[blparent] falling asleep?

Wed Feb 3 09:54:20 UTC 2010

I have an Ergo Sport, too, and have been very pleased with it. I use it on 
my back, as Elise is now 22 pounds, and she will stay happily in there for 
1.5 hours while I shop or do things around the house. The other thing to 
note is that once babies have been worn a lot, they start to know how to 
"help" you get them on.
Dena

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tammy, Paul and Colyn" <tcl189 at rogers.com>
To: "NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, February 02, 2010 8:47 PM
Subject: Re: [blparent] falling asleep?

> 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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>
>
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