If you’re here reading this, then I can safely assume that you either have a young child who seems to end up falling asleep in strange and awkward-looking positions, or it could be something you’d like to prepare yourself for when the time arrives. Or, you could be one of those internet surfers who lives reading random blogs!
Whatever your reason for deciding on clicking the ‘read more’ button to this blog, I’m going to try my best to make sure that once you’ve reached the bottom of this page, that you’ve received true value from this blog.
Okay, so your child has mastered the art of standing up! HOORAY!
Firstly, congratulations, because this is a wonderful developmental milestone. This is one of those exciting moments as a parent, and one of the biggest steps towards what is yet to come on the developmental stages.
With that being said, your child may, like many babies, have a somewhat strange issue when they first learn to stand up – they haven’t learned the skill of sitting back down!
This isn’t much of an issue during the day as your child could spend the better part of the day practicing the sitting and standing thing while you’re within a safe distance to help them. The issue now comes in when it gets time for them to sleep at night.
So now you’re almost in a situation of rock and a hard place.
On the one hand, if your baby stands up during the night, there is a chance that they may fall and hurt themselves. But on the other hand, you don’t want to run into their room each time they stand up, because let’s face it, they won’t learn how to go back down themselves and you risk undoing all the hard work that went into sleep training. And once your child sees that standing up means mom and dad come running, they may start using it to get you to come to then more and more during the night
So there’s a fine line that we need to walk in order to help your baby figure out how to solve this little situation they find themselves in without creating a bad habit that could sabotage their sleep.
If your child has not reached this milestone yet, I need to do my duty and warn you that this is very frustrating to say the least. The reason being is because to you, the solution to your child’s problem seems so simple to you because it’s just a matter of laying back down, right?
But, with everything in the realm of parenting, patience is king. You need to remind yourself that your child does not know how to shift from a standing to sitting position yet. Additionally, your child does not grasp the concept that they’ll sleep better if they lie down. So, remind yourself of this when you’re walking down the passage to your child’s room for what seems like the millionth time, it helps them settle back down.
Now the quickest way to help your child learn the skill to sit down from standing, is to take every opportunity during the day to have them practice. When your baby has pulled themselves up, try putting something that grabs their attention on the floor nearby, like their favorite toy for instance. In addition, try to encourage them to go down to get the toy.
Once they’ve got that skill mastered, however, that second hurdle may still be an issue. They may not realize that sleep is a whole lot easier to achieve when they lie down.
Although as an adult, you probably assume that all this should come naturally because you do it every single day, but when you’ve only been at this human thing for a few months, it may not be as easy. So this is where patience comes in.
Now remember, we don’t want to create a situation where your child starts depending on you to help them back down. Start off by doing it a few times and then change over to just showing them what they should be doing. You can pat on their mattress and let them know they should lay down on that spot and hopefully it won’t be too long until they start figuring this laying down thing. They’ll soon realize that by going down, they’ll be able to sleep better.
Another point to always keep in mind is that although it may seem like your child is fighting their sleep, it’s almost never the case. Your child desperately wants to sleep, they just don’t have the necessary skills to go back down on their own. So support them to learn these skills without doing the actual work for them. And once they’ve mastered this skill and built up their confidence, you can tick off yet another development milestone from the list.
Just one last thing, I’d just like to say how amazing single parents are, navigating all the craziness around raising a child all on their own, because honestly it can’t be easy. But if you’re lucky enough to have a partner supporting you, chat to them about being on the same page when it comes to supporting your child. Responding in the same way will leave your child less confused. So remember to respond to your child in the same way every time so they start to understand what is expected from them and you’ll start seeing results sooner.
As always, be calm, be patient, and be consistent.
So remember to always try to remain calm, be patient and stay consistent.
Although it’s hard right now, remember it will pay off once your little one starts sleeping like a champ and happily goes down for daytime naps.
If you’ve done all this and are still struggling to better support your child, why not book a free call with me to discuss the support you need.