Zzzz
DISCLAIMER: I am not, by any means, someone who should be giving any new mamas sleep advice. Which is not what this post is about!
Like any first time mom, my phone is full of pictures. I think every new mom has a niche for taking a G A Z I L L I O N pictures of their baby. My favorite time to snap a picture is when she's sleeping. It's the most beautiful time for me to study her beauty, trace her breathing, and feel her needing me through her cuddles. There are so many pictures of her sleeping! Even ones of me pretending I'm sleeping to make it look like Ben is snapping the picture, but really...it's me...awake...trying to capture a sweet moment! 😂
We didn't have the best sleep practices when she was a baby, and that is my fault. We lived with my in-laws for the first three months of her life while "Project Nightmare House" was underway. We had a room at their house; however, I didn't feel comfortable walking down the stairs several times a night with a newborn while I was trying to recover from birth. I opted to sleep on my in-laws' couch next to her Pack 'n' Play. And that habit carried out for a really long time, even after we moved into our home.
It brought me peace and comfort to sleep so close to her. I could hear her breathing. I could hold her when she woke up for night feedings. It was what worked for us. I didn't start sleep training until after her first birthday. This mama's back was hurting from sleeping on a couch for so long, and I needed our living room back to being a living room. 🛋
My thoughts on sleep training are: Do it when you're ready. Don't try to push it to meet some arbitrary age of when they should be sleeping in their own room. It's just as much about sleep training yourself as it is for your child to learn. Ben did not get up in the middle of the night once when she was a baby (or even to this day! 😴). That job was/is solely mine, so I had to train my body to sleep differently to accommodate for that.
We chose to do the Cry It Out (CIO) Interval method where she would go through her bedtime routine. We moved her PnP to her room so it wasn't a whole new room and a whole new bed. With CIO, I did the following intervals: 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, and 20 minutes. If she was crying for 5 minutes, I would go into her room to check on her. I would speak quietly and not pick her up. Just tuck her in and tell her goodnight again and would leave. If she continued to cry for 10 minutes, I would repeat the same routine and so on and so forth. The first night was rough, but by the third night, she got the hang of it and *knocks on wood* it has been pretty solid ever since. 🤞
As a mom, you get a lot of warnings from others on babies sleeping. You will hear "DO NOT BRING THEM INTO BED WITH YOU" over and over again. Even strangers will tell you that. I, personally, have a very open mind when it comes to baby sleep habits. I think you should do whatever works for you and whatever gives your baby the best opportunity for good, restful sleep. That should be the goal with any sleep training plan.
Welllllp, at the ripe age of 18 months, I brought her into my bed one night...err I should say morning. It was the night after the Emergency Room trip and she wasn't sleeping well because she didn't feel good. I tried everything to get her to go back to sleep. Nothing was working. I was tired from being in the ER the night before, so I caved. It was a last ditch effort...a HAIL MARY to try to get some sort of sleep. 😴
It worked. Almost too well. 😲
I took the picture above to show you that I now know why those people vehemently advise not to let them sleep with you. See her foot in the bottom right corner? Ya, that thing was in my neck all night long. My limbs were going numb from sleeping on the tiniest sliver of my twin bed! THIS! This is why people warn you not to do it.
But I tell you what...she slept good. And that's what she needed.
And we accidentally did it again this morning. 😀 (she's still not feeling 100% yet)
It was only for about 40 minutes before we had to get up for the day.
How can you not? 🤷♀️
I mean one day, the cuddles will fade. She won't need me to go to stay asleep. Is that the day you have another baby? Kidding!
I'm trying not to feel guilty about bringing her into my bed. I shouldn't. My entire world is built around making sure she's taken care of: emotionally, physically and intellectually. Letting her have 30 minutes in bed with me isn't going to "spoil" her.
I don't think babies can be spoiled on love. I'm willing to test that hypothesis! 😊
Here's a tiny collage of sleeping pictures I took over the past year and a half that I haven't posted. I tried to limit myself in the gallery below! There's just nothing better than a sleeping baby:
Oh god, that was really hard to only post 10 when there are HUNDREDS! #selfrestraint
They always warn you how much sleep you will lose once you become a mother, but they never told me I’d voluntarily skip sleep to stare at this real life sleeping beauty❤️ #ifperfectexists_sheisit
