@nickblack Oh I totally agree with you! My son and I are now happier because I let go of these expectations and relied on him. He knows what he wants and I just had to open my eyes to him instead of the internet.. good luck to you too!
@youcantsitwithus This is great, thank you! I'm going to give this a try with my LO. She's four months and has yet to sleep longer than a 2.5 hour stretch...ever. I'm exhausted. She's exhausted. Putting her to sleep is exhausting. Just this morning I thought about giving up and just seeing what happens if I don't intervene, so this sounds perfect. Question for those who've done this approach - do you just feed on demand? Wait for baby's hungry queues? We've been following an eat/play/sleep routine so I'm a bit lost on how that will need to change.
@winniectw Good luck! And yes, personally we feed on demand. Eat play sleep didnāt work for us because breast milk is naturally perfect for helping them sleep.
@youcantsitwithus Hi, I have read the Discontented Little Baby Book. I like Dr. Pamelaās approach and have been doing it for a couple weeks now. The book is a little vague and I was wondering if anyone knows if there are any guidelines at all for how long a young baby should stay awake during the day (say a 3 month old?). Iām not doing wake windows at all. The other day my baby was awake for a 5 hour stretch. This seems wrong, no?
@youcantsitwithus Hi, does the program say anything about sleep associations? My baby needs me to rock him to sleep and I havenāt seen him just nap āanywhereā. Also, what about days where e just stay indoors. Would baby nap āanywhereā too? Thank you.
@kenzytop Depending on how old your baby is, I would highly recommend buying the video. I think especially if you're little one is under 6 months it's so worth it. Personally, I think it's fine if your baby needs you to rock him to sleep. My son has been nursed to sleep, rocked, worn on me or my partner, etc. I know the pandemic is making it hard to give the stimulation your baby's growing brain craves. Again a lot of things depend on age, but being in sunshine even if it's near a window, especially first thing in the morning, helps set the circadian clock. Napping in daylight, etc. I hate to just spew ideas and advice as a lot of the Possums approach is about tailoring it to your baby, paying attention to their cues and needs.
@youcantsitwithus I just started to implement this yesterday but Iām having a hard time when the little one gets tired. He starts crying a lot. Am I supposed to put him to sleep or wait for him to fall asleep on his own?
@mattymatej Remember that Possums is all about paying attention to your baby's cues. If your little one is crying, it's possible you missed some earlier cues that they were ready to drop off for a nap. I definitely help my son nap, either with the boob or his dad rocks him, or he sleeps in the car or stroller. When we first started, we spent a couple weeks just paying very close attention (even logging) when he would get sleepy, etc. and noticed that he fell into a natural rhythm.
@youcantsitwithus Does this help you get to a point where you can put baby down for naps? And is this something you can do with a little baby? Our 7 week old will only sleep ON me, which i mostly enjoy but will need to be able to sometimes put him down in the relatively near future.
@katrina2017 For us, yes we can. Itās so hard to remember when exactly we were able to do this but I want to say maybe somewhere in the 4 to 6 month mark. He almost never sleeps on me anymore. I nurse him to sleep or his dad rocks him. We can both put him down and he stays down for an hour and a half (he can often go longer but i cap him at 90mins)
@youcantsitwithus Does this method also help with having the baby sleep in their own sleep space like their crib without rocking to sleep and holding throughout the nap time?
@writerssecret Not directly, I don't think though I believe following Possums encourages longer/deeper stretches of sleep so it becomes easier to put them down.
@youcantsitwithus This is all very interesting! I let my LO sleep in day light the first 4 months, then found out that I was supposed to make the room dark(although I understand now that maybe I wasnāt!) and felt like such a noob for having had him sleep in the daylight. But where we live, itās very bright at night(in the summer especially), both from street lamps and because itās in the north. Do you think the baby will adjust to that?
@curlygirl01 That's a great question - I still use the sound machine and make it pretty dark for bedtime. I feel like my son got used to it and it makes the space feel calming, and he knows that it's a sleep space. I think if it's technically nighttime/bedtime, you can make it dark and soothing. It's just daytime naps that you want them to not over-sleep so they're well and tired by bedtime