Transitional Sleep Issues

Update: This article is just a taste of what's in our spiffy new Sleep and Adoption page ...

Transitional sleep issues are almost universal with new adoptees. In the first month or two home, we recommend:

• very predictable bedtimes
• consistent and calming bedtime routine
• consider initial co-sleeping or parent on futon next to crib in child's room (even better if cosleeping is not your long-term plan, since the child's sleep environment will stay the same)
• being more responsive to night wakenings at first than you may eventually plan to be (think of them as emotionally much younger than their chronologic age) ...
  
• ... but work towards being brief, boring, and minimalist in your nighttime visits
  
• bedtime bottle (milk actually does have "sleepy" qualities)
• experimenting with varying degrees of soft music, "white noise", or light - you child may be used to more noise/light
•  and at last resort trying some benadryl or melatonin at bedtime for a few nights ...

Adoptive Families magazine has a nice article on this subject, as well as a broader Sleep 101 Resource Section.