanks to a combination of teething, growth spurt, and a cold. My 9-month-old has woken multiple times in the night, and sometimes required settling twice before I have even gotten back to sleep once! So, I thought it would help me keep my sanity perspective to take a moment to celebrate one teeny tiny sleep milestone.
ou see, my firstborn did not fall asleep without nursing until she was over two years old. My second mastered that glorious skill a little sooner. My third, ever-proving that each child is different, often refused to …read more

Everyone warns new mothers about the sleep deprivation, yet it still comes as a shocker because you simply can’t fathom what it means to get up every couple of hours with a newborn night after night. Luckily, breastfeeding provides a secret weapon for sleepy mothers: the hormone cholecystokinin (CCK).
When the baby suckles, the mother releases CCK. The hormone infusion relaxes her and readies her to drift off to sleep again. If mother and baby are co-sleeping, the mother might even drift off before the baby finishes the feed! What a peaceful experience compared to getting up to prepare a bottle, …read more

Breastfeeding your baby is one key way to reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), also called crib death or cot death. In fact, a 2008 meta-analysis of 27 studies showed that babies who were breastfed, even partially breastfed, were one-third less likely to die of SIDS than babies who were never breastfed.
Back to Sleep
Over 13 years ago the American Academy of Pediatrics issued its first policy statement on reducing the risk of SIDS and recommended that all healthy babies be placed to sleep on their backs. Soon thereafter the “Back to Sleep Campaign” began. In the time …read more

For this latest installment in the Mom-to-Mom question and answer series, I hope you will leave a comment to help a mom struggling with something familiar to many us — getting a good night’s sleep! Even if you don’t have some suggestions, I imagine you have some experience and empathy! Read on for my summary of top tips and past articles on the subject.

My third baby slept well as a newborn, better than my other two. She “slept through the night” within weeks, if you count sleeping the requisite five hours in a row as “sleeping through the night” when it takes place from 8:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m.! I did not wake her to nurse as I knew she was getting enough milk by her wet and dirty diaper output, and her appropriate weight gain. I was not about to ruin a good thing!
Once the school year started in September though, my first grader and preschooler began bringing home every illness to …read more