[blparent] falling asleep?

Tue Feb 2 21:51:43 UTC 2010

Dena, I think your points are well taken and great; however, it sounds to 
me, and I don't know this for sure, like Leslie has had a problem with this 
sort of thing long before she had Michael. I don't know if it's a blind 
thing, but it's happened to me, kids or no, and I know it's definitely 
happened with my significant other who was sighted until about 14 years ago. 
He can knock off at the drop of a hat and attributes it to getting up early 
(4 AM routinely) and having worked early mornings for many years requiring 
that he get up at 2:30 AM, but he hasn't done that in many years. I have 
been better with this in recent years but will admit that I have had this 
sort of problem even at work; it was just something I could not control and 
needless to say, it was embarrassing.
Sharon
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dena Wainwright" <dena at envogueaccess.com>
To: "NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2010 2:42 PM
Subject: Re: [blparent] falling asleep?


> OK...First, falling asleep while holding your baby isn't necessarily a bad 
> thing if you prepare for that possibility. Yes, you absolutely must be 
> more careful initially, both because he is extra tiny, and because he 
> lacks head control. Yes, you could smother him - if you fell asleep with 
> blankets over you both, tons of fluffy pillows all around you, with his 
> face smushed into your body or clothing so he couldn't breathe, etc., but 
> falling asleep with your baby in your arms does not automatically equate 
> to a suffocation hazard.
>
> For the first several months of Elise's life, the only way she would sleep 
> is literally on my body. Maybe there are those who would disagree with 
> this strategy, but if you've never had a child who absolutely would not 
> sleep without physical contact (I mean for more than 10 minutes at a 
> time...ever) then I'm not really interested in hearing how horrible you 
> think it is. I thought (before I had this kind of baby) that cosleeping 
> was stupid. I couldn't understand why anyone in their right mind would 
> want to do it, especially when their child had a perfectly good crib or 
> bassinette... Then I found myself in the situation where I probably 
> wouldn't have gotten more than 2 hours of sleep a day if I wasn't holding 
> my baby, and suddenly it didn't seem so dumb.
>
> Here are a couple of things you can do.
>
> If you do want to sleep with him:
> First, you can lay in the middle of your bed (with every blanket but the 
> fitted sheet taken off of it). You can place a very firm pillow under your 
> head (no other pillows of any kind should be on the bed). You can wear 
> warm (but non-bulky) clothing to keep yourself from getting cold. If you 
> really want to, you can put a bed rail on the bed, but I found that given 
> that I was a good couple of feet from the edges, I didn't really need to. 
> However, if you don't have the luxury of your own bed (we have a guest 
> room, which made shift-taking easier in the beginning), you might want a 
> rail on your side. Then you can place your baby on your stomach. He will 
> be laying tummy to tummy with you, with his head between your breasts. 
> This is very soothing for mom and baby, and can increase milk production 
> if done skin to skin. You won't need to put a lot of clothing on him if 
> you're doing this, as your combined body heat will keep him very warm, and 
> it is actually better to keep babies on the cooler side as opposed to the 
> warmer side.
>
> Another thing you can do is wear him in a pouch on your front. This would 
> allow you to sit up with him, but still be able to hold him securely. I 
> will preface the pouch suggestion by saying that you should *never* 
> *never* put a newborn baby with no head control into a sling of any kind 
> in the cradle position. The cradle position is where he is laying on his 
> back across the front of your body (like he would be if you had one of 
> your arms behind his head, and one under his bum and knees. This is an 
> extremely dangerous position for such a young baby, because their chin can 
> be pushed forward into their chest - cutting off their air supply. Because 
> they are not able to move their head to accommodate this decreased air 
> supply, they can literally suffocate to death in your arms. If you think 
> I'm being overly-dramatic, my friend saw a 2 week old baby die in front of 
> her because of this exact thing. If you want to use a pouch, the safest 
> way to wear your baby is to put him in so that his body is parallel to 
> yours. His stomach will be against your chest, his head will be under your 
> chin, and his legs will be folded froggy-style (with his heels resting 
> against his bum and his knees bowed outward). Even very tiny babies have 
> the ability to minimally shift their head from side to side, even if they 
> can't lift it up on their own. This position makes it less likely that his 
> chin will be pushed down into his chest, and it will also make it easier 
> for you to hear him breathing, because his face will be about 8 inches 
> away from your own. Again, he won't need more than a onesie if he's in a 
> pouch, as they are very warm. I got mine from
> www.kangarookorner.com
> Their staff is very helpful at describing their products, and assisting 
> you with placing your order. They actually apologized to me that their 
> site wasn't easier for me to use.
>
> Hope some of this helps.
>
> Dena
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Leslie Hamric" <lhamric930 at comcast.net>
> To: "'NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List'" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2010 8:54 AM
> Subject: [blparent] falling asleep?
>
>
>> Hi All.  I was wondering if you could give me any ideas, as I'm running 
>> into
>> a problem that could be potentially serious.  Its happened a few times 
>> where
>> I've fallen asleep with my baby in my arms.  The first time it happened, 
>> one
>> of the nurses saw it and she informed me that I could potentially 
>> suffocate
>> my baby by doing this. The problem is that I don't always know I'm 
>> getting
>> sleepy unless someone tells me I am or until I start nodding off.  I had 
>> a
>> sleep study done in 2004 and the specialist said I have a non 24 hour 
>> sleep
>> cycle and the only way to remedy that is to get a full 8 hours of sleep 
>> at
>> the same time every night.  Well, we both know that's virtually 
>> impossible
>> now that I'm a new mom.  Have you ever had this problem and if so, what
>> kinds of things did you do to stay awake while holding your baby?  One 
>> thing
>> I've tried was having the radio on and that doesn't seem to help.  Andy's
>> really worried about me too. He doesn't want me to fall asleep and
>> accidentally smother the baby.  I don't want that either.  I'm just at a
>> loss of how to solve this issue.  I've heard other blind people having 
>> the
>> same problem since they don't get the light stimulation.
>>
>> Leslie
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> blparent mailing list
>> blparent at nfbnet.org
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blparent_nfbnet.org
>> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
>> blparent:
>> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blparent_nfbnet.org/dena%40envogueaccess.com
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> blparent mailing list
> blparent at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blparent_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
> blparent:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blparent_nfbnet.org/shrnhow%40att.net