Articles from this week:
The articles that we read this week
had the most impact on me. I had read the Holland story before but had never
heard of the opposite, I loved that she said we all get to go to Paris, but the
experience is different for every single one of us, and isn’t that beautiful?
That as individual we get to have unique experiences in our lives to shape us
as parents, family members, educators, Disciples of Christ, and human beings in
general. The story of Nella was so beautiful and so real. There is so much
beauty in honesty and I felt that reading her birth story was refreshing and a
piece of reality.
I appreciated learning about the “grief
cycle”. The grief cycle is not organized and it is not meant to be a “one and
done” kind of situation. The grief cycle is different with each person, and we
should not expect of ourselves or of others to simply “get over” their hardship
once they go through the Greif Cycle, yet we can be understanding and
sympathetic as families and individuals go through unique trials that come with
being a parent or family member of a child with disabilities.
In class we talked about how the
parent may go through the Greif Cycle many times as their child does things for
the first time, or doesn’t accomplish things that a “normal” child would. It
helped to put myself in the parent’s shoes and take a step back. Dealing with
disabilities is hard. End of story. But the most important thing to remember is
that it is normal to feel overwhelmed and alone, but YOU don’t have to. The eco
maps helped me realize how blessed I am with people who care about my
well-being so much, I can imagine the support that families with children with
disabilities have—but you just have to be aware of your resources and the
people in your life that will always be there. It was eye opening to see how
many unutilized resources are available but just are not being used. This class
is so humbling and eye opening.
Weekly Quote:
"Following
anything or anyone other than Jesus Christ will lead you to dead ends, severe
consequences, and unhappiness.” – Trish Gannaway
I truly
believe in God placing people in our lives and putting things in our path to
help us learn. There is not greater calling in life than to teach- because you simply
learn more than you actually teach. When we follow and trust in God’s plan for
us we will be happy and everything will always be worth it. This week I felt a
little bit of discouragement as I felt bogged down in general with school,
church responsibilities, work, finances, relationships, etc. When I heard this
quote at devotional it gave me confidence to remember who I trusted in and why
I didn’t need to feel overwhelmed. I have always felt a strong passion for
teaching and for serving children, but with one of my classes in particular it
is so unrewarding for the amount of work and stress that goes into this class.
This class is technical and is not hands on- so I feel like it is chasing me
away from teaching rather than inspiring me to be more passionate about my
major and future career as an educator for young children. This experience this
week has taught me that everything that is tough, is meant to be tough, and it
really will be so so worth it as long as we continue trusting and doing our
best.
HWD Paragraph:
How to Help Your Infant Sleep Better
(Article from Parenting Magazine: how to get your baby to sleep. By: Schmidt, Hollace,
Parenting, 0890247X, Jul2006, Vol. 20, Issue 6)
Let
her cry it out? Rock her to sleep? Something in
between? 6 things to consider when deciding what's right for you
Some babies are born easygoing and able to
self-soothe. But others--usually active ones--may put up more of a right at
night, says Lynne Bail, a sleep consultant
for the Jewish Family & Children's Service of Greater Boston. When figuring
out the best way to get your baby to sleep--whether it's one of the
most common strategies (see "The 3 Most Popular Sleep Strategies," page
72) or your own blend of them--your baby's personality
is a key factor.
Take Mary Kay Waugh of Bowie,
Maryland, whose 15-month-old daughter is a kid who doesn't give up easily--even
during the day. Waugh tried for two months to put Sophie in her crib while she
was still awake at bedtime, but she screamed, jumped up and down, and often got
so worked up that she'd actually throw up. "I found myself asking 'What's
wrong with me?' when my daughter wasn't doing what the cry-it-out books said
she should," says Waugh.
And even though Waugh rocks
Sophie to sleep--and her nighttime wakings
keep bringing Waugh to her crib to sit with her until she's down again--it
feels right. "I wonder if she'd be a better sleeper
if I'd have let her cry it out," Waugh says. "But Sophie winds
herself up so much that we all end up awake and upset. I've decided to go with
my gut, and if rocking works, so be it."
Sleep experts say that
6-month-olds should doze 12
to 13 hours a day, including naps. Not only do their brains and bodies grow
when they're asleep, but well-rested children are better learners. How your baby acts when she's awake
is a good indicator of whether she's getting adequate rest. Tired babies may be clingy,
short-fused, and uninterested in exploring or playing independently. Or they
may go into overdrive and have a harder rime nodding off.
If you recognize these signs, it
may be time to rethink whatever bedtime approach you've taken. While your baby may love your
middle-of-the-night strolls around the house, too much stimulation could be
keeping her from getting the shut-eye she needs. Would letting her try to
soothe herself work instead?
On the flip side, some babies wail in their cribs
because they just aren't tired or calm enough to sleep,
so you might ask: What can you do (aside from skipping naps, which isn't a good
idea) to make her sleepier at night? Or would rocking her to sleep help?
Parents lose more than 200 hours
of sleep in their baby's first year, according
to the National Sleep Foundation.
That's no surprise: When your infant is
still eating around the clock, there's little chance of getting the recommended
seven to nine hours of sleep a
night. If your baby is
no longer a newborn, though, and you're a
total zombie from rocking and feeding all night long, some moms would say it's
time for a change.
Angela Glazer of Tampa remembers
the day she broke down alter three sleepless months with her twin daughters.
"I started laughing and crying at the same rime," Glazer says.
"It was a moment of misery and bliss, because I loved these babies so much but I thought
I would die of exhaustion. I would have done anything to get some sleep."
She found a sleep coach, Shari Mezrah,
and, with her pediatrician's okay, stopped giving the babies bottles to get them to sleep. "They cried a lot,
and that was really hard for me," she says. "But I was at the end of
my rope. The crying was less painful than the agony of getting up."
Thinking about your own needs
when deciding on a sleep strategy
for your baby doesn't make you
selfish. In fact, it can help you choose a plan you'll actually be able to
stick to. If you're schedule-oriented, you may function best when you know
your baby is going to fall asleep
at a certain rime. More laid-back? You might not mind following his lead. But
remember, whatever your ideal routine, life with a child can throw it for a
loop.
Hilary Locker Fussteig of New York City always used to
stick to a right schedule. But when she brought her son, Jake, home from the
hospital, she realized his up-every-few-hours sleep pattern
was going to put an end to her well-planned evenings. Now 15 months old,
Jake sleeps through the night and
follows a somewhat regular routine of dinner at 6:00, bathtime at 7:00, and
bedtime at 8:00. But, of course, evenings don't always go so smoothly.
"Sometimes, bedtime doesn't
come until 9 or 10 P.M.--and I find myself watching the clock and thinking,
'There goes that email I have to send or those bills I need to pay,'" she
says. "But I'm so much more relaxed than I used to be. Now I roll with the
punches--and I think that's really helped Jake."
Issues from your past will also
shape your views on getting your baby to sleep, says Sarah Swales, a sleep consultant in Oakland.
A mom who feels she didn't get enough
attention from her own parents as a child may feel strongly about comforting
her baby when he cries at night.
Moms who had fertility issues, difficult pregnancies, or preterm babies also may not want to
let their infants cry, says Swales.
Others may react to their own chaotic upbringing by making sure their children
have a predictable sleep schedule
early on.
Of course, many new moms have positive
memories about their childhood or pregnancy, so these sorts of concerns don't
play as much of a role. As long as feelings about your past don't keep you from
creating a sleep environment that works
for your baby now, go with what feels
best.
While you and your partner may
not totally agree on how to get your baby to sleep, you'll need each other's
support--whether it's another set of arms when yours ache or a reassuring hand
to squeeze when your child's wailing at night. But if you're worried that your
current sleep methods are pulling
you further apart instead of bringing you together, it's time to regroup.
Claire Lyle of Canton, Georgia,
spent most evenings of her daughter's first year nursing and rocking her back
to sleep. "Sometimes I'd have
time to eat dinner and that was it," Lyle says. "There were nights
when I wouldn't even see my husband. It put a strain on our relationship."
After months of his urging, she
started putting Mia in her crib at bedtime while she was still awake. During
the second night of listening to her wail, Lyle frantically flipped through one
of her baby books, rereading a
chapter that argued against letting babies cry
it out. "I just broke down and said, 'I can't do it anymore,'" she
says. Her husband persuaded her to try again a couple of nights later, and
although Lyle was so worried that she barely slept, Mia was crying less and
less.
"Now she's asleep in rive
minutes," Lyle says. "Mia's better off--and
so are we."
What most moms have learned is
this: There is no right way to get a baby to sleep. What works for one may not
for the next, just as what feels comfortable to one parent feels all wrong to
another. The key is figuring out which methods best suit you and your baby. And that's something, sleep-deprived as you may feel,
that you can do. Sweet dreams.
The
he'll-get-it-when-he's-ready game plan Advocates of attachment
parenting, such as William Sears, M.D., Parenting contributing editor and
author of The Baby Book,
say to do whatever your baby needs
to get to sleep, whether it's nursing,
rocking, or bringing him into your bed.
The get-with-the-program
game plan Richard Ferber, M.D., author of Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems, says one
approach that works well is to put babies to
bed when they're drowsy, but not asleep. If your baby cries
when you leave the room, wait a few minutes and then go back in to reassure
him--but don't pick him up. If he cries when you leave again, go back in alter
a few more minutes, then a few more (and so on), until he falls asleep.
The
ease-him-into-it game plan Somewhere in the middle is the
gradual approach of comforting a baby until
he's very sleepy, then putting him to bed and staying with him (but not holding
or rocking him) until he's fully asleep. Elizabeth Pantley, author of The
No-Cry Sleep Solution, says
eventually parents will be able to soothe from the doorway and then the
hallway, until their babies don't
need it at all.
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