[blparent] falling asleep?

Tue Feb 2 22:46:38 UTC 2010

Thanks Dena.  Your points are well taken but like Sharon said, I've had this
sleep issue since way back.  I love this list because I can get so many
ideas about things I never even thought of before.
Leslie

-----Original Message-----
From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Dena Wainwright
Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2010 2:43 PM
To: NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List
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
>
>
>
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