When one parent or caregiver is the primary person who is performing the bedtime routine and putting the baby down for naps and bedtime, it can be very frustrating when the other caregiver/parent begins to do the bedtime routine only to be rejected and/or managing a lot of fussing and upset from your little one. This is a common situation I see and what often ends up happening is that the primary bedtime caregiver will end up coming in during the upset, calming the baby and putting them down to sleep.
This issue is not a sign that the baby is not attached to both parents. However, babies are very responsive to routines. So, if something throws off what they are expecting to happen, they may communicate this with crying/fussing and not going to sleep as usual.
In this situation, it can be very helpful to take a gradual approach to introducing the new bedtime caregiver into the routine. Begin by having the new bedtime caregiver take part and share the bedtime routine with the primary bedtime caregiver a few times. Next, have the new bedtime caregiver do bedtime alone without the primary bedtime caregiver present (and even better if they can leave the house so that the baby doesn't sense or smell them). Once that is all going well and both caregivers can put the baby down to sleep with ease, you can begin to incorporate the second bedtime caregiver into managing overnight wakings as well if he or she was not previously doing so.
Taking a gradual approach to managing sleep for babies can go a long way, and is often a key element in how we design and implement healthy sleep habits for our little ones.
Opmerkingen