Napping In Mom’s Arms Is Priceless

Mom and dad’s arms are the best place in the world to grow up, especially between 0 and 3 years old. In few places will they feel safer, more comfortable and with greater stimuli to develop their emotional and psychological maturity.

Something that as a mother you will have discovered for a long time, is that your baby has a special predilection for sleeping in your arms rather than in the crib. This fact is something that despairs many families, to the point that their night rest is transformed into little less than a small homelessness in which they rarely sleep a few hours at a time.

It is necessary to be clear about some aspects: there are babies more demanding than others. At the same time, we must remember that the child who wakes up at night is a normal baby, in fact, he will continue to do so more or less until he is two or three years old. All this responds to a neuronal maturation process where time, patience and a lot of love are required.

A baby comes into the world with its coping mechanisms fine-tuned. Crying is his form of communication, and he will use it whenever he feels scared, hungry, or abandoned. Day by day and month by month these mechanisms will reduce their intensity as he understands that he is safe, that he is protected and that his parents are with him.

Now, there is a fact that may seem as amazing as it is curious. Something as simple as napping with your baby favors this maturation. Furthermore, this mid-day break improves Mom’s physical and emotional health.

We explain why.

Skin-to-skin naps help your baby get a better night’s rest

We will start by stating something elementary: we do not always have time or opportunity to nap with our children. Now, if in your particular case you have the wonderful opportunity to be with your baby for at least his first 6 months of life, go ahead and do it: let him sleep in your arms at noon.

This advice is especially effective in high demand babies. Those children who show very stressful behaviors when we are separated from them, when they are hungry or angry, benefit greatly from two hours a day of “skin-to-skin” contact.

You can choose various times of the day to carry it out. However, taking a nap with your child in your arms means relieving their stress, reinforcing their emotions through affection and body heat so that in this way, their nervous system is regulated and later arrives at the crib more relaxed.

The smell, the warmth and the safety of mommy’s arms

The newborn has a “super-power”: his sense of smell is highly developed, not like his vision. The smell of his mother is what pleases him the most, what relaxes him the most and pleases him.

• Being in Mom’s arms for an hour or two means resting in a relaxed and deep way. It also means having his source of food closer and those caresses that give him the security of feeling loved.

Establishing these moments full of magic and intimacy at least until 6 months is very necessary for the development of the baby. However, doing it until the age of 2 or 3 at least twice a week is also a very positive thing.

It is a moment of rest for you, to enjoy the “here and now”

It is quite possible that the idea of ​​taking a nap with your child seems like a waste of time. With the one of things that we have to do! Sometimes, the fact that the baby sleeps is for many moms a unique opportunity to do countless things : prepare clothes, tidy up the house, answer emails, make calls, organize the agenda …

• Think about it for a moment: motherhood, home, work … All of this. They are like demanding giants that drive us upside down, and that instantly push us to the limit.

• If you ever feel like this, stop, rest, lie down. A nap with your baby is a way to enjoy the here and now in a relaxed, intimate way. There is no noise, no pressure, just you and your child. It’s the only thing that matters.

Lie down in a safe space with your baby and relax.

Will these naps prevent him from sleeping in the crib later?

Each child has their needs, their particularities and their times. Naps in the arms of mom or dad are positive because we favor physical contact, closeness and the feeling of security, something essential for the baby’s development.

There will be children who after these moments, feel more relaxed and take a cradle in a more normalized way. There will be others who, for their part, continue to protest and wake us up with crying, but as we say, it is a normal part of their growth and it is a behavior that will disappear over time.

It is only about promoting an upbringing where being aware of the child’s needs to be present and guide them . A shared nap is a moment of complicity between two people and in turn, it records in our memory moments that are not forgotten, that are framed in memory with unique sensations.