Lack of sleep can cause a lot of stress within a family. There are a lot of pamphlets and web sites offering help, but it can be very hard to make the changes needed to enable a child to get to sleep and to stay asleep. Sleep deprivation causes parents to lose their temper and children to perform poorly at home and school.

Dr Sarah Blunden is the Senior Paediatric Sleep Research Fellow at the University of SA and her answer to sleep issues is: “It’s not a problem until it is a problem for you.” So if your child wakes three times a night but you are able to manage a broken night, then it’s not a problem. If you have a small child sleeping in your bed but it doesn’t bother you, then it’s not a problem.
However, if you’d like to be able to make changes to sleep routines that enable a longer, less disturbed sleep for everyone, then it’s a problem and you can do it. Help is at hand! Dr Blunden (sarah.blunden@unisa.edu.au) is running sleep clinics at two locations in Adelaide offering small group and one to one advice and support to enable families to get the sleep they need.

Judyth Roberts
Seaton Central
Community Development Facilitator
jroberts@ucwpa.org.au

‘Begin with the end in mind.’ S. Covey

It is so easy when a baby arrives and changes your life to lose a sense of proportion, or even a sense of where you are heading. As a new parent you are reacting all the time to your baby - trying to work out if the cry means hunger or overtiredness? This reactivity can spread to other relationships - is my partner faking sleep so he doesn’t have to get up to the baby? Is my mother judging my parenting? Are my friends avoiding me?

Wait a minute… what did you plan when you knew you were having a child? A peaceful home, supportive relationships and a happy baby. The huge changes that take place with the birth of a child mean that as a person you will have to grow and change too. You will learn to cope with less sleep, less money, more time alone with a small child and less time alone with your partner and friends. But what you will gain will be the chance to be a parent, to be the most special person in a child’s life, a chance to love and nurture this small baby into a mature, self-sufficient person.

So when you are feeling tired and under-appreciated, look at your sleeping child and remember what an important job you are doing and try to enjoy the journey with the end in mind.

Judyth Roberts
Seaton Central
Community Development Facilitator
jroberts@ucwpa.org.au