Sleep regression is the worst my friends. I’m not sure if you’ve experienced it, but when I first had my baby I didn’t even know it existed. I thought once your baby slept through the night (or “STTN” as all the mom forums called it) it was a done deal. Here was the sun! We would make it through these days, we would find the fun part in parenting!
But no, each time just as I think we have got a handle on this thing something changes and poof you’re back in the trenches.
My daughter started to sleep through the night when she was about 6 months old. I was, as I called myself, a “mean mom.” I did sleep training. Before you panic and call CPS know that we did a gentle version, with 5-10 minute checks if she was crying and monitoring constantly. I read probably 6 different books, from Ferber to Babywise, the sleep lady shuffle, and just nursing to sleep because baby knows what they need. I decided it was right for our family. It wasn’t easy (and by not easy I mean it made me break into a sweat and cry along with my baby) but after about a week she learned to self soothe without me entering the room at all. She would curl into a little ball with her lovey and her sweet lullabyes playing.
I thought I had made it through.
But just 3 months later she was in a developmental leap and she stopped sleeping through the night. So I was back in that room comforting her every 3 hours. And this wasn’t the only time this happened! Every few months something would change, either she would develop mentally or she would be teething and we would have to reset. Back to being the tired mom.
But this is the worst one yet.
You see she’s now two years old and not only does she wake up at night but she also doesn’t want to go to bed at all! I’ll do all the things we’ve always done, our bedtime ritual as it were. We have dinner, play with quiet music, take a bath, and read some books. Have some milk and brush out teeth. And then I softly lay her in her bed and…SHE POPS RIGHT BACK UP. She laughs at me as I deep sigh and I swear she can tell I’m going to break.
The days are long and the years are short, but when they won’t go to bed that’s one long day.
And then her Dad comes home, and all he does is say “it’s been a long fun day and it’s time to go to sleep,” and down she goes. It almost hurts my feelings how fast it happens.
And guess what, I’m not alone.
Every single blog I read about sleeping through the night it’s the same comments:
My child didn’t sleep through the night until she stopped napping at 3.
My baby sleeps through the night (or close anyway I get a good five hours!).
We co-sleep otherwise we would never sleep at all!
I guess all I have to say is, if you’re a tired mom reading this you aren’t alone.
We are all in this together. Eventually they will sleep. They will sleep until noon and we will be saying “GET UP AND DO YOUR CHORES YOU LIVE HERE TOO”! We will miss their little snuggles in the middle of the night when the only thing that helps them calm down is us.
So even thought I just really need some sleep, I also am trying to acknowledge that it’ll all be okay and she’s only little for a little while longer.
