Explain West’s approach to bed time from birth months and how

1.Explain West’s approach to bed time from birth – 9 months and how
this changes (evening bed time).


2. Summarise West’s thoughts on tears and babies crying.

It’s easier for parents to tolerate the tears if they understand that they are a form of communication, and if they think about what their children are trying to tell them through their cries. When a baby or toddlers is crying, he is telling you that he wants or needs something. And that is all his brain can concentrate on at that moment. If you help him meet that need, his brain will focus on other things. Age, your child’s temperament, and the consistency of your parenting are the three main factors that influence the amount of crying. Two of those are, of course, not under your control. But since some crying is normal at every stage, it’s helpful to know ways to reduce the amount of crying.

3. Explain how many hours a night West believes a 4/5-month-old can
wait without feeding and what her two approaches are to night time
feeds at this age.

At 4 months, a baby should be able to sleep about eight hours at night without feeding. At 5 months, he should be able to go for ten or eleven hours. The more adept he is at putting himself to sleep, and back to sleep at night, the easier it is for him to give up nighttime feeding.


4. Discuss the changes in naps West believes you will see from birth – 8/9
months and why the naps change.

5. How does she explain getting a new-born to sleep?

She advices for the very beginning don’t worry about schedules and rules, just focus on healing and recovering from delivery, establishing milk supply and learning how to breastfeed getting to know your baby. Newborn sleep is not well-organized neurologically. Hold him, rock him, swing him, do what feels right and comfortable for the first ten or fourteen days. Developing a bedtime routine by about six weeks is essential.

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  Start with a warm bath
  
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  Do a few minutes of infant massage
  
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  Nurse him or give him a bottle feeding
  
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  Swaddle, snuggle or rock him
  
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  Lay him in his cot
  
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  As he gets older you can add some games and stories and other rituals of your own
  

6. Explain in stages how to carry out the sleep lady shuffle (gradual
withdrawal) with a 6-8-month-old.

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  After some activities (bath, stories, songs and so on) lay the baby to his cot
  
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  Sit next to his cot
  
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  No picking up the baby (if he extremely upset, pick him up, hold him until he’s calm and keep it brief)
  
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  Stay there until he falls asleep
  
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  Move the chair about halfway to the door
  
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  Continue the soothing sounds
  
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  Move the chair to the doorway
  
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  Go on the same soothing techniques
  
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  Move into the hall with the door open enough so that he can still see you
  
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  Go on “sh” sound
  
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  Give him the opportunity to fall asleep without your presence
  

7. How does West mention gently phasing out walking or rocking to
sleep?

This stage starts when parents find that nursing doesn’t get babies to sleep anymore. Parents need:

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  Focus on bedtime, when you are most awake and better equipped to follow through consistently
  
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  Do all the walking or rocking in her bedroom, not all over the house
  
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  Scale back the amount of time you walk
  
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  Put her down when she is drowsy but awake
  

8. Why would you move from GW to timed checks (controlled crying?)
9. List 4 things which West feels contribute to early wake ups?

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  Going to bed too late
  
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  Not napping enough
  
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  Staying up too long between the end of his afternoon nap and going to bed
  
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  Going to bed when he’s past that drowsy but awake mark. If he is too drowsy, he won’t know how to get himself back to sleep when he is more alert – including 5:00 a.m.
  

10. Explain the longest hour in regards to nap training? (we call this nap
extension techniques).

Parents need to follow the same basic rules as bedtime. If she stands up, put her down once, if she stands up again, ignore him, you are not obligated to feed him before every nap. If you have been rocking or swinging her to bed, concentrate on phasing out at naptime. Cut the rocking and swinging time in half at the beginning, and work on getting her down drowsy but awake. Even if you do everything right to set the stage for naptime, brace yourself. You may have to devote the next full hour (twice a day if you

11. Discuss how West makes the transition
to 1 nap a day, and the signs a baby is
ready for this.
12. Explain how to do GW when the child is
in a big bed.
13. Explain the different approaches to the
SLS in a 2.5-5-year-old which you might
try.
14. What are the top 3 tips you liked from
her book?
15. In your own words how would you
explain to a “no cry mum” that doing
this method their baby might still cry
but it’s different to CIO?