Congrats, the baby is here! Now what?! Nobody prepared me for the actual baby. The cute cuddles lasted only a few days before I realized if this bundle of love and I were going to sleep, I needed a plan. So I researched and researched during those late night feedings to find plans to follow and solutions to our problems. I asked question upon question at my “baby and me” support group. Why doesn’t he seem to like the bassinet? How do I get him to nap in a crib? How do we get longer stretches of sleep? Basically, what do I do? I felt so unprepared. In the end, the research and questions lead to an amazing sleeper, who still is today, without a hiccup. I felt like I conquered sleep.
Cue baby number two. He slept so well from the very beginning given all that I had learned. Until he turned two. Oh. My. Word. Regression does not begin to define what happened. From climbing out of the crib faster than I could leave the room to wandering the house in the middle of the night to undressing and preparing himself and his room for the morning, this child was wild. Back to the research and after a few exhausting weeks, we were sleeping twelve hours a night and napping in his big boy bed without wandering.
I feel you. I know the daunting feeling of not knowing what to do. I know the worry of wondering if you’re doing the right thing for your babe. I know the exhaustion of simply being up all night, whether for night time wake ups or chasing a toddler through the house. I also know that together, we can solve this.