Regardless of your child’s age or your parenting style, there will come a day when they will in fact “sleep through the night”.
So how are you feeling after the birth? Are your sutures causing you much discomfort and has the baby started sleeping through the night yet? People are completely obsessed with the way your baby sleeps and to a much stronger degree than you are.
Any day now there will be a “how to sleep train your baby while they’re in the womb” guide. Maybe it exists already?
The world has a fascination with sleeping babies and how long it takes for them to sleep through the night. There is no denying the fact that we need sleep and struggle without it, however, there is a huge amount of pressure placed on parents to expect or encourage good quality sleep from day one.
Regardless of your child’s age or your parenting style, there will come a day when they will in fact “sleep through the night”. That might mean different things to different people but chances are you have a pretty strong idea of how many hours would constitute “all night” in your case.
They might not do it all night every night but when that very first night happens you might be surprised by how it actually feels.
Here is a little picture of how that very first night feels, straight from the mouths of parents.
1. “Oh My GOD make sure she’s breathing. She CAN’T be breathing” as you burst into the baby’s room and place several fingers under their nose waiting to feel the air against them. The panic has woken the baby and you’re somewhere between relief and rage that you’ve woken them up. It’s real – they DID it.
2. Get a note-pad immediately and let’s write down every single move we made yesterday. What did we eat? At exactly what time did they nap? Can we remember the temperature of the room? WASH THAT BABY GROW that is CLEARLY the baby grow she sleeps best in.
3. Why am I so exhausted? I’ve had eight hours sleep and I’ve never felt so tired in all my life. Why does this not feel sensational? What a letdown.
4. Must shout it from every single social media platform. Must spread the word that our baby has slept through the night. In fact, let’s join more social media platforms because people need to know this stuff immediately.
5. Cancel all life plans for the foreseeable. ANYTHING that will interfere with this is not worth it. I don’t care how close you are to your sister we can’t go to the wedding because sure “it wouldn’t be fair on the baby”.
6. Tears. Lots of tears. Tears of relief. Tears of fear. Tears because you can’t bloomin’ put your finger on the reason why they slept so how on earth can you mimic it from here on in?
7. Let’s plan a date night immediately! Round the troops, call the baby sitter and book the nails because we have a SLEEPING BABY.
8. Never have I experienced such painful breasts in all of my life. Must. Feed. Baby. Immediately.
9. There might be some kind of victory dance beside the baby’s bed when they wake up. A party of sorts. You’re all cheering, clapping (and possibly crying) and the baby hasn’t the slightest idea why but they are totally into it.
10. The reality sinks in that maybe this was a once off and maybe you shouldn’t get your hopes up about it happening again. You decide to cling on to the hope that it just might though and politely ask your child, several times that day, to please do that again.
Tracey is a happy mammy to four-year-old Billy. She is a breastfeeder, gentle parent and has recently lost five stone so healthy family eating is her passion! You can find her at www.loveofliving.ie.