When I found out I was pregnant with our twins, I had great intentions of enrolling my new babies in the NYU Baby Sleep Study. But I hadn’t prepared before their birth and, parenting two newborns is exhausting (have I mentioned that?). Sleep simply wasn’t happening very often for my husband, myself or our babies in that first year. Getting through each day with everyone in one piece was the main goal.
By the time I had enough wherewithal to think about the NYU Baby Sleep Study again, the opportunity had passed. Instead of participating in the project, I wrote about how others might get involved with their newborns instead. And I emphasized that you should prepare BEFORE your baby is born, so you’re ready to jump right in when your little one arrives.
Given the challenges my husband and I faced getting pregnant with our twins, I didn’t expect to have another chance to participate.
But…sometimes nature surprises us.
Surprise! Welcome Baby #3
Last February I started to feel ill. Given that it was winter and the flu was going around, I figured I’d picked up some sort of bug. I’d been traveling extensively for a new project at work. We were in a particularly crazy-busy time of life. But when the “bug” didn’t seem to manifest like a cold or flu, and lingered longer than it should have, I took a pregnancy test and discovered we were expecting baby #3. It was a lovely surprise!
Once the news finally settled in, I started thinking about the NYU Baby Sleep Study again. I didn’t want to miss out this time! That was in March and our baby was due in September. Plenty of time to prepare!
Or so I thought.
New work projects, conference obligations, travel, doctors appointments, potty training two toddlers, summer activities, family visits. All of a sudden it was September. I was so distracted with my day to day life that I hadn’t made time to do my homework on the NYU Baby Sleep Study. I was almost 37 weeks along. My husband and I set up a plan for me to work on the blog and research the study the following weekend. I’d only be 38 weeks then, so I still had a little time.
Nope.
Our new little boy joined us at 37 weeks and 5 days. He really didn’t care about my plans – he was ready to join the outside world!
Citizen Science about Sleep without Sleep
For the past few weeks (as I’m posting this, it’s now going on just over 2 months), on the days I only have the baby, after I’ve taken care of his needs and put him down for a nap, I quickly take care of myself, and then squeeze a few minutes in to read up on the NYU Baby Sleep Study and work on this blog.
Thankfully, it’s a pretty straight forward process to participate. Even in my drowsy, sleep-deprived state, I’ve been able to learn the basics of the study, enroll in the project, download the app and figure out how to use it. It says a lot about the project organizers and designers (both of the app and the project) that I’ve been able to participate even though I’m not running on all cylinders most days. I find most baby related gear and packaging mindbogglingly challenging for sleep deprived parents. I often wonder what the designers were thinking when they created it. The fact that the NYU Baby Sleep Study is easy to figure out and participate in while in a brain-fog puts them worlds ahead. Well done NYU! And the irony of participating in a sleep study while feeling sleep deprived myself is definitely not lost on me.
But I digress…
I won’t go into all the details about how to participate in the study. The NYU Baby Sleep Study has all you need to know on their website (here). But the short version is that you enroll your child, download an app, record your child’s eating, sleeping, and diapering data preferably from 0-2 years of age (or however long you choose to participate). You provide researchers with access to the data you are recording from the app and that’s it.
Positive Side Effects for Parents Participating In the NYU Baby Sleep Study
When I initially decided to participate in the NYU Baby Sleep Study, it was partly out of professional curiosity to try a citizen science project outside my usual area of expertise, ecology and natural resources. Most of the projects I had previously participated in were related to tracking and observing plants, animals and other nature. I was curious to see what it was like to participate in a health-related citizen science project, especially one that tracked the health of one of my kids.
What I didn’t expect, however, was to find the project so rewarding to me as a mom. I love spending time with our new little one, especially when he is happily cuddling or snoozing. But, I enjoy staying mentally active too and the eat, diaper, snooze, repeat cycle isn’t always the most mentally stimulating.
I have a lot of amazing, intelligent parent friends who have mentioned a similar need for intellectual stimulation during those early phases of their newborn’s life. With our twins, I fed my brain by reading, which I love to do, and plowed through a number of books on my to-read list, sometimes reading aloud during nursing sessions or to myself while the boys dozed. I’m doing that again with this little one too. But the NYU Baby Sleep Study has added something to my daily routine that makes me feel more engaged in scientific research and that is a rewarding feeling. I’m now not only nursing our baby for his own health and well-being, but I’m also contributing research that will help other babies stay healthy too.
If you’re a parent (or know a parent) that is looking for an intellectual outlet during the baby/toddler years, the NYU Baby Sleep Study is definitely worth checking out. In addition to contributing data, you can sign up for their newsletter, learn more about baby and toddler sleep habits and see how your child’s sleep habits compare to other kids in the study.
A Few Caveats
As with any participatory science project, there are pros and cons. The ‘cons’ in this case, are personal rather than related to the research itself. While I’m a data nerd and generally enjoy recording the data for this project (especially since it is also useful data for me), all that data collecting does make me feel a little overly attached to my phone. This kiddo is nearly always eating, sleeping or needing a diaper, so I keep my phone on me at all times. I find myself often interrupting conversations with “just a second, I have to record this [diaper change, feeding, nap, etc]”. With adults it isn’t a big deal, they get it. But I do sometimes worry that my older kiddos see me on my phone too often. I’m making extra efforts to make sure they feel they’re being heard and know they’re more important than Mommy’s data collecting.
Which brings me to my other caveat – data quality and guilt. I’m doing my best to record all of the feedings, diaper changes, and naps as accurately as possible but I am imperfect in my efforts. Most days I approximate that 90% of the events get recorded in the moment and as accurately as one can with a baby (does it count as sleeping with he’s still nursing but also napping?). But I have missed a few days when we’ve been busy with family or other events (Halloween, Thanksgiving, toddler meltdown, etc). The scientist in me is constantly thinking about the data gaps I’m leaving behind. I have to remind myself that the researchers conducting this study have probably thought about how they’re going to deal with data gaps during their analyses. I’m doing my best to supply them with enough data to make it useful to them.
Thumbs Up
All in all, the positive effects of this project for advancing scientific knowledge about babies and the added mental stimulation participating in the project provides for me far outweigh any challenges I’ve encountered so far. The researchers prefer you record your child’s eating, sleeping, and diaper change habits from 0-2 years of age. I’m going to really try to make that happen. I think as this kiddo ages some of the challenges will go away (like not being as attached to my phone) and new ones will appear. I’ll try to keep track of my experiences along the way and provide an update when I finish participating in the study. I give this project a thumbs up and encourage you to check it out!