Crying in the night
Halloween is upon us. I love this time of year. The colours in the trees turning from green to brown, orange, yellow and red. I always find this time of year gives me inspiration on what to wear. And lots of ideas for arts and crafts for the kids. The nursery rhymes my children come home singing about ‘autumn leaves falling down’ and that one about the hedgehog always put me in a good mood.
It is a busy time crunching leaves and carving pumpkins. I’m not a big fan of dressing up myself but it’s a fun time for the kids and a time to be that character on TV or in a book they’ve always wanted to be. Anyways this week my blog focuses on Month 8 of the GCP!
Your 8 month old baby can lift their head high and push up onto their straight arms so their back is arched with their hips and legs flat on the floor. Further, they can rock on their tummy, back arched, arms and legs moving, as if swimming.
Here is a list of some things you can give your baby at this age:
- Several toys to bang together
- Stacking cups
- Spoon and cup at mealtime (continue to feed your baby but encourage and allow them to feed themselves)
- A mirror in which to see themselves.
- Washable/plastic books.
When giving your baby these things remember to place them in the middle of their hands so they can grasp using both hands and can move from one hand to the other. Although your baby is grasping with one hand or another more, this does not determine whether they’re right handed or left handed yet.
Moving on, there are some great topics in issue 8 of our Growing Child Programme. These include ‘Still Babbling’ (different stages of speech development), What motivates children to learn?, Separation anxiety and attachment and Crying in the night. As my blog is on “Crying in the Night” I guess I should start talking about it now.
Oh how I remember those days. Other people use to say to me all the time “My baby has been sleeping through the night since they were 6 weeks old!” All I could think was “What am I doing wrong?” I tried night time routines, I helped to soothe my baby and spoke to Health Visitors’. My baby was up most of the night until at least 1 year. But isn’t it funny how those sleepless nights are soon forgotten and your into the next phase of your parenting life.
Although if this is where you are now and your child is crying in the night we have some great suggestions from our issue 8. I know at times it can be really difficult but you will get through it.
- Never totally ignore an infant’s crying. There may be a physical cause for the crying. It is better to err on the side of loving and caring than on the side of neglect.
- If the behaviour is inappropriate – in this case, crying in the middle of the night – only occurs infrequently, don’t worry about it unduly.
- If this behaviour occurs more frequently – such as crying every night at 3:00 am – think your actions. For example, take a long-term rather than a short term view of the situation. If you take your child into your bed once or twice they will soon expect this to happen every time they cry in the night.
- If you do something once to stop an infant’s habit of crying at night, this is what you need to be prepared to do every night.
Remember the middle of the night is not the best time for warm hugs, kisses and playful games, unless you are prepared to be awakened for the same, on demand, every night. In summary all children want to be loved and cherished and shown attention. They need to learn that they have an impact by crying for example on the world around them. They also must learn that sooner rather than later they cannot have their own way all the time.
If your child shows too much control you’ll be that parent in the supermarket walking past your own child throwing the biggest tantrum because they can’t get the sweets they want!! Or to carry a pack of eggs!! Trust me, this has happened to me and more. You start to boil up and it puts you off taking your child out to the shop again. Well at least not for another week or two!
I remember one time when my oldest girl was about 3 years old. I met an older man I knew and he offered my daughter £1 to buy herself an ice cream. She turned around and said ‘I don’t even like ice cream and wouldn’t take the money or the ice cream’. Oh I was embarrassed. How could I even explain? There will be times when your child says what they’re thinking and there isn’t too much you can do about it. Anyway I hope this helps you, the crying will stop and normal sleep is just around the corner.
