I don’t just mean her legs were sticking through a little, I mean all the way to her thighs. At first I was kind of freaked out about it, but when I checked on her, I realized that she was fine and had not hurt herself.

When I mentioned it to my wife, she said “Oh yeah! I forgot to tell you, she did that yesterday too”. Now, I know the baby didn’t hurt herself since the slats were far enough apart, not to cut off her circulation or anything like that, but I was still worried that she would eventually hurt herself.

It then suddenly occurred to me why people put bumpers in cribs. We didn’t have any bumpers since the doctor and the Infant CPR class we took said they are dangerous due to suffocation possibilities. So now I was stumped. I needed bumpers, but am hyper protective of little Alexandria and I wasn’t going to take any chances.

I hit the web and started searching. I ultimately found theBreathableBaby Crib Bumper . It is a mesh fabric that is quite soft and gentle on the baby. Since it’s mesh, even if the baby presses her face against it, she’ll still be able to breathe through it, thereby eliminating the risk of suffocation that traditional puffy crib bumpers have. I ordered it and paid about $30.

We installed it. We ordered the pink color which is a soft pleasant color that goes with her other pink accessories in her room. They also have blue, white, and green colors.

Installation was easy. It has velcro on the sides, so you just wrap the end around the crib slats and secure with the velcro.

It looks nice, prevents baby Alex from sticking her arms or legs through the crib slats, and most importantly is safe for her.

Amazon:
BreathableBaby Crib Bumper for Slatted Cribs – Pink

Have any experiences like mine? Please leave a comment below and tell us about it!

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Wifey looks at me and says “what time did you get up with Alex?” I replied, “I didn’t”. We both went in to check on her and there she was, just starting to stir and looking content.

I don’t know what, if anything, suddenly changed, but our current routine (and one we plan to keep) is to put her to bed around 8pm. Our little ritual is to change her diaper, put her in a night gown, and then feed her. We start around 7:15pm or 7:30pm and finish by about 8pm.

Once feeding is over, we bring her to her crib, sing twinkle twinkle little star to her and kiss her good night. We then tuck her under her blanket (which is tightly tucked into the sides of the mattress to avoid going over her face) and turn on her mobile. If she wants it, we give her a pacifier. She usually falls asleep within a few minutes.

We go to bed around 11pm, so we’ll wake up the baby about a half hour before then, change her and “top her off” with a bottle, then put her back to bed. She is usually pretty groggy when we wake her up so she goes back to sleep pretty easily afterward.

For the past couple of weeks, she’s been sleeping later and later, not waking us up until four or five in the morning. Now she seems to have found a rythym and is able to sleep through the night.

I am a firm believer that one of the contributing factors to her sleeping so well is that we have always had her sleeping in her crib since the day we brought her home. There have been times I would peek in on her and see that she had woken up, but was happily looking at her mobile and eventually falls back asleep.

The truth is that she probably doesn’t sleep through the night, but instead wakes up and looks around for a while and is then able to go back to sleep on her own since she is comfortable in her crib and we always put her in her crib while she is still awake. Several books I’ve read say you should avoid waiting until the baby is totally asleep before putting her in her crib as this will confuse the baby when she wakes up in the middle of the night as she expects to still be in your arms.

Whatever the magical formula is, I am glad that baby Alex has found her comfort zone and is now able to sleep through the night.

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Children are generally considered to be at highest risk of dying of SIDs between birth and one year of age. Cases of SIDs have been reported in children as old as two years, but this seems to be rare.

I decided I wasn’t willing to take the risk. A friend of ours had a  baby a few months before us. They had looked into the topic of SIDs and found several products that looked promising.

The product I and our friends both settled on is an infant motion monitor. It works by sensing the baby’s smallest movements from breathing and all other body movements. As long as the baby is breathing, it will flash a green light. If it doesn’t detect movement for 20 seconds or if movement slows to less than 10 movements per minute, a loud alarm sounds.

We bought the HiSense BabySense V Infant Movement Monitor from Amazon for about $120. It comes with two fairly large sensor pads. You place the pads under the baby’s mattress in the crib. It will detect the movement through the mattress. Installation is extremely simple. Install the batteries, then connect the sensors. The sensors have what look like telephone connectors at the end of the wires and you just click them into the sensor controller. The controller itself just hangs on the side of the crib with a clip.

Although the instructions tell you to install only one pad when the baby is a newborn and doesn’t move much, I suggest you just install both sensor pads from the start. The first night home, I had several false alarms with only one pad installed as I had put a snugglerest baby positioner on top of the mattress which apparently dulled a lot of the movement (note: the doctor told me to ditch the snugglerest). With both sensor pads installed, it worked fine.

You will find yourself wondering if it really works since the baby barely makes any movement at all while sleeping other than breathing. I decided to test it. I put a baby doll in the crib with a bottle of water to simulate weight. The monitor worked as advertised. In 20 seconds a piercing alarm went off as it detected no movement. You will also discover that it works when you pick up the baby and leave the room forgetting to turn it off. I get about half way to the living room when it goes off and I have to turn back around. You get used to turning it off automatically after the first day.

My wife swears by the thing now. She tells me pretty much daily that she wouldn’t be able to sleep if it wasn’t for the movement monitor. Now that we have it installed, if she wakes up worried about the baby, she just looks over to the control unit and looks for the green light. Since it only blinks when it detects movement, she goes back to sleep comforted, knowing that baby Alex is fine.

A friend of hers from work told us about how she never had a SIDs movement monitor and would actually resort to putting a mirror under her sleeping baby’s nose to see if it would fog up from the baby’s breathing. LOL

I strongly encourage you to take an Infant CPR class. It only takes a few hours and you will learn valuable techniques. Keep in mind this monitor just tells you that there is a problem. If your child stops breathing, you need to know how to react. Even if you call 911, you don’t want your baby laying there not breathing for the 10 minutes it may take the ambulance to get there.

Since no one really knows what causes SIDs, no one can sell a product to prevent it. There are some clues out there regarding prevention. Studies have been done examining the events surrounding the death of SIDs babies. Several schools of thought exist on the topic and all seem plausible and have easy steps to take to minimize the risk. Some of them include:

- Never put your baby to sleep on its stomach. Babies may move their heads face down into the sheets and suffocate.

- Keep the crib free of everything except a tight fitting sheet and the baby. If you must put a blanket in for warmth, you should tuck the blanket in between the mattress and the crib sides so that it is tight on the baby from the middle of her body down. Big fluffy blankets can get in the baby’s face and suffocate it. All stuffed animals and other items including crib bumpers must be removed. Crib bumpers are actually not needed. When your child is an infant, it doesn’t move enough to need protection from hitting the crib sides. When the baby gets older, bumpers can be dangerous because the child can try to climb on them and fall out of the crib.

- Use a fan or air filter in the room – even in winter. Some theories speculate that babies may build up too much Co2 near their face from breathing in certain positions. A fan or air filter in the room circulates the air and can help prevent the buildup of Co2 near the baby. I bought the Honeywell Pure HEPA Air Purifier. I like this unit in particular because the filter can be cleaned just by vacuuming it out instead of buying a new one, so you save money.

- Don’t smoke around the baby. I am a smoker, but have made it a point to only smoke outside now that the baby is here. Babies in a smoker’s home have a higher chance of SIDs than those that don’t.

- Keep baby cool. Overheating is thought to be a contributor of SIDs as well. My pediatrician suggested keeping the baby’s room between 69 and 72 degrees. When dressing the baby, a rule of thumb is, dress her the same as yourself plus one layer. So if you sleep in your underwear, put the baby in a t shirt plus a onesie or footsie.

- Make sure that anyone that cares for your baby, such as a grandparent or babysitter is aware of these points and follows them.

UPDATE:

Alex is now two months old and I am a total believer. It really allows you to relax while the baby is sleeping. I sometimes get worried about Alex and will just peak in at her. She can be a deep sleeper so it’s not always obvious that she’s breathing. The little flashing green light tells me that all is well.

We did have false alarms about twice a week during the first few weeks, but now that the baby has gotten heavier, we haven’t had one in the last several weeks.

Do you have any tips or experiences with SIDs prevention? Please leave a comment below!

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I’ve been looking into the topic myself as I refuse to believe that there isn’t a way to get an infant into a routine.

Most of my research has shown that there is a system.

First off, don’t bother trying to get your infant into a routine any earlier than two to three months old. They’re just too young and don’t have any clue what is goining on. They are not self aware enough to get into a system until close to three months.

We got a preview of what was to come as my wife’s sister had a baby girl 9 months before Alexandria’s due date. Things didn’t go well for my sister-in-law and her husband. Her parents came in from out of town to help with the new baby. The problem was that they came for 6 months.

Upon their arrival, her parents decided their sole reason for being there was to keep the baby happy at all costs and that the baby should never cry. They did and outstanding job if that was their goal. The moment the baby w0uld utter a peep, they would go running to her side. They would be on top of her and talking or singing or playing with her every waking moment of the day until the baby would go to sleep for the night. They would hold and rock the baby to sleep.

This went on for 6 months straight. By the time the grandparents left and went home, they had completely convinced the baby that no one in this world is ever alone and that the minute you wake up someone is there until you fall asleep again.

The problem here is that the child now cannot be left alone without freaking out. You also cannot get her to fall asleep unless you are right next to her or preferably, holding her. She wakes up terrified if no one is there.

One reason babies can’t fall asleep alone or go back to sleep when they wake up in the night is that her parents are trying to be sneaky. When you let the baby fall asleep in your arms then bring her to the crib and gently put her down while trying not to wake her, you are confusing her. All she knows is that she fell asleep in mommy or daddy’s arms. She expects to wake up in the same place. When she wakes up in another room in her crib and no one is there, she is confused and unhappy. Since she can’t get up and go back to where she wants to be, she cries for you to come and do that for her.

My niece’s parents are now miserable. Wifey and I showed them a book we bought that had a section on training a baby to sleep well by itself. It says you should have a nightly ritual that you do with the baby.

At around the same time every night, you perform this ritual. For example, give her a bath followed by her last bottle. Now read her a story or sing her her nightime song. Rub her back or help her relax for a bit then give her a kiss and leave the room.

If she starts crying, let her cry for 5 minutes then go back in. You can comfort her by telling her everything is ok and place your hand on her chest. You cannot pick her up or engage her. You should not stay in the room for more than 5 minutes even if she keeps crying. If after you leave the room she continues crying, you should now wait 10 minutes before going back in and repeating the steps above. The third time and each time thereafter, you should wait 15 minutes before going in.

Watch the clock if you need to, but do not go in any sooner. The baby will eventuall tire herself out and fall asleep on her own. If she wakes up in the middle of the night and is dry and fed, repeat the steps above.

It is important that you don’t wait until the baby is already asleep before putting her in her crib. She needs to know she is there and fall asleep there. This way, when she wakes up there at 3am, she’ll know where she is.

Now, it will take some patience and tough love to do this. Despite being given this information, my sister-in-law and her husband are still battling with their daughter to get her into normal sleep habits. The primary reason is that they can’t stand hearing her cry for so long. They feel bad and feel like they are being mean. The truth is that by letting her cry, they’re also letting her tire herself out and teaching her how to settle herself and learn to fall asleep on her own, which will help with the middle of the night wake up calls.

Another reason they are having trouble with this system is because again, they feel bad because the few nights they’ve tried this, the following day, their daughter gets upset every time they leave the room and is more afraid of being left alone.

Again, I think this is to be expected considering that they child has always had someone on top of her at all times her entire life. By strictly sticking to the plan above, they will teach their daughter how to be comfortable falling asleep alone and as a result, make her more comfortable with being alone for short periods while she’s awake.

She just needs to be ok with the idea that she is ok alone and hasn’t been abandoned. You will not teach her any of this by giving in because she’s crying and reinforcing her bad behavior.

Have you successfully trained your child to sleep through the night? Are you dealing with this situation now yourself? Please leave a comment below and let us know how it went!

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Since my wife’s sister had a baby 8 months before Alex was born, we had an idea of what to expect. My sister in law and her husband, started out by keeping the baby in their bedroom. Every time the baby would wake up and cry, both of them would get woken up and both would be up until the baby went back to sleep, even though only one of them was actually changing or feeding her.

While this is very noble and full of camaraderie, I am completely against it. The two of them both looked like zombies for months.

Wifey and I talked about it and decided the best approach for us to try is for us to split up. Since my company allowed me to take a couple of months off after the baby was born to help my wife, we were able to get more creative than we would have been had I needed to go back to work right away.

Since we had converted our guest room into the baby’s room, we already had a bed in there. Instead of both of us getting up all night, we’d split the duties. One of us would sleep in the room with the baby and take night duty.

In the morning, the one that slept through the night would take over and let the other one sleep late to catch up on sleep. This way, at least one of us is always fairly fresh and functional.

The first night mommy and baby were home from the hospital, I decided to try being the overnight caretaker so wifey could get a full night’s sleep. It didn’t go well. First off, I was paranoid so kept waking up to check on the baby. Then, I had apparently done a crap job hooking up the anti SIDS (movement monitor) and as a result, I got woken up no less than three times by false alarms which scared me senseless. I finally got up and corrected my mistake of only connecting one of the movement pads, which solved that issue. Then came the issue of feeding the baby. Since we were trying to breastfeed only, I had to bring the baby to wifey. Since this was waking her up anyway, both of us wound up suffering.

By the morning, I was totally destroyed and so was my wife.

We decided to regroup and come up with a new plan. Wifey said that since she hadn’t been sleeping well at the end of the pregnancy and had also been getting broken sleep in the hospital, she could deal better with it than I could. Our new plan was formed. Wifey would be dedicated to the night shift and I would take the day shift as well as keep up with house work since I’d be better rested.

The second night, wifey went to bed in the baby’s room early around 9pm and I stayed up with the baby. We were feeding the baby every three hours and her next feeding would be at midnight. I decided I would stay up with her until about 1am so that wifey could get at least 4 hours of continuous sleep.

The plan actually worked beautifully. I put the baby to sleep in her room without waking my wife at around 1am. The baby got up for her feeding at 3am and went back to sleep until 6am. I got up at 7am and took over and let wifey sleep until 10am. The bottom line is that I felt great because I got 7 hours of undisturbed sleep and wifey felt pretty good since she got to sleep for a few extra hours despite it being broken sleep.

We have stuck with this plan since then and it has continued to work. Since the last time the baby gets up with my wife is at 6am, as long as I get her before her 9am feeding, wifey doesn’t get woken up and gets her rest and so do I.

I’m writing this post on the couch with baby Alexandria in her bassinet sleeping. I’m going to wake her up in about a half hour to change and feed her, which will give her a little time to settle back down before I put her to bed with mommy. I do get sleepy towards the end of my night, but it’s not terrible and is a heck of a lot better than being woken up every couple of hours all night and then being z0nked the next day.

UPDATE:

We have officially abandoned the two shift sleeping arrangement. After about a month of wifey doing the night shift, she was pretty much ready to crack mentally. Although she had felt fine about it at first, the constant broken sleep eventually got to her.

We now split the night. We go to bed between 10pm and 11pm. The baby will usually sleep until 2am or 3am. I take that feeding and go back to bed. When the baby wakes up next around 6am or 7am, she takes that feeding. While it does make my night a bit rough, the difference was immediate and dramatic for my wife. She woke up the next day feeling like a brand new person and her attitude came right along with it.

At the end of the day, you have to do whatever works for you, but my advice for the guys that have their wives doing all of the overnight work, give her a break and either take a whole night from time to time or offer to split the work. It’ll help your wife’s whole state of mind and is the right thing to do.

Do you have any tips or tricks on getting your newborn to sleep better? Please leave a comment below!

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