Natural Mama: Sometimes you just need a little sleep...


Nap time in his crib

I am learning something here. Sleep is amazing. Yes, I can go several nights of multiple wake ups and sleepless nights, but those catch up fast! We just had a lovely sleep last night and we all feel anew this morning. Before having Bodie, I needed 8-9 hours of sleep and if I got even 7 hours, I felt sick the next day and walked around like a zombie. Even while I was pregnant, I never had any issues sleeping. The night before I gave birth, I slept an amazing 9 hours. And that was the last time that happened! Almost 9 months later and the sleep department is still lacking (with some good nights mixed in to refresh me thankfully)

Bodster has never been a great sleeper. From day one he woke every 2-3 hours at night and was fairly fussy for the first 6 weeks. Then we discovered he was having reactions to eggs and dairy so I took those out of my diet. Within a few days, he was sleeping better and he was generally a happy boy. Then the 4 month sleep regression hit. He wanted to nurse every 2 hours at night still at this point. Which equals little sleep. Then his bottom teeth popped through at 5 months. Again, total disrusption to any sleep- both naps and night time. His naps were terrible at this point. Only napping 30 min in the morning, MAYBE 45 min in the afternoon and a snooze around dinner time. I thought I was doing something wrong. I felt like a complete failure as a mom. I am totally against letting a baby cry it out, so that was not an option I even slightly entertained.

Here are some reason why I don't cry it out-
Danger of crying it out

In short, letting your baby cry for any length of time releases the stress hormone cortisol into your baby. This is not good for ANYONE, let alone a growing baby. But the biggest factor for me is that when your baby cries, and you don't respond, they feel abandoned. When they feel abandoned, they learn to distrust that you will provide for them. This abandonment WILL come out to play later in life. So why do so many CIO babies sleep through the night? Because they eventually learn that crying provides no comfort so what's the use. Yes they may sleep through the night, but they also learn that their needs are not being met.

I regressed, sorry! I don't want to go on a tangent about crying it out right now :) So after feeling like a failure to my son, I started to do some research and found that it is TOTALLY NORMAL for babies to wake several times a night. My husband was right all along, our baby is normal!! More research provided that we, as a society, have this stigma that babies need to sleep 10-12 hours without ever waking, which is actually NOT the norm. Yes, they need that amount of sleep every night, but it is usually broken up with several wake ups throughout the night. After chatting with Andrew at length, we decided to stop stressing about getting Bodie to sleep through the night, and instead focus on what his needs were when he woke up. If I met his needs, he went right back to sleep. We finally got to a place where he was going 7-8 hours without a wake up and we were feeling better! Then he started teething again, all the went out the window! But instead of worrying that he was some abnormal baby or that something was wrong, I went with it (for the most part lol) and comforted him throughout the night as much as I could. And I have to give major praises to my hubby for helping through this as well. He spent some nights up with Bodie so I could finally catch some zzzz's A sleep deprived mommy is not good! Some nights Bodster was sleeping in our arms, others it meant nursing every few hours again. I knew this would pass. Of course the sleepless nights took its toll and we were again sleep deprived, but Bo would be so gracious and give us a couple nights here and there that refreshed us.


Sound asleep in his new side-carred co-sleeper

Just as we were getting back into a good routine, the 9 month sleep regression hit (read about it here) and his needs arenow amped up again. He was sleeping in a pack n play (think small portable crib) beside our bed, but that was not working as he was waking every hour so we brought him back in bed with us. This time however, we attached a co-sleeper on the side of the bed so he still has "his space" and we have ours (SOOO grateful to a lovely friend for lending it to us!)
But when he wakes and needs some comfort, I am there with open arms. I love having him so close to me. When he is near, he doesn't cry out. That indicates to me that we are creating a healthy attachment and he trusts that I will be there to meet his needs. And that makes this ALLL worth it!

Aside from sleep, what else have we been up to?!