Realistic Attitudes about Nighttime Parenting

One of the biggest adjustments that any new parent has to make is this whole thing where they’re required to get up in the middle of the night, sometimes several times a night, with their baby. One of the greatest wishes that parents have during those first few weeks of their baby’s life is, beyond their baby’s health and safety, that she will sleep through the night.

Unfortunately, sleeping is a lot like eating in that you can’t force your baby to do either one. The best thing that you can do for him is to create an environment that’s both comfortable and secure. You can use techniques to get your baby to sleep, such as playing a baby sounds CD, rocking your baby or singing him to sleep, but ultimately it’s up to him whether or not he’s going to do it.

And that’s the way you need to approach nighttime parenting: it’s just something that has to be done. You need to accept it for what it is, and accept the fact that your baby will be up at night. In some cases, your baby will be up at night a lot and for many weeks or even months.

Along the way, you should have a realistic goal in mind when it comes to nighttime parenting. Your goal should be to help your baby develop a healthy attitude about sleep. You want your baby to believe that sleep is a secure and pleasant state, and it’s one they want to remain in.

Helping your baby develop this realistic sleeping attitude is important. In many cases, children and even adults that have sleep problems may have developed those problems as a baby. They have an unhealthy attitude when it comes to sleep. Sleep wasn’t pleasant.

In the same way that you are a parent during the daytime, you’re still a parent at night. This isn’t a 9 to 5 job. At night, you need to invest in your child’s future by teaching her how to have a restful attitude and pleasant approach to sleep. In the long run, this attitude will help both your baby and you sleep better as time goes on.