Will my baby ever sleep?
My newborn baby slept soundly for the first month of his life. He slept so soundly that we were a little worried. At the hospital we were told that a baby needs to be fed every 2-3 hours. My baby loved to sleep for 5 hours straight. I look back on those days and wonder “what the hell happened?” It looks like we’ve done a full 360 degree turn and my head is still spinning in motion. Instead of trying to wake him up to feed him, I now try to put him to bed and keep him sleeping. In the first two months I found that holding him with his head on my shoulder and rocking him in a chair would help him fall asleep.
I was then able to gently position him to nap without waking him up. For the next several months, this sleep technique stopped working and I carried it in my front pack. He fell asleep and fell asleep in the front pack. However, anytime during his slumber he tried to pull me out of the front pack, he would wake up immediately.
Any mother knows that babies get incredibly heavy after a while, even when they are just a newborn pack. I tried a different sleep technique where I walked him around singing lullabies until he fell asleep, once again this can turn into an ineffective sleep technique because it ends up making the mother more tired. I went from walking to sitting and rocking him to sleep. After a few days the rocking seemed to make things worse and after evaluating the situation I think I was over stimulated.
Rocking on its own was enough, but the combination of singing and rocking was just too much for our baby. All of the above sleep techniques got my baby to sleep, however the main downside was that he was attached to me. He needed to be hugged and surrounded by motherhood. That meant my baby would consume my night, with no time to cook dinner or take a shower …
As a mother, I chose this form of bonding and commitment because the sleep technique met the needs of my babies. I had a sleeping baby in my arms without him crying himself to sleep. When he placed his sleeping body on our bed, he woke up immediately. Then I found myself picking him up and reassuring him to sleep in our bed again. I realized he was doing double duty for me and decided to just crawl into bed with him and hug him. She would pat him on the back, feed him, and after calming him down for a while, he would fall asleep.
Our baby’s transition from my arms to bed still made him wake up. It took me several nights to find a routine that allowed him to feel safe to go back to sleep. Once I was safely in bed and her eyes were open, I would lie down with my head touching hers and gently stroke her back. By continuing this sleep technique for a couple of months, I was able to put him to bed without waking up.
I have continued with this sleep technique ever since and feel that it has rewarded me with wonderful moments. It is an incredible feeling when during a light sleep you can open your eyes and look at me. He will emit a big smile and I will think “oh man he’s awake!”, But as soon as his smile faded and his eyes closed. Send a message of love and trust to my heart that is priceless. Then I could never take away those wonderful moments by placing him in his crib to cry himself to sleep. I know like your mother that most of the time your crying will turn into screaming no matter what the cause. Then he is inconsolable for hours. So I think even trying the “scream” method is just asking for more trouble.
