Does your child move at an excruciatingly slow pace? Do you find it frustrating when you need to get somewhere and you’re rushing about – yet you have to keep prodding him along? Children live according to a much slower clock than we adults do. They don’t give a moment’s thought to what they might be doing next. They prefer to enjoy each moment for what it is. They pause as they watch the cat sleep, examine the color patterns in the carpet, and ponder the reasons for having toes. If you think about it, it’s a shame that we can’t all live on “kid-time.” But since we can’t, here are a few tips to keep things moving along.

Give specific step-by-step directions.
Make incremental requests that your child can easily follow. Give your child one or two tasks at a time, and when complete, assign the next. “Please put your puzzle in the box and go to the bathroom.”

Make a list.
Write down the sequence of tasks to be completed and give the list to your child with a pencil to cross things off as they’re done.

Give an incentive to finish.
Encourage your child to finish the task with a “When/Then” statement, such as, “When you get in the car, then you can have your crackers.”

Analyze your own daily schedule.
Determine if you are trying to do too much. If you are, see if you can make some changes. Start focusing on the priorities in your life, eliminate some of the unnecessary time-wasters, and slow yourself down a little bit.

Check your child’s nap and sleep schedules.
Children who aren’t getting a proper amount of sleep will lack energy and tend to move slowly and dawdle.

Don’t rush your child with the words, “Come on!” or “Hurry up!”
These requests tend to frustrate children and then they rush to the point of taking extra time to make up for the mistakes that happen when they move too fast.

Don’t reinforce the pattern.
Children often dawdle out of habit. A parent will announce, “Time to go” and then be distracted by a phone call or a household task (so then it really isn’t time to go.) Children come to expect that you’ll repeat yourself numerous times before they have to respond. Practice this: think before you speak, make a very specific request, and then follow through.

Don’t expect speed.
Allow a reasonable amount of time for your child to meet your request. Watch your child to learn his pace. Just because you are in a hurry doesn’t mean your child will move any faster than his usual speed.

Avoid miscommunication.
Make clear, specific statements that don’t leave room for misunderstanding. As an example, instead of the vague statement, “Get ready to go,” clarify by saying, “Right now, would you please put on your shoes and your coat, and get in the car.”

Excerpted with permission by McGraw-Hill Publishing from The No-Cry Discipline Solution (McGraw-Hill 2007) by Elizabeth Pantley http://www.pantley.com/elizabeth

About the author:
Elizabeth Pantley is the author of several books, including Gentle Baby Care : No-cry, No-fuss, No-worry — Essential Tips for Raising Your Baby, The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night, Kid Cooperation (with an introduction by William Sears, MD), Perfect Parenting, as well as her latest The No-Cry Sleep Solution for Toddlers and Preschoolers and is also president of Better Beginnings, Inc. She is a popular speaker on family issues, and her newsletter, Parent Tips, is seen in schools nationwide. She appears as a regular radio show guest, and has been quoted in Parents, Parenting, Redbook, Good Housekeeping, American Baby, Working Mother, and Woman’s Day magazines. Visit Elizabeth’s web site http://www.pantley.com/elizabeth.

“Sleep like a baby.” The person who thought of this saying obviously never had children!

Babies are active sleepers. Their eyes move; they squint; they moan; they gurgle; they smile; they mumble and grumble. This is normal and expected. You’ll understand why by reading on!

Instead of using non-REM and REM for children, doctors and scientists categorize the two as quiet and active sleep. Scientists believe that active sleep patterns develop in children even before they are born in the 6 th or 7 th month of pregnancy and quiet sleep patterns develop in the 7 th and 8 th months of pregnancy. (This is interesting to note for premature children and their sleep problems). They also note that in the uterus, during an active cycle, babies practice breathing, whereas in quiet sleep, they do not. The older the infant gets the less active sleep she needs. It appears, then, that active sleep is vital, so perhaps that’s why so much importance is placed on active sleep in the uterus and, as you’ll see, the first few months of life.

Infants’ sleep patterns and cycles differ greatly from those of adults. Infants spent about 50% of their time in active sleep while premature infants spend 80% of their time in active sleep (as opposed to 20-25% in adults). The other 50% are spent in quiet sleep, but it’s not as deep as an adult’s. Infants don’t reach stages III and IV of quiet sleep like adults do. Also, when infants are in their quiet sleep, their brain waves aren’t a steady flow of waves but short bursts.

Infants’ sleep cycles usually last 50 minutes (unlike the 90 minutes of an adult). In their first few months of life, infants will often slip directly into active sleep – something that adults never do. Another difference between infants’ sleep patterns and adults is that infants have sleep patterns that last throughout the 24-hour period. These are called polyphasic sleep periods. Can you imagine a functioning adult drifting off to sleep every 50 to 100 minutes? Adults have one sleep period that lasts about 8 hours.

By the time an infant is three months old, she will have developed all four stages of quiet sleep, and by the time she is six months old, she will spend most of her time (70%) in quiet sleep, coming closer to an adult’s bio-rhythms. It won’t be until your child is a toddler, though, that she will almost match an adult’s sleep habits. Interestingly, people of advanced age go back down to three sleeping stages, not experiencing Stage IV or sleep.

Have you noticed that your child, after just an hour of sleep, often stirs and is restless? This is because she has probably just completed one cycle and is coming out of quiet sleep. Adults do it every night. We wake up, pull up the covers, turn around, and adjust the pillow .. whatever. But if somebody came to our side and said, “Hey, do you need something?” we might totally wake up and have trouble getting back to sleep.

Because we’re so in tuned to our children (especially new parents), we sometimes rush to their bed, wondering why they’re waking. Most children will grumble, move around and get back to sleep – if left to return to sleep. At this stage in sleep, sleep terrors and sleep walking may happen as well (covered in Chapters 8 and 9). In that case, your child might need your aid. Again, though, a child arousing after about an hour is natural. By understanding this, you can understand that your child can be left to fall back to sleep. Especially when you know for the first few years of life, this will be happening a lot!

©www.sleepbabysecrets.com

“New Book Reveals Breakthrough Baby Sleep Secrets Frustrated Parents Must Know To Practically Guarantee Your Child Sleeps Peacefully Almost Every Single Night!”

About the Author:
Heidi Ayarbe is the author of the award-winning book “Sweet Dreams”. To check out her website that’s jam packed with baby sleep secrets, visit http://www.sleepbabysecrets.com/baby-sleep.htm

Sleeping…

A newborn baby spends most of her time on two things: sleeping and feeding – although, as she needs an average of 8 diaper changes a day, maybe that should be three things

Newborn babies sleep for around 17-18 hours a day, but the bad news is she will sleep only for 3 or 4 hours at a time. When she wakes she will probably need feeding and/or a diaper change.

Babies are not born with a conception of day and night, so you have to teach her to take short naps in the day and longer sleeps at night. During the first few weeks you will have to feed on demand and let her decide when she will sleep. Then you should try to encourage her to take the majority of her sleep at night by changing her surroundings: at night she should sleep in a darkened room (either her own bedroom or a corner of yours), in her cot. During the day keep her in bright light (but not direct sunlight, babies get sunburnt very easily), in her buggy.

After about 4 months baby should be sleeping for a total of about 15 hours, but she should now be sleeping for around 8-10 hours at night and without a break. She will benefit from a set routine at bedtime. A bath followed by a feed and a clean diaper, then settle her in her bed while she is still awake and play her some soothing music. Mobiles suspended over the cot work wonders.

Getting baby to establish a routine is a gradual process so don’t worry if it takes a while. There will still be the odd night-time feed required until she reaches about 6 months when she should last all night without refuelling! Aren’t you looking forward to that!

Sleeping Position
To minimise the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (also known as cot death):

• place baby on her back,
• tuck in the sheet and blanket (don’t use a duvet until she is at least 12 months),
• make sure the room is neither too hot nor too cold – ideal temperature 65?F,

Sleeping Problems
If baby isn’t sleeping well at night, it may be because:

• she is too hot, too cold, hungry, thirsty, or needs changing,
• she is getting too much sleep in the day. A recent study found that keeping baby in bright light during the daytime naps will teach her the difference between a night-time sleep and a daytime nap,
• she isn’t tired enough. Introduce more energetic playtimes, then wind down an hour before bedtime,
• she is over-tired. Introduce a quiet time before bed to calm her down. You might also try baby massage.
• she has colic. That’s a whole different problem and you will find a separate article about colic.

Finally, remember that, like adults, all babies are not the same and some will need less sleep than others.

About the Author:
Tony Luck who runs a site with advice about babies. You will also find the fascinating chinese pregnancy calendar which is supposed to tell you whether the baby you are expecting will be a girl or boy, and a conception chart to tell you when baby is expected.