hi there I'm Tara your host and this is amazing milestones where we talk about anything and everything that has to do with pregnancy and new motherhood today's hot topic is sleep do you need more of it is your baby getting enough walk into any bookstore and the shelves are stacked with sleep strategy books from end to end but which one works and is one strategy better than another and showing our babies just fall to sleep naturally oh I wish well today we are gonna go talk to dr. rutowski he has helped many families find that much-needed rest hi dr. wachowski hello welcome back to the show I am happy to be back in your beautiful waiting room I was really looking forward to talking about today's subject so first of all a baby that is a good sleeper does that really exist and what does that mean exactly yes it does exist and those babies have almost all babies have the capacity to be good sleepers you just have to train them how to become a good sleeper a good sleeper is a baby that has been taught how to soothe himself or herself that's a baby that is able to fall asleep automatically very shortly after you you you put it to bed it's a baby that sleeps at least 11 to 14 hours per night and depending on the edge age doesn't wake up or wakes up maybe once and it's also baby that again depending on the edge will have two to three naps per day each at least 45 minutes long okay so based on your answer it's official my daughter is not a good sleeper thank you very much what about bedtime routines are they important I think they're essential bedtime routines allow the baby to channel its fatigue into productive sleep and restful sleep we know that sleep deprivation is cumulative we know that babies don't sleep have difficulties catching up on sleep we know that if they don't sleep they get cranky tired and ironically more babies tired more is a difficult for a baby to fall asleep on me and you are tired you feel tired you fall asleep babies don't do that tired babies have much more difficulty to fall asleep so if your baby doesn't not really very well during the day it's false to think oh she'll just you know have a great sleep tonight and catch up absolutely as a matter of fact the most common cause of the baby that suddenly starts waking up in the middle of the night is bad naps okay that's interesting well what would you recommend as a good bedtime routine for a baby a good bedtime routine starts with with the ability of the parent to recognize first signs of fatigue very often parents will put their babies to sleep when the baby's tired crying rubbing its eyes and these are late signs of fatigue it's actually quite much more difficult to put your baby to sleep when your baby is showing late signs of thinking so what you have to do is within an hour and a half to two hours of being awake you have to start looking for those first signs of fatigue what are they well look at your baby if your baby is is becoming less vocal if your baby starts looking around much less it's sort of focusing in the distance if the eyes start becoming hazy if your baby starts moving much less kicking waste well these are first signs of fatigue and this is at that point you pick up your baby and you bring it to the bedroom now the bedroom needs to be quiet you turn the shoe you put the shades down the music goes down so once you've brought your baby to the bedroom you can feed it you can rock it you can sing a song it can be in the book and then once is becoming much much much more soothe and quiet you put them to bed the bed has to be very simple the crib has to be simple white matches no toys no distraction the baby needs to sleep in a bed it doesn't it cannot be distracted in bed you kiss him you walk away and you do not open the door tell your baby falls asleep even if the baby starts crying absolutely yes that's the hard part it is I realized that yes well what about what your baby eats will that influence how they sleep for example a baby that is breastfed versus baby that is formula-fed well one sleep better than the other no breastfeeding or bottle feeding doesn't really affect the quality of sleep having said that for babies with colic there are certain dietary intervention that you can do such as probiotics or using hydrolyzed formulas and we know that these dietary interventions can alleviate symptoms of colic and help your baby sleep better but for non colicky babies there is no difference between breastfeeding bottle feeding or introducing solids a little bit earlier okay it's great advice a little bit hard to follow maybe some parents but I think absolutely got the right advice thank you very much done for Chomsky well I don't know about you but I am ready for some much-needed rest next time we're gonna talk about life after baby but from a dad's point-of-view that's right it is the episode for all the fathers and fathers to be out there so take care of yourself and until then sleep tight