So in the weeks before a baby is born they have a sleep wake cycle & manage to go to sleep by themselves. However once they are born their parents have to get up in the night to soothe them. Now I realise that in the womb a baby has constant ‘food’ on tap & once they are born they get hungry & need feeding, but why do they need their parents to be awake with them even when all their physical needs are met?
In: 9
Currently 8 months pregnant, already mother of 2. They do not have a sleep/wake cycle. It doesn’t exist. Anytime I lie down to rest the kid starts to attempt punching it’s way out alien-style. Generally they are rather quiet when you move around a lot, both from the movement of the mother effectively restricting their own, and probably the movement itself calming them down. The second outside things are quiet they start their own fun.
Being held close to the caregivers body is a physical need of a newborn. So if you put them down somewhere because it’s not comfortable to sleep with a baby strapped to you, their physical needs are not being met. Some babies are calmer than others and have higher frustration tolerance levels. Some, well, don’t.
They need to learn that the world doesn’t end when they are not being held constantly, and that’s a process that in some babies takes more than just a few months.
Latest Answers