Sensible strategies for silly season

Your first Christmas with your little one is likely to be a very special time, filled with laughter and precious memories. Your baby will be the focus of much spoiling and indulgence; after all, it truly is a time for children. The silly season is upon us and holidays and festivals are the flavour of the month. For most of us our routined and mundane life will be upended by a series of business functions, parties or trips to relaxing destinations.

All the variety is just what we need to relax at the end of the year, but with baby in tow, the definition of relax has changed somewhat. Knowing that babies function best with boundaries, routine and their familiar environment, it’s not surprising that all the excitement and the frenetic tone of silly season can result in a very unsettled and miserable little baby.

Lets explore seven strategies for surviving silly season:

• Travel – If you are travelling to a distant destination, whether by road or air, try to schedule your trip during your baby’s sleep time.
  • A two-hour flight is the perfect length for the midday sleep and many babies are lulled to sleep by the noise of the airplane. Be sure that you don’t keep your baby awake especially for the flight, as an overtired baby is more likely to fuss on the plane than fall easily to sleep.
  • An international haul is best taken at night so your baby can sleep the whole way over.
  • If your road trip is long, take frequent breaks that coincide with your baby’s awake time. Drive while she is asleep as far as possible or shortly after waking when she will be content to sit in her car chair.
• Busy spaces - During the holidays you are bound to find yourself dragging your little one into baby unfriendly and over stimulating spaces, such as shopping centres and airports. To cope in these environments, shield your baby from the busy, noisy, brightly coloured space by creating a quiet zone.
  • You can do this by covering your baby’s pram with a blanket and letting him play with a few toys in this zone.
  • For the young baby – under 6 months, carry him in a sling, which creates a quiet zone against your body.
  • Spend the minimum amount of time possible in these spaces by leaving your baby with a friend when you go shopping for gifts.
  • If your flight is delayed or you have extra time before take off, you should make your way to the Premier Club at the airport. This lounge offers a quiet space, kids play space and free drinks and snacks to certain bank card holders, such as American Express, Investec, etc. For the rest of us a mere R68 allows entrance – a small price to pay if you have a long delay and need a quiet space with your baby.
• Bedtimes – The only solution for a tired and over stimulated baby is sleep. Ironically it’s the one thing they fight the most when routines and environments change.
  • Be sure to keep quite rigidly to your baby’s evening bedtime. Your baby won’t remember or benefit from late nights of carolling or ‘kuiering’ and at the end of the day, you will enjoy your social life more knowing your little one is asleep.
  • Find a spare bed where you are or hire a baby sitter to listen while your little sleeps.
  • If you must take her with you, put her in the Baby Sense Bunting – a sleeping bag with a hole for her car seat straps, so that she can travel safely in her car seat without being unwrapped from the warm blankets.
• Sleep zones – A familiar sleep zone is one of the best sleep triggers we know and we all sleep best tucked up in our own beds.
  • If you are staying away from home, try to recreate your baby’s sleep zone as much as possible by using his own bedding, and placing his cot is a quiet space that becomes ‘his sleep zone’.
  • Don’t forget to take his doodoo blanky or Taglet or whatever he uses at night to self-sooth to sleep.
  • If you are travelling to the Cape, remember the sun sets later and so a dark area, preferably with block out curtains will help you in the evenings.
• Snacks – A hungry baby is a miserable baby. In all the rush and socialisation of the holidays don’t feel like the worst mother if you forget a mealtime or a feed sneaks up on you and you find yourself unprepared.
  • A good idea is to keep a stash of healthy snacks in a Tupperware in your baby bag for emergencies. Good snacks for older babies include mango strips, organic biltong, finger biscuits and rice cakes.
  • Make a big batch of healthy home cooked veggies and a chicken stew that you purée. Then freeze the veggies and chicken in ice trays. When you are going out over lunchtime, pack 3 – 6 frozen cubes in a sealed container and it will defrost slowly while you travel and be ready to be heated for the mealtime.
• Slow down – The frenetic pace of the festive season eventually takes its toll on the calmest of us. But for the young baby, susceptible to overstimulation, it can be torture. Your baby will begin to show signs of sensory over load, such as weepiness, fighting sleep and general irritability. And as we know when baby is unsettled we all feel the pain.
  • The best you can do is to slow down and have a quiet day with her.
  • Take her to a calming spot, such as a botanical garden or just stay at home for a day getting her back into her routine.
  • Take a deep breath and extricate yourself from family commitments or busy environments and take a day out with your baby.
• Overstimulation – If there is one hangover we all suffer after a busy month of socialising, its overstimulation. It leaves us feeling flat and irritable.
  • Help your baby to avoid overstimulation by sticking to his routine and making sure he gets his regular sleeps.
  • On Christmas day or any other big family gathering, find a quiet space you can retreat to with your baby when you notice his subtle signals of over stimulation.
  • Your baby will love the process of unwrapping lots of pressies and it’s probably the paper and boxes he loves the most! A good idea is to then hide away all but two of the new toys to bring out one a week over the next few months. In this way your baby always has something new and exciting to explore and learn from. He also won’t suffer the overstimulation associated with too much of a good thing.

Above all enjoy making memories and spending quality time with friends and family and remember to be sense-able with your baby and he will also love this time together.