Mari had her roughest night of sleep in awhile last night, though the last few days haven't been very good. Thinking about it, I realized she is now in her 26th week, which is one of the "wonder weeks" when babies make developmental leaps and tend to be fussier, including not sleeping as well. During this fussy period, which will probably last about a month, Mari will learn about the relationships of things with each other, including distance -- including realizing that I can quickly put distance between myself and her, an idea she won't like. For more on wonder weeks, see http://www.thewonderweeks.com/ or read the book by that name, by Hetty van de Rijt and Frans X. Plooij.
I read The Wonder Weeks some time ago, but I've just started reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child by Dr. Marc Weissbluth (http://www.amazon.ca/Healthy-Sleep-Habits-Happy-Child/dp/0449004023). While the No-Cry Sleep Solution has provided me with plenty of ideas to change Mari's poor sleep habits, Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child has really helped me understand how baby sleep works. It has also helped me understand that the tired signs I've been looking for -- rubbing eyes, fussing -- are actually overtired signs. I've really got to catch Mari when she's losing interest in her toys, looking away, slowing down, calming down, and put her down right away, before she starts rubbing her eyes and fussing.
Another thing I've learned from Healthy Sleep Habits, Healthy Child is that according to Weissbluth's definition, Mari had colic after all. Mari was certainly very fussy as a younger baby. But I didn't think of it as true colic because she didn't actually cry for hours every night. However, she did fuss for hours on end, and if she wasn't crying it was because I was trying very hard to soothe her. Weissbluth's definion of colic is:
- Parent has to spend more than three hours a day soothing the baby
- This happens at least three days a week
- Goes on for at least three weeks
To all the above, I can unequivocally say Mari applied. We spent probably four to seven hours a day, seven days a week, for most of the first three months, trying to calm her or keep her calm. According to Weissbluth, a baby who had colic will have to learn to sleep differently than did a baby who never had colic. I haven't gotten far enough in the book yet to find out what the differences are, though.
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Do you ever read Ask Moxie (www.askmoxie.org)? She answers a lot of parenting questions, most of them about sleep, and she's very into the Wonder Weeks theory -- before the book was reprinted, I learned about many of the milestones from her.
ReplyDeleteI do occasionally read Ask Moxie, but I actually read the book. It seemed to make sense to me. I really don't feel like I've been doing anything differently in the last few days, and yet Mari hasn't been sleeping as well. It's also week 26. Coincidence? I tend to think not.
ReplyDeleteWow - I should check this out. According to that definition Kira was definitely a colic baby.
ReplyDeleteAre you making these 3 mistakes when putting your baby to rest? [STOP!]
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