[blparent] falling asleep?

[Tammy, Paul and Colyn]

Hi,

I totally agree with all of the suggestions and advice in the below post.  I 
never put my first son in to bed with me, and I got a basinette for my 
second son to sleep in, but it was not used very much.  Most of the time he 
slept with us in our bed, especially during the day when I needed sleep and 
taking him to bed was the only way I could get some.  Also, we nursed a lot 
in bed as well which helped my milk supply and allowed him to eat whenever 
he wanted to.  Now he sleeps all through the night in his own crib.
I also have a baby carrier that I use when he wants to be carried but I need 
to get stuff done.  I tried all the baby carriers I could find to try, 
snugglies, slings, wraps, and I didn't like any of them, mainly because 
either I felt like my baby was close to falling out all the time, or because 
after awhile my back started to hurt and I couldn't wear them anymore. 
After tons of experimenting and research I bought the Ergo baby carrier, and 
although it's a little pricey it's well worth the money.   If you go that 
route though, you'll need to buy the infant insert, and buy the sport model 
of the carrier because it's more comfortable.  The thing I really like about 
the carrier is that it can carry your baby on your front, hip or back, and 
there are optional accessories like a backpack and diaper bag that attach to 
it to make life easier while you're carrying your little one.  Also, when 
you're baby's in the carrier he's being well supported in a little seat 
shaped thing instead of just hanging there by his crotch like most pack 
carriers.
The carrier was a Godsend because I could fall asleep sometimes with him in 
there and I didn't have to worry about him falling out.

hth

Tammy
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dena Wainwright" <dena at envogueaccess.com>
To: "NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2010 3:42 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
>>
>>
>>
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>
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