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AS PART OF TheJournal.ie’s weekly Family Magazine, we wanted to create a space for parents to share their views. A place where mums and dads could share their experiences, lessons learned, and even mistakes along the way. With that in mind, we’ve launched TheJournal.ie Parents Panel.
This week, we’re asking our panel: What’s one thing you tried to get your little one off to sleep?
We caught up with some of them at home – and read on below the video for more responses.
Three (or four…) in the bed
Co-sleeping worked for us every time. If any of my babies woke up for a feed or a cuddle, they came into my bed and that was it for the rest of the night. Obviously there are times when it’s not safe to co-sleep, but in general I found it a great solution.
- Susannah O’Brien, mum to four kids under ten
Confusing the Gardaí
I recall one night taking my eldest son out for a 2am drive to soothe him to sleep. I had a thesis paper due the following morning, and once he fell asleep, I pulled into a field gate, took out my laptop and started working. Around half an hour later, a Garda knocked on the window. He must have been a father too, because once he saw the sleeping child in the back he just laughed and gave me that knowing look!
- Derek McInerney, single parent with sons aged 13 and 9
Pre-bed dance marathons
She is two years old and hasn’t slept a night since she was born. At the moment we try to get her dancing to the music on MTV for a good hour before she goes to bed, which seems to tire her out.
- Denise Cumiskey, single parent to daughters aged 15 and 2, and an adult son
No more night feeds
We worked on pushing their middle-of-the-night feeds later and later until they eventually were sleeping through until morning. If they woke for a feed, we’d give them the dodie instead, and they’d go back to sleep for another hour. We have three fine sleepers today.
- Alan Dooley, dad to sons aged 8 and 10, and a daughter aged 4
Guilty road trips
When my youngest was six months old, my two-year-old suddenly decided to give up her daytime nap – the only time in the day when I had an hour entirely to myself. I tried taking them both on long drives to help them nod off, but guilt about my carbon footprint forced me to concede after about a week.
- Denise, mum to a daughter aged 3 and a son aged 1
Three years of patience
My sons both woke up every single night until they were three years old. I can still remember the first morning the two of them slept through until 6.10am. I felt like I’d won the Grand Prix.
- Suzie Kelly, single parent to boys aged 6 and 3
Daily strolls in the pram
Our daughter suffers from a family trait: FOMO, Fear Of Missing Out. She really fights going for afternoon naps. The only thing that works consistently is taking her out walking in the pram, so I’ve started walking from our house into the village three times a day, religiously.
- Ríona Flood, new mum to a 12-week-old girl
Breastfeeding and late-night TV
My son was breastfed, and that was a surefire way of satisfying him if he woke at night. I feel like I should get a degree in goldmining from the hours spent watching late-night episodes of Gold Rush on the Discovery Channel!
- Olly Keegan, mum to a 3-year-old son
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Isnt god wonderful….
No….The universe is wonderful.
Your obviously more religous than scientific otherwise you would know your so called God did not create the Universe. Or this World for that matter.
I think there was a slight hint of sarcasm in James’s comment which you all missed
Nice work putting the caption over the actual object in the image…
Erhhhhhh…….they didn’t. Its above the word “at” in the caption right on the edge of the outer ring.
Infinitesmily grand!
Is that we’re the little bo***x Fitzpatrick comes from????
The world is flat, one god created all this and we don’t know who created him/her/it?
I’ve got your ring and new moon right here.
God
Invisible pink unicorn
SCIENCE SHOWS THAT THE UNIVERSE CANNOT BE ETERNAL because it could not have sustained itself eternally due to the law of entropy (increasing net energy decay, even in an open system). Einstein showed that space, matter, and time all are physical and all had a beginning. Space even produces particles because it’s actually something, not nothing. Even time had a beginning! Time is not eternal.
The law of entropy doesn’t allow the universe to be eternal. If the universe were eternal, everything, including time (which modern science has shown is as physical as mass and space), would have become totally entropied by now and the entire universe would have ended in a uniform heat death a long, long time ago. The fact that this hasn’t happened already is powerful evidence for a beginning to the universe.
Popular atheistic scientist Stephen Hawking admits that the universe had a beginning and came from nothing but he believes that nothing became something by a natural process yet to be discovered. That’s not rational thinking at all, and it also would be making the effect greater than its cause to say that nothing created something. The beginning had to be of supernatural origin because natural laws and processes do not have the ability to bring something into existence from nothing. What about the Higgs boson (the so-called “God Particle”)? The Higgs boson does not create mass from nothing, but rather it converts energy into mass. Einstein showed that all matter is some form of energy.
The supernatural cannot be proved by science but science points to a supernatural intelligence and power for the origin and order of the universe. Where did God come from? Obviously, unlike the universe, God’s nature doesn’t require a beginning.
EXPLAINING HOW AN AIRPLANE WORKS doesn’t mean no one made the airplane. Explaining how life or the universe works doesn’t mean there was no Maker behind them. Natural laws may explain how the order in the universe works and operates, but mere undirected natural laws cannot explain the origin of that order. Once you have a complete and living cell then the genetic code and biological machinery exist to direct the formation of more cells, but how could life or the cell have naturally originated when no directing code and mechanisms existed in nature? Read my Internet article: HOW FORENSIC SCIENCE REFUTES ATHEISM.
WHAT IS SCIENCE? Science simply is knowledge based on observation. No one observed the universe coming by chance or by design, by creation or by evolution. These are positions of faith. The issue is which faith the scientific evidence best supports.
Some things don’t need experiment or scientific proof. In law there is a dictum called prima facie evidence. It means “evidence that speaks for itself.”
An example of a true prima facie would be if you discovered an elaborate sand castle on the beach. You don’t have to experiment to know that it came by design and not by the chance forces of wind and water.
If you discovered a romantic letter or message written in the sand, you don’t have to experiment to know that it was by design and not because a stick randomly carried by wind put it there. You naturally assume that an intelligent and rational being was responsible.
I encourage all to read my popular Internet articles: NATURAL LIMITS TO EVOLUTION and HOW FORENSIC SCIENCE REFUTES ATHEISM
Visit my newest Internet site: THE SCIENCE SUPPORTING CREATION
Babu G. Ranganathan*
(B.A. Bible/Biology)
Author of popular Internet article, TRADITIONAL DOCTRINE OF HELL EVOLVED FROM GREEK ROOTS
*I have given successful lectures (with question and answer period afterwards) defending creation before evolutionist science faculty and students at various colleges and universities. I’ve been privileged to be recognized in the 24th edition of Marquis “Who’s Who in The East” for my writings on religion and science.
Wake me up when you’ve finished the lecture. Time and place. This is neither.
There’s a spacecraft leaving tomorrow for it be on it the lot of you
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