Tina is a Maternity Case Manager with Blue in Tennessee. She shares a story from Certified HUG Teacher training.
One of my members was having trouble with difficulty latching and baby not sleeping for longer than 2 hours. Baby boy was only 2 weeks old.
zi explained to our member that latching takes a while for him to learn, and her as well. I helped mom with a more comfortable position, getting him in the correct latching position and also helping her with calming before he feeds.
Mother also watched for feeding cues before he become inconsolable. I helped mom, with talking to baby boy and putting his hands on his chest and whispering to him during the night, for a minute to help him learn calming techniques on his own. When she fed him, I told her not to turn on lots of lights, keeping the environment calm and peaceful. not to touch him too much or talk to him, which would cause too much stimulation.
Then, once he fell asleep, she laid him down and wenr to where he could not see her. This took a couple of weeks and she did have a roller coaster up and down of going from 2 hrs to 4hrs and back and forth After the 4th week, the latch got better and the sleep was pretty consistent in 3-4 hrs between feeding.
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I will continue to follow this mother and help her get some time for herself as she has 2 other older children and spouse, and she has returned back to work. She needs to be able to enjoy this baby and this process, and not feel so stressed out.