10 Signs I Can Recognize When My Baby Is Sleepy

Identifying the signs of a sleepy baby sounds easy, but for many new parents it is something very distant and believe it many do not know how to identify when the baby is sleepy that is why putting the baby to naps or sleep at night seems impossible.

Liliana Amaro Child Sleep Coach shares this list that has been compiled during the years of work helping families sleep.

1.     Yawns: Very common just when they are ready to sleep this signal is presented if you could lie the baby right after the first yawn it would be ideal.

2.     Red eyes: When a baby is tired and ready to sleep, the eyes usually become watery and red, a sign that they are ready to close and rest.

3.     Constant blinking: Like the previous signal, blinking constantly means that the eyes are ready to close and almost involuntarily the blinks fall and fall, but the baby tries to open them, it is when they say that he resists sleeping, help him by placing him in a dark environment so that they do not open anymore.

4.     Crying for no reason: It is when the baby can no longer with fatigue, wants to sleep, but cannot do it, the nervous system is altered and over tiredness makes it cost more work for the baby to fall asleep. This is a strong signal and indication that you should try to put him to sleep before it is later.

5.     Touching the eyes: this signal is accompanied by the other signs related to the eyes and it is normal that when blinking and having red eyes the child touches them without stopping

6.     Lack of concentration: A sign that you cannot doubt when you try to entertain a baby and completely ignores you.

7.     Lack of appetite: When you want to feed him and the child does not even open his mouth, he goes back or refuses to eat, he can end up in tears. It's better to stop and try to put him to sleep

8.     It refuses to bathe: Nobody wants to be wet when they just want to sleep, normally the baby will cry and we think he does not like to bathe, but it is not so, most babies enjoy being bathed, but at the right time, bathing an extremely tired baby is a very bad idea. If you spend the time of your bath, it is better to skip it.

9.     They lie on your shoulder: A lovely sign, when the baby lies on your shoulders when carrying it or constantly puts the little head on its side anywhere it can, it is better to take it to bed. This sign occurs in still babies

10.  Hyperactivity!  The most common is and the most mentioned by parents "my child has a lot of energy before sleeping" is when the window of opportunity to put him to sleep is gone and the baby enters a new phase of energy. It is difficult to put a baby at this stage, it is usually recommended to let 30-45 mins pass before trying again and trying in a quiet environment.

Good Luck!

Disadvantage of using Sleep Drugs

Sleep is a vital and natural function that must happen every day by itself, there are many reasons why drugs or medications commonly called are introduced as an aid to fall asleep, we can say that if a medical staff has prescribed its use is because it is considered necessary and is usually done in adolescents and adults and some children, after many tests and with the correct diagnosis. It is well known that drugs can cause addiction and death if they are administered in excess and without control.

The drugs used to help with sleep are sleeping pills, these are usually effective on sleepless nights, as tolerance to these increases rapidly the effect usually decreases respectively. When drugs are obtained freely, they can have other effects and make the person feel bad the next day.

View fullsize

Tired Dad

Liliana Amaro Sleep Coach does not recommend the use of any drug to make a child with bad habits sleep better, to evaluate what a child needs to sleep better it is necessary to follow the following recommendation.

  1.                Medical review with diagnosis.

·If it is a health problem, follow the doctor's instructions completely.

·If the problem is behavioral, it is suggested to consult a Sleep Expert.

2.                Initial advice by a Sleep Coach

· Tips for changing habits

· Recommendation of an action plan and routine

General recommendations to improve sleep are:

•   Establishment of Routines

• Follow the established schedules

•   Have a healthy diet

• And having little interaction and stimulation with technology

The "New Trend" to Hire a Sleep Coach

If I could list the people who ask me where I was more than 15-20 years ago when they needed the help of a Sleep Coach I would, but what I can say is that 3 out of 5 families with children suffer from sleep problems and 1 out of 5 families will look for the solution and change, sadly the others will carry the night awakenings for a long time.

We find that suddenly the famous "Sleep Training" is fashionable or it will be that we made it fashionable, and I include myself now Liliana Amaro-International Children Sleep Coach that in my desperation to sleep look for experts in the field to get out the chronic sleep deprivation that was leading me to madness if I searched and searched for months for someone who could help me and I found it. If I was one of the first two Spanish speakers who was certified in Australia along with a small group of women who had the same intention of helping many families sleep well.

In 2012 and with the help of social networks and the internet this type of help has become more popular and it has been possible for us to reach many parts of the world. Personally, it is a pride to be able to help many families who are already in a desperate situation for not sleeping, but I also think it is important to educate those who do not know much about what can happen when we have a baby who does not sleep much.

But what is a Sleep Coach and how can he help you? A coach is that is an expert guide in the field and can help you sleep better, analyze, and review your family situation helping you solve the root problem by coupling with your lifestyle and customs. Formulate a plan with objectives to meet with a time limit. All Sleep Coaches are different and have different methodologies, it is advisable to look carefully and review the testimonials that exist to make the perfect decision.  The cost can also vary depending on the region, popularity, demand, and follow-up time. Before hiring a Sleep Coach, make sure of the formality of the person by reviewing social networks, web and even using Google.

When someone needs to sleep, you hear the famous phrase that "you could pay anything for a single night of complete sleep" so, if you are thinking that the investment is effective, yes, it is and we can assure you that it will be the best invested money because you will be recovering what you thought lost forever, Sleep!

Liliana Amaro _ Children Sleep Coach

Zzleep My Baby has different services that have been refined thanks to the experience and dedication to the families with whom we have worked worldwide, in addition to having bilingual services and presence as a registered consultancy in Mexico, Europe, USA, and Australia.

https://www.zzleepmybaby.com/testimonials

More than a fashion it is a need that has been placed in society to make life east, with the advent of Sleep Coaching, families feel more confident and satisfied with their first months and years as parents. Knowing that someone can save you those sleepless nights is something magnificent that many grannies would have liked to have.

Behaviors that affect sleep

Pregnancy and Covid19 Facts

Information source: https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/covid-19-vaccination-shared-decision-making-guide-for-women-who-are-pregnant-breastfeeding-or-planning-pregnancy

This is a summary of facts that can be helpful for you.

Ø  Pregnant women with COVID-19 have a higher risk of certain complications compared to non-pregnant women with COVID-19 of the same age, including:

·        An increased risk (about 3 times higher) of needing admission to an intensive care unit.

·        An increased risk (about 3 times higher) of needing invasive ventilation (breathing life support).

Ø  COVID-19 also increases the risk of certain pregnancy complications including:

·        A slightly increased risk (about 1.3 times higher) of having their baby born prematurely (before 37 weeks of pregnancy)

·        An increased risk (about 3 times higher) of their baby needing admission to a newborn care unit.

Ø  Pregnant women with certain underlying medical conditions are more likely to have a severe illness from COVID-19 compared to pregnant women without these conditions. The conditions are:

·        Being older than 35 years

·        Overweight or obese (body mass index above 30 kg/m2)

·        Pre-existing (pre-pregnancy) high blood pressure

·        Pre-existing (pre-pregnancy) diabetes (type 1 or type 2)

Ø  There is no data showing COVID-19 can cause miscarriage.

Ø  It is thought to be uncommon for pregnant women to pass the virus on to their babies. Current data has not confirmed vertical transmission (mother to baby in-utero transmission).

Ø  No safety concerns have been identified for women who received a Pfizer vaccine during pregnancy. Complications such as premature delivery, stillbirth, small for gestational age infants, and congenital anomalies occurred at a similar rate to what is seen in the general population.

Ø  If you are breastfeeding, you can receive a COVID-19 vaccine at any time. You do not need to stop breastfeeding before or after vaccination.

Ø  COVID-19 vaccination may provide indirect protection to babies by transferring antibodies through the placenta (for pregnant women) or through breastmilk (for breastfeeding women).

TEAM WORK WITH DAD AT BEDTIME

Living as a family is having your own team and as such requires daily training, support, strategies, plans as well as celebrations of every moment we have advances, although not always everything is perfect when we talk about bedtime.

Specialist estimates that between 35% to 50% of adults have insomnia. However, the problem is increasingly present also in children. Up to 40% percent of the pediatric population has reported cases of insomnia, reported the 2016 current sleep medicine reports, a journal that analyzes the most important research articles in the field of sleep medicine.

Studies have also been done that shown that when a family is more united and where both parents collaborate with the activities at home the children sleep better.

Liliana Amaro-children Sleep Coach founder of Zzleep my baby currently works with many Dads since they have the initiative to seek help to improve the situations that happen during the night, she has proven that if the first contact is made by a father it is very likely that the mother is already in a degree of extreme sleep deprivation and close to burn-out to the extent that it is difficult for her to establish the communication with a coach. When a dad has decided that the family needs a coach to sleep the first recommendation is that he should be 100% involved and start doing the heaviest work the first days and nights.

DAD AND BABY

Dad's cooperation and involvement in routines, strategies and techniques is a key point for the family to start sleeping better.

It is very noticeable when a family works as a team, since you will see both fathers performing any task and participating in any activity, it is also to lead an equitable life and a way to end the myths that housework is only for mothers. Modernity and new generations show dads interested in breastfeeding, courses, and dad’s play groups, stay at home dads encourage rapprochement with children and an incomparable harmony for the family.

If you're a dad I invite you to be part of your own team! There is nothing you can't do unless you don't try.

Benefits of taking a bath before bedtime

Before we all sleep, we want to be relaxed so that the moment we touch the pillow our eyes close and we instantly fall asleep, but that really happens is that we are usually stressed or remarkably busy and do not take a break before bed, we simply conclude some activity and directly to bed.

Liliana Amaro -Children's Sleep Coach has many recommendations before going to bed and among the main ones is "taking a bath before bed" and in the following paragraphs we will focus on why this suggestion.

As adults and parents, we are always on the move, on the street surrounded by people and exposed to the outside so when night comes it is Ideal to refresh and clean ourselves and even more so in this time of Pandemic.

Taking a bath will makes us take a break and have a transition between any activity and going to sleep. The bath can help us relax and the hot shower water dulls the external senses and directs attention to internal thoughts. And this state of consciousness promotes creative thinking." And it gives us a sense of relaxation, we can use this precious moment to think about everything and conclude the thoughts of the day. When we go to bed clean, smelling clean we feel better and ready to relax.

It is important to mention that the water temperature will be equivalent to the climate where we are. And if you have a chance to take a tub bath that is better and much more relaxing.

In Adolescents the bath before going to sleep also promotes a conclusion to the activities of the day, can be that moment of detachment from technology, and continue with the good habit of hygiene.

For the little ones Liliana Amaro recommends bathing before going to sleep as part of the night routine if the baby is extremely active it is likely that the bath relaxes the baby and makes easy this process must be an effective process with the aim of calming and relaxing the baby. When bathing an over tired baby during crying it is likely that the bath is an activity without success. We want the bath time to be a pleasant moment for all to enjoy and relax.

Night Terrors:

Most parents have ever had to comfort their children after a nightmare. But, if your child has ever had what is known as night terror, he experienced so much fear that, as much as you did, there was no way to comfort him.

A night terror is a sleep disorder that resembles a nightmare, except that it is much more spectacular. Although night terrors can scare parents enough to witness them, they are often not a cause for concern or the sign of an underlying medical problem.

What are night terrors?

During a typical night, sleep goes through a series of phases. Each is associated with a particular brain activity, and the rapid eye movement phase (MOR or REM) is when most dreams occur.

Night terrors occur during non-REM sleep. Unlike nightmares (which occur during REM sleep), a night terror is not a technical dream, but more likely a sudden reaction of fear that takes place during the transition from one sleep phase to another.

Night terrors usually occur two to three hours after the child reconciles sleep, when the transition takes place from the deeper non-REM sleep phase to the shallowest REM sleep, the stage at which dreams occur. This transition usually happens smoothly. But sometimes the child gets agitated and frightened—and that scary reaction is night terror.

During a night terror, a child can suddenly get in bed and start squealing or screaming as if he is extremely distressed. Breathing and heart rate can speed up, you can start sweating, shaking, and behaving like you are extremely upset and scared. After a few minutes or more, the child calms down and goes back to sleep peacefully.

Unlike nightmares, which are often remembered, the next day the children have no memory of night terror because they were asleep while it happened—and have no mental images to evoke.

What is the cause?

Night terrors are caused by overactivation of the central nervous system (CNS) during sleep. This can occur because the CNS (which regulates brain activity during sleep and wakefulness) is still maturing. Some children inherit a tendency to.

This overactivation; approximately 80% of children who have night terrors have.

a relative who also experienced them or suffered from sleepwalking (a similar type of sleep disorder) during childhood.

Night terrors have been described in children who:

• were very tired, sick, stressed or fatigued.

• Are taking a new drug.

• They slept in a new environment or away from home.

Night terrors are relatively rare — they only affect between 3 and 6% of children, while virtually every child has a nightmare from time to time. Night terrors usually occurs in children between the age of four and twelve but have been reported in children as young as 18 months old. They seem to be a little more common in boys than in girls.

A child may have an isolated night terror episode or several before these types of episodes disappear completely. Most of the time night terrors disappear on their own as the nervous system matures.

Cómo reaccionar ante un terror nocturno.

Night terrors can greatly alarm parents, who often feel powerless not being able to comfort their children. The best way to react to night terror is to wait patiently for it to pass and make sure the child doesn't hurt himself by stirring. Children usually calm down and return to sleep placidity within a few minutes.

It is better not to try to wake the child during a night terror. These attempts don't usually work, and if they work, the child will most likely feel disoriented and confused when he or she wakes up, so he or she will likely find it more difficult to calm down and fall asleep again.

Night terrors have no treatment, but you can help them not happen in the first place. Try the following:

Reduce the stress your child is under.

Set up and maintain a simple, relaxing bedtime routine for your child.

Make sure your child gets enough rest.

Do not let your child get too tired when he's up late.

Understanding night terrors can reduce parents' concerns and help them sleep well at night. But if your child has night terrors repeatedly, talk to your child's pediatrician in case a sleep specialist needs to be consulted.

Source of information:http://kidshealth.org/es/parents/terrors-esp.html

The Importance of Reading Before Sleep

Bedtime routines are recommended at all ages and if we start introducing them as children are young it is better, so we get used to certain activities and perform them as part of our daily lives.

Liliana Amaro Sleep Coach recommends reading as part of our evening routine, the benefits are as follows.

·         It makes us put technology aside.

·         Helps concentration and memory

·         Increases knowledge and culture

·         Reduces stress

·         It helps us sleep better.

Reading disconnects us from everything that involves movement and physical effort. It is one of the recommendations to promote sleep, because already at night reading is a kind of relaxation exercise that can be sustained until the eyes begin to tire and the concentration fades gradually entering a period of trance, we can get to fall asleep suddenly or decide when to stop.

Reading or telling a story is always recommended as part of the childhood routine as it serves children as an indication that the next thing is to close their eyes and sleep. An adult can do it in bed, and it is advisable to set a time when you should close your eyes and sleep, this means that if you have trouble sleeping the book should be left at the set time as a limit, or after a certain number of pages. It is likely that many people will be able to read for hours and this is not bad we simply have to be aware that sleep is important and necessary.

If you already practice reading and still cannot sleep, Liliana advises putting the book aside, turning off the light (total darkness) breathing deeply 10 times, thinking about every part of our body, and starting to imagine every page of the book we read before bed, you will probably fall asleep at some point and if you don't keep imagining until you don’t know your sleeping. Reading is one of the healthiest and most relaxing ways to get to sleep and rest deeply.

People that read are usually well social interactors and people that can spend more time by themselves, this day this skill and virtue is getting lost and replace by the technology, we can work together on making the reading a fashion and a never passing tradition, perhaps in the nearest feature owning a hard-copy book will be more valuable than not having one. Reading is Fundamental.  In fact, it is one of the most important ingredients to becoming all that you can be. Reading provides a window into the world around you and helps you do better in all subjects. Most importantly, reading can not only help you become a better student, but a better person.  You can learn from the brightest people whenever and wherever you choose.

Some New parents wonder how to start reading to a newborn because is too little they believe there is kind of wasting time, but if you think a little bit longer nothing you do with a child is waste of time in other hand is completely enriching for the child to listen to your voice and recognize sounds at young age, the time that you spend reading is bonding time, is relaxing for you and him. Introducing reading to a routine can help the transition to bed more pleasant and easy.

What to read is another question, well just look at a library or a book shop the options are infinite, you just need to pick the right book for the right age. Liliana founder of www.zzleepmybaby.com  recommends the following: for a young child sensory books are quite successful since they get attracted to colors, sounds and shapes. For toddlers’ books with adventures, teaching about fear, feelings, manners are great and not just for them, sometimes a as parent we cannot find the right wat to explain situations, so a book is always a good resource. For children that have bilingual parents the reading time before bedtime is an exceptional time to introduce it.

When you have multiple children this also can be tricky but if you have some that can read or hold a book, you can make them choose a book read to each other or just look at the story and imagine what is it a bout and tell them you can all discuss it together at breakfast time. This is a great skill that you can start forming at young age until your child is able to read before bedtime.

For last one golden tip from Liliana as Children Sleep Coach reading of just 1 book as part of the routine is enough for those children that are not easy at bedtimes.

Here is a link in where you can have ideas and material to begin this wonderful activity with the kids https://www.storyberries.com/free-kids-books-lost-toy-bedtime-stories   

View fullsize